Revealing Eden by Victoria Foyt

Revealing Eden
Victoria Foyt
Publisher: Sand Dollar Press
Release Date: October 6, 2011
Pages: 320

Rating: 2 stars

Eden Newman must mate before her 18th birthday in six months or she'll be left outside to die in a burning world. But who will pick up her mate-option when she's cursed with white skin and a tragically low mate-rate of 15%? In a post-apocalyptic, totalitarian, underground world where class and beauty are defined by resistance to an overheated environment, Eden's coloring brands her as a member of the lowest class, a weak and ugly Pearl. If only she can mate with a dark-skinned Coal from the ruling class, she'll be safe. Just maybe one Coal sees the Real Eden and will be her salvation her co-worker Jamal has begun secretly dating her. But when Eden unwittingly compromises her father's secret biological experiment, she finds herself in the eye of a storm and thrown into the last area of rainforest, a strange and dangerous land. Eden must fight to save her father, who may be humanity's last hope, while standing up to a powerful beast-man she believes is her enemy, despite her overwhelming attraction. Eden must change to survive but only if she can redefine her ideas of beauty and of love, along with a little help from her "adopted aunt" Emily Dickinson.

The premise of this one sounded super cool, but I found the execution of the story a bit off. Dystopian reads are very hit or miss for me. There is something about them, some quality I am always looking for and when I don't find it, I generally am not crazy about the book. Though, I did finish this one, I was constantly intrigued trying to figure out what was happening, because a lot of the time I wasn't entirely sure.

Revealing Eden was definitely a fast read. The first few chapters were slower to read, as I was trying to piece together the world and figure out what was going on. What happened from there was definitely not what I had pictured from reading the premise. Generally speaking I could figure out what was going on, but there were smaller aspects of the plot arc that I never quite figured out.. My huge issue was the instant love scenario that happens. Eden was lusting after another guy, then all at once, changes teams and is going for another guy. There was no lead up, nothing. I also had a bit of an issue with some happenings towards the end of the book - it just made no sense to me. I also could not fully understand the logic behind injecting humans with animal DNA, it was just too weird for me.

I thought that a lot of the minor characters were really great. They had great qualities. I really liked Maria quite a lot. Eden was a weaker character for me. She was insecure to the point I would consider it a fault. Bramford was the most real character of the book for me.

Overall, Revealing Eden was not the book for me. I would recommend it for those who really like a unique dystopian. There were too many questions I had to let me fully enjoy the book. It was a fast read, but I wasn't quite satisfied with the ending and the characters, overall, were a little off.