Eden’s Everdark by Karen Strong - ADVISABLE

 Eden’s Everdark by Karen Strong, 261 pages. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2022. $18. 

Language: G (0 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: G; Violence: PG

BUYING ADVISORY: EL, MS - ADVISABLE

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE 

12yo Eden is still mourning the loss of her mother when she and her father travel from their home in Maryland to Safina Island off the coast of Georgia, where her mother grew up. Even though the family there does a celebration every year, Eden has never been and all she knows is that her mother had a terrible accident on the island and never returned. Eden immediately loves the island and is embraced by her mother’s family, but strange things start to happen when she finds her mother’s sketchbooks and learns of a spirit realm called Everdark. Eden has terrifyingly realistic dreams about Everdark and then accidentally crosses into the magical realm herself and is trapped by the Witch of Everdark. If she doesn’t find a way to escape soon, then she’ll die and be stuck in this spirit prison forever. Not only that, but she also discovers that all the spirits in this limbo realm cannot pass on due to the witch’s influence. Eden must not only save herself, but also finish the work her mother started by rescuing all the spirits of Everdark.

I loved that the book was entirely about an African American community and delved into the problems of slavery with Eden meeting spirit characters from throughout history who had endured slavery and racism. The descriptive writing and the fascinating premise were also highlights for me. The writing describes how grief feels in powerful language that will resonate with anyone who has lost someone they love. The story did fall flat for me with the characterization making it difficult to feel invested in the characters and to understand their motivations, especially the Witch of Everdark. While I loved how the Witch seemed like a complex villain who also had good motivations at times, there were a lot of unanswered questions about why she did what she did, as well as other world building questions throughout. In addition, the pacing of Eden’s Everdark started out slow, but then picked up in intensity about halfway through the book; however, the slow pacing at the start made it hard for me to sustain interest. The slow pace and the unanswered questions that created confusion throughout led me to rate it as only an average appeal for students even though there were a lot of elements that I liked about the book. 

The ratings of violence were PG because of some of the intense scenes of danger. 

Reviewer: Marinda