EDEN

In this debut novel’s take on the Frankenstein story, a stitched-together American girl tries to understand human behavior and social norms.

A girl awakens in pain, the end result of myriad assembled body parts. Neither she nor readers know anything about her previous life. But she now has a 14-year-old brain, and her creator (whom she calls Mullet) names her Eden. She quickly picks up speech, and Mullet is surprised she’s sentient. He takes on the role of father, treating Eden like a child rather than a mere experiment. She soon goes out into the world, makes friends, and even has a boyfriend of sorts. But cultural lessons—Mullet’s “basic rules of human society” and what Eden has seen on TV—don’t readily prepare her for social interactions. Meanwhile, local teenager Darcy falls for a cute guy who works at a shoe store. He invites her to a party that ultimately leads to an incident that cyberbullies use to target Darcy. That’s just the type of behavior Eden struggles to make sense of; she feels that someone who’s cruel to others deserves to die. So Eden singles out a person to kill, and her and Darcy’s lives eventually collide. This book by playwright/screenwriter Williams is more of a teen drama than an overt horror story. (The title page notes that the novel is “based on characters created by Stuart Hynson Culpepper.”) Williams insightfully addresses serious issues throughout the tale. Online attacks, for example, harm victims in seemingly endless ways. There are likewise instances of violence, though none of them are excessively graphic. The conversational prose stems primarily from Eden’s perspective—an autobiographical blog that Darcy occasionally reads. This effectively alternates with Darcy’s similarly styled narrative: “A few couples were dancing, but mostly kids just stood around in bunches, beer cans in their hands. Two kids were making out on the couch, oblivious to the rest of the world.” The author rounds out the absorbing story with mystery, especially concerning Mullet. Though readers get an inkling of who he is and what he has done, he’s a peculiar character who could easily carry a novel of his own.

A dramatic and engrossing look at the everyday horrors adolescents face.