Sunday, December 9, 2012

{Review} Revealing Eden by Victoria Foyt

Title: Revealing Eden
Author: Victoria Foyt
Format: NetGalley e-book ARC
Publisher: Sand Dollar Press Inc
Release Date: October 31st, 2011
Date Read: June 5th, 2012
Rating: ★
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.


I really feel like going: This is bad. Why? BECAUSE IT IS! But I can't do that since it's bad and all. ... I think. The idea was interesting. The heat didn't seem to be such a big thing though. It was more about Eden and beast-man. Even the saving father seemed like a subplot. This book was painful. I finished it because I wanted to see if there would be a she-cat. There was. But there was no description so it was a waste of time.

Characters


Eden was vain, selfish, and stupid (not to mention all the things I want to call her). From the moment she really looked at the mutated Bramford (who turned into Jaguar Man - yes they actually called him that) she kept calling him sexy and handsome, though she continued to comment on how much she hated his attitude. Magically, they're in love by the end. I'm still trying to figure that one out. I did like how she knew all the animal's scientific names. I found that interesting and unique. Bramford was a jerk, a power-hungry jerk. There wasn't anything I found good about him other than the obvious awesomeness of having some jaguar DNA. Other than that, he was less than great. The father was an entertaining character, but nothing special. He seemed to not care about his daughter till around the last 20 pages.


Plot and Writing


Plot:
The plot was interesting in the beginning, I wanted to see how Foyt managed the segregation idea and jaguar DNA thing was cool. Then the book turned out to be Eden finding someone to mate with. And I mean it. She kept commenting on how she needed to mate and she'd never do it and was bound to live a sad, lonely life. The author didn't seem to know what she was writing at times. The FFP are "a militant organization of Coals [darker skinned people] that vowed to rid the planet of Pearls." Then, a few pages later:
"Most Pearls [light-skinned people] would give anything to be on my team." A FFP officer
That was the biggest problem with continuity I found. Writing: The writing was simple. She said, he said, they did, blah. Pretty basic.


Likes and Dislikes


Liked
Fun setting
- There's a jaguar dude in it

Dislikes
Characters
- Failed plot
- The jaguar dude is an douchey jackass
- Insta love

Conclusion


I didn't like this book (not by a long shot). I really don't recommend this book unless you like damsels in distress, jerk love interest, boring plot...


Lisbeth is an American teenager who enjoys blowing shit up in videogames and discussing decapitation in great detail. She's also obsessed with Oceana, but you're not supposed to know that.


2 comments:

  1. You have given a totally different insight of the book. All the reviews I've read focus on racism and how white is compared to pearls. Is there? I personally think that people should move on racism already. This is 2013! So your review is totally refreshing!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks! The point of my review was actually to show how utterly terrible this book is, if you ignore the racism.

      Is this book racist? Very much so. It's terribly racist and yes, that made the book worse for me. It was not only racist, it was sexist too. I could write a whole other review just about the racism and the sexism. Personally, I don't think racism is just something we need to 'move on' from but I do agree that there could be more reviews about how terrible the characters and plot are.

      Thanks for stopping by!

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