**Originally posted at www.bunnycates.com/reading **

My Thoughts:

Man this book. This book makes me shake my fist angrily at it, while I say “Youuuu…” Why is it giving me drama? Well, because it’s fantastic. And it’s not. This story has so much going for it, and then the one thing that is probably not so good. I’m going to tell you ALL the goods first, because if I tell you the bads first – you’ll just stop reading the review. lol.

World building – Scary. Ass. REAL. There is no other way to explain it. The stuff that goes down in this book, feels REAL. It’s actually POSSIBLE. The world in this story goes to shit because we, people, tampered with food. We DO tamper with food. Hybrids, growth hormones, it’s not a “made up” thing. We do DO those things! Who knows what will happen 50 years from now, after all the changes are changed again and again? How these changes are affecting us? Holy CRAP – this book could be the start of the zombie apocalypse! The author should contact Robert Kirkman RIGHT NOW. excuse me a minute… I just blew my own mind! omgosh!

Plot wise – AMAZING! I am not a big dystopian post-apocalyptic fan. I should say that right up front. I keep trying to like them because that seemed to be all that was coming out for a while, but man. I don’t think I have liked one, to date. Until now! This story goes apocalyptic DURING the story. So, everything is fine. In the beginning. We get to meet Fi, her folks, her friends, and then her dad gets sick. Then, all hell breaks loose. Throughout the story, we follow Fi as the entire world goes in the crapper. She has to accept, adapt, overcome. A girl doing that. Kind of awesome. *Side note: I love strong female characters. No *batting doe eyelashes* begging for love here. Which leads me to…

Characters – These people are so well fleshed out. All of the important ones are, anyway. They just “feel” like real people. The littler ones act – as you would think a littler one would in that situation. Nothing feels off about them. The parents do parenty things, the kids do kid type things, and those in the middle have to “nut up” to protect and save everyone around them who can’t do it for themselves.

Everything in this story is perfect except… the bad thing I was going to tell you about. Remember that?

Listen, I have always been really polite, I thought, when it comes to reviewing. I really try not to mention the editing or typos in general. I always thought if I started talking about the actual “writing” in the book, it would cause this big drama. I’m no english major, so who am I to criticize, you know? The thing is, I’m just a blogger. No one is paying their hard earned cash to read this blog. Who cares if I make a typo? This is you and me chatting it up, you know? In a book, typos are something totally different. Last week, I had a friend actually kind of rip me a new one. She had bought a book because I said it was great. I said it was great, but I didn’t mention the typos. My friend was so put off by them she couldn’t finish the book. I understand, I usually don’t finish badly edited books either. She felt like she’d wasted her $12. She’d wasted it because I had misled her. *ouch* With that being said, and now that you know I am not trying to attack this author in any way – I am only trying to tell you about the story, I have to tell you this…

The bad – the only negative that I have to say about this book is it needs an editor. REALLY needs an editor. As in, the typos are so bad…I turned it into a game to see how many pages I could get before I saw the next typo. If I were a drinker – this book’s typo game would make an excellent drinking game. I’m not saying that to be mean, either. See. I started marking the pages with the typos. That’s a lot.



To be totally honest, I kind of knew there would be a few typos before I started reading it. The day I received it, I noticed a typo on the title page. So I knew. I just didn’t think there would be that many.



In Conclusion:

Even with all its faults, I LOVED this story. This is so good, I could see it as a long running tv series. It would be way better than 99% of the crap on network tv right now. They could make it last how ever long they wanted, and when they decided to end the series – just use the last 5 or 6 chapters of the book for the 2 night big finale. It’s almost PERFECT. Well, except for the afore mentioned issues. If those issues wouldn’t bother you, then I say READ THIS BOOK. It’s actually kind of awesome, typos and all.

Mom Notes:

Does contain: cussing, violence (even a rape – though it’s not graphic), and a lot of death.

**Originally posted at www.bunnycates.com/reading **

My Thoughts:

Man this book. This book makes me shake my fist angrily at it, while I say “Youuuu…” Why is it giving me drama? Well, because it’s fantastic. And it’s not. This story has so much going for it, and then the one thing that is probably not so good. I’m going to tell you ALL the goods first, because if I tell you the bads first – you’ll just stop reading the review. lol.

World building – Scary. Ass. REAL. There is no other way to explain it. The stuff that goes down in this book, feels REAL. It’s actually POSSIBLE. The world in this story goes to shit because we, people, tampered with food. We DO tamper with food. Hybrids, growth hormones, it’s not a “made up” thing. We do DO those things! Who knows what will happen 50 years from now, after all the changes are changed again and again? How these changes are affecting us? Holy CRAP – this book could be the start of the zombie apocalypse! The author should contact Robert Kirkman RIGHT NOW. excuse me a minute… I just blew my own mind! omgosh!

Plot wise – AMAZING! I am not a big dystopian post-apocalyptic fan. I should say that right up front. I keep trying to like them because that seemed to be all that was coming out for a while, but man. I don’t think I have liked one, to date. Until now! This story goes apocalyptic DURING the story. So, everything is fine. In the beginning. We get to meet Fi, her folks, her friends, and then her dad gets sick. Then, all hell breaks loose. Throughout the story, we follow Fi as the entire world goes in the crapper. She has to accept, adapt, overcome. A girl doing that. Kind of awesome. *Side note: I love strong female characters. No *batting doe eyelashes* begging for love here. Which leads me to…

Characters – These people are so well fleshed out. All of the important ones are, anyway. They just “feel” like real people. The littler ones act – as you would think a littler one would in that situation. Nothing feels off about them. The parents do parenty things, the kids do kid type things, and those in the middle have to “nut up” to protect and save everyone around them who can’t do it for themselves.

Everything in this story is perfect except… the bad thing I was going to tell you about. Remember that?

Listen, I have always been really polite, I thought, when it comes to reviewing. I really try not to mention the editing or typos in general. I always thought if I started talking about the actual “writing” in the book, it would cause this big drama. I’m no english major, so who am I to criticize, you know? The thing is, I’m just a blogger. No one is paying their hard earned cash to read this blog. Who cares if I make a typo? This is you and me chatting it up, you know? In a book, typos are something totally different. Last week, I had a friend actually kind of rip me a new one. She had bought a book because I said it was great. I said it was great, but I didn’t mention the typos. My friend was so put off by them she couldn’t finish the book. I understand, I usually don’t finish badly edited books either. She felt like she’d wasted her $12. She’d wasted it because I had misled her. *ouch* With that being said, and now that you know I am not trying to attack this author in any way – I am only trying to tell you about the story, I have to tell you this…

The bad – the only negative that I have to say about this book is it needs an editor. REALLY needs an editor. As in, the typos are so bad…I turned it into a game to see how many pages I could get before I saw the next typo. If I were a drinker – this book’s typo game would make an excellent drinking game. I’m not saying that to be mean, either. See. I started marking the pages with the typos. That’s a lot.



To be totally honest, I kind of knew there would be a few typos before I started reading it. The day I received it, I noticed a typo on the title page. So I knew. I just didn’t think there would be that many.



In Conclusion:

Even with all its faults, I LOVED this story. This is so good, I could see it as a long running tv series. It would be way better than 99% of the crap on network tv right now. They could make it last how ever long they wanted, and when they decided to end the series – just use the last 5 or 6 chapters of the book for the 2 night big finale. It’s almost PERFECT. Well, except for the afore mentioned issues. If those issues wouldn’t bother you, then I say READ THIS BOOK. It’s actually kind of awesome, typos and all.

Mom Notes:

Does contain: cussing, violence (even a rape – though it’s not graphic), and a lot of death.

Originally Reviewed At:Mother/Gamer/Writer
Rating: 4 out of 5 Controllers
Review Source: Blog Tour
Reviewer: CrayolaKym




Eden’s Root is a refreshing reprieve from Vampires and Werewolves while following in the dystopian world footsteps of Hunger Games meets Soylent Green. Fi, a thirteen year old girl is faced with illness, danger, grief, survival, and love. She is a girl that even grown women such as myself can relate to, and I can easily see my own daughters within her.


Fi has faced the sickness and now must become a strong fighter and survivalist to protect those around her. Food is rare and sickness is rampant. She must gain the knowledge given by her father and in a short amount of time to prepare her for the journey she knows she must take upon herself. Everything from stealing, hunting, and fighting will have to be endured if she plans on keeping herself and her sister alive.

For being a young adult book, Eden’s Root actually frightening, and I don’t mean “BOO” frightening. I would advise those younger than 12 to have a serious talk with an adult about the setting of this book and as they progress through the book to raise their concerns to their parents because what Rachel writes isn’t too far from what our future could possibly hold. This book delves deep into humanity and many topics such as survival and environmentalism – which have become very important as of late.

Rachel creates characters which are very realistic, someone you could see yourself friends with, or actually becoming. There are however, so many characters throughout this book, I often had to try and recall who was who.As the book comes to a close, I highly recommend this wonderful read to all ages; even a great book to read to younger children. There is a lot to feel, experience, and love about Eden’s Root that I know you will love it too!



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Originally reviewed on A Reader of Fictions.

Eden's Root is unique amongst my Dystopian August reviews, in that it is the only indie title included in the bunch. I don't review too many independent titles, because of the possibility of author wrath, the often-terrible editing, and the fact that they're a bit more difficult to acquire (assuming you don't get one for review). When Rachel offered me a review copy of Eden's Root, though, I was happy to oblige, since she approached me very politely and with knowledge of me as a reviewer. Plus, it didn't hurt that I'd seen some positive reviews of her book already.

First, I feel the need to address the editing, which is generally my biggest concern when it comes to indie books. Eden's Root obviously received editing. There were occasional problems, but definitely nothing worse than I've seen in some big six titles. Both the writing and the editing passed muster with me. My only issues in that regard were some bizarre time jumps and the awkwardness of the parents being referred to both by their names and by mother and father in the third person narration.

The post-apocalyptic future of Eden's Root depicts a society stricken by famine. All of the genetic modifications to food and pesticides and chemicals have lead to global crop failure, as well as a significant upswing in diseases. Oddly enough, I've been slowly working through The Windup Girl, which has a very similar premise, although in a very different setting and group of characters. Futures like this are frighteningly possible.

Fisher wrote in the third person, following three perspectives: Fi, Sean and Asher. The bulk of the book follows Fi, though, even up to perhaps 75%. Given advance warning of the impending crisis by her scientist father, Fi throws herself into preparing for what comes. She learns to fight, to shoot and to hunt for food, both of the animal and vegetable variety. Fisher manages to convincingly make Fi sound like young teen she is (13 at the outset and 16 by the end), while also selling her as a very powerful, mature force.

Fi steps up to the plate and leads her family on a trek through the wilderness, heading for Eden, a community that supposedly could save them. She faces tough decisions along the way, especially since there's no telling if the community will let her family in. Despite the knowledge that more people could lower their odds of being accepted to Eden, Fi, a caring, family-oriented person, builds up a sizable group, a true Family. Though she planned not to, she just could not abandon the neighboring family, the Skillmans, such close friends to her family. As they travel, they add more people to the group.

Sean Skillman, Fi's best friend since infancy, has a huge crush on her. Enter romantic difficulties. Fi loves him deeply, but she cannot see him as more than a brother, and feels incredibly uncomfortable when he tries to broach the possibility of more. Further down the road, they meet up with Asher, four years her senior, and a love triangle is born, though not one that should make anyone throw their hands up and walk away in frustration. Fi's honesty and love for her Family keeps the situation from straying into melodrama.

However, the ending was so incredibly cheesy. I just need to mention it, even though I can't say why. I thought maybe that was going to happen and then it did. Otherwise, Eden's Root was a strong, people-focused post-apocalyptic story. I recommend it most to younger readers, as Fisher's story is not as dark as most and much less violent. ( )

I enjoy Fi as a character. She is real. She has fears and struggles. There are so many gloomy moments for Fi, I just feel for her. She is just so young, and it just feel like her childhood is stolen from her. I just want to hold her. Haha, one more thing I love about her is that she loves to braid!

Sean and Fi are super cute together. I can't explain it, they are just cute. Yeah, the following pictures made me feel the same way, the "cuteness".

And HELLO! NO LOVE TRIANGLES!! WIN! JACKPOT!
Kiara seems super adorable. It totally reminded me of my friend from Italy, Chiara. I mean their names are even alike. Maggie seems like such a sweet mother. She reminds me of Edward and Alphonse's mother, Tricia.

The story started off fast pace! Man, oh man, was it suspenseful! But as the book got a little more in, the pace I found become too fast and unrealistic. For example, when Mike, Fi's dad was telling 13 year old I how to prepare for the world's end, I think it happened way too fast. Sure, I don't want Fi feeling emotional and taking up 50 pages with her feelings, but I mean make it practical and reasonable. Fi is simply going to order stuff online, sent it to her dad's friend and practice how to survive? Um...Fi is 13. I don't think she can pull it off. But when I read on, I found it actually somewhat cute (yeah I am weird) that Fi can be so smart and determined. She lies and steals like a boss! She prepared for everything.

I love the science in the book. And I love how this book tackles the "Global Warming" part of the dystopian theme. The plot just scares me. What if the food I am eating now is like that in the book? Our future can definitely be heading into what Eden's Root is. Altered food is everywhere. I mean lab grown beef is an actual thing. This book definitely made me think. *puts down spoon*

Overall this book was great. Not the OMG-I-SHALL-FANGIRL-OVER-THIS-BOOK-FOR-10-YEARS type of books but it was good.

See review with pictures: http://firestarbooks.blogspot.ca/2012/07/review-edens-root-by-rachel-fisher.html ( )