Eden's Root by Rachel E. Fisher

Summary

It is 2033, and the world hovers on the edge of explosion as unexplained crop deaths lead to severe global food shortages. Is the United States, the Sickness is taking lives slowly, creeping its way into every family. Thirteen-year-old Fi Kelly has already faced the Sickness in her own family, toughening her at a young age. But when her dying father makes a shocking confession, Fi realizes that her toughness will be pushed to its absolute limits.

Saddled with an impossible secret and mission of saving her little sister, Fi gets out to transform herself into the warrior that she must become to survive the coming collapse. Along the way, she will discover that evil can be accidental . . . and that love can be intentional.

• Number of pages: 376

Review 

Eden’s Roots deserves a round of applause and a cheer or two. If any other bloggers have read and reviewed this book along with me, then I hope it is safe to assume that they were just as equally captivated by this amazing sci-fi story as I was, but I would love to put my two cents in as well. Fi is a narrator and Leader like no other. I followed her like a member of her Family would, and I am proud to say I survived this journey right along side her. The world is coming to an end in the ways of the normal every day-to-day life. To be honest the details as to what exactly is going on left me a little fuzzy, but I will try to summarize and explain the details without giving too much away. Food, regular food, has been contaminated over the years, processed and manipulated so many times that over eventually it has generated so much disease and created the “Sickness”. The “Sickness” in this book refers to cancerous diseases, though I believe other kinds of diseases are considered as well. The amount of Sickfood soon starts to kill all forms of vegetation, and basically the world is in for a global Famine. Anyway, no one really knows about the Sickfood, except a selected few such as scientists who are preparing for the worst and have created a safe haven where they can reconstruct and rebuild. One of those few people is Fi’s dad who is one of the main scientists working on the effort to build this haven, Eden. When he becomes Sick, he and his family are crossed off from the list of candidates allowed to join this new colony and have a better chance of survival. Before his death he gives all he knowledge to his daughter in the hopes that she can lead her sister and mother to safety.

It was incredible seeing how a girl that is pictured as normal, as ordinary, is transformed into this character with the burden of much older and wiser people, a person who leads many souls to safety. The process written in which she does become a warrior with all the fighting and toughness included was a bit lengthy, but overall created a picture of complete and utter dedication. Fi is really no average girl, but then again isn’t there something more than average in all of us? Along the way she meets and connects with a group of people that I have come to love as well. Each and every individual was spectacularly created to contribute and share some love with me, as the reader. The journey was arduous, the conditions frightening, and I felt it all first hand.

I really want to focus on how this book was written in regards to point of views. It had a switching view from Fi, to her best friend Sean, to another boy that you meet along the way. They all tie together, obviously, but it was Fi’s mind that was kept dominant. She was the core of the story, as well as the core of her Family being Leader. I felt her burden, her determination, and her uncontrollable rage. That’s what really made the story amazing. It made it real, you know? It wasn’t a story about a girl who become a super hero and a hard ass and overall seems untouchable, neither about a girl who is weak and in the end shows her true colors. This was a book of survival, and it emanated off of Fi like an odor. She felt pain, fear, and worry along with happiness, excitement, even peace. I admit to some well-deserved tears on my part (much to my families amusement). It wasn’t laugh out loud funny, but I also felt humor and love written between words. I found it a great experience.

I also loved how real the situation all seemed. This book frightened me in that aspect a bit. The Famine, the Sickfood, the fact that a lot of the things that we have and do today were portrayed in a different light to show how terribly it could all go wrong. It seemed possible. I do have to warn my readers that this book is mild in many ways, but it could get very graphic in many others. Like I said, this is a survival story, and the things done in this book were things that may seem out of hand, but it was done in order to survive. It brought up some serious questions that I found interesting to think about. What would you do to survive? What would you give, sacrifice for the good of yourself and loved ones?

As I look over my review I realize that it is a bit long, and I am pleased with that. Why? Because it means that this book opened my brain a bit more, and had me thinking, reaaaally thinking. It wasn’t a book to just follow along. I really thought if that makes any sense. It was . . . and “intelligent” book, I guess. Like food for thought! From 1-10? Eden’s Roots gets an 8.5