Eden's Everdark

July 1, 2022
A grieving girl accidentally slips into an alternate magical world inhabited by eerie, mystical creatures from her dead mother's sketchbook. Twelve-year-old Eden is mourning the loss of her mother when she and her father make their first visit to Safina Island, off the coast of Georgia, to meet her maternal relatives. Eden's connection to them is tenuous, mostly consisting of the birthday cards containing pressed flowers sent by her great-aunt; Eden's mother left the island when she was 12 following a bad accident, and she never wanted to return. Eden and her dad are going to participate in the annual celebration honoring the family's purchase of half the island after they received their freedom from slavery. While staying in her mother's childhood room, Eden looks through old boxes in the closet and finds, among the many sketchbooks containing nature drawings, one filled with creepy and terrifying images of a land called Everdark. Eden starts traveling there in her dreams until one day, while following a black cat around the island, she enters a portal, becomes trapped in this world, and must use her own hidden magic to find a way out. The complex narrative portrays multifaceted characters as it weaves together history, magic, and grief. Readers will enjoy the strong pacing along with learning about the island's well-described mythology and root magic. Most characters are Black. A textured, suspenseful story that traverses an island's timeline and a family's heritage. (Paranormal. 9-13)

COPYRIGHT(2022) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

August 26, 2022

Gr 3-6-After Eden's mother dies, she travels with her father to Safina Island, GA, to meet her mother's family. Eden's ancestors were enslaved people from the Civil War era who cultivated cotton and sugar cane. After the war, the Gardner family stayed for generations, but Eden and her family have never visited. Eden's mother left the island when she was Eden's age, 12, never to return, though she carried forth the gardening gene, becoming a botanist and professor. When Eden finds her mother's childhood sketchbooks containing island flowers, marshland plants, and animals, she is intrigued. One sketchbook looks to be a dark mirror of Safina Island, with a monster-like dog, a black cat lurking, and stormy oceans and dark skies. Children drawn have deep indigo skin with tiny silver stars, and mouths frozen into eternal screams. A woman drawn is the "Witch of Everdark," and when Aunt Susanna tells Eden her mother created this spirit world from her dreams, Eden feels pulled to discover the truth behind her own nightmares. Eden finds a path into Everdark and, upon entering, realizes there is no way out, and that the witch wishes to claim her spirit. With stunningly descriptive prose, Strong has created two worlds, both Safina Island and the spirit world that entraps Eden. Eden must face her grief bravely, while holding tight to her family and their roots. VERDICT Darkly suspenseful; both readers of fantasy and those looking for a creepy, ghostly tale will find much to keep them rooted in this electric novel.-Michele Shaw

Copyright 2022 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 3, 2022
Following her botanist mother’s death, 12-year-old Eden Gardener travels with her father to her mother’s birthplace, which her mom mysteriously left following a grave injury at age 12. On Safina Island, off the coast of Georgia, Eden meets her extended maternal relations—descendants of the formerly enslaved inhabitants who’ve owned the north side of the island since the Civil War’s end—as they prepare to celebrate the anniversary of purchasing the land. She encounters, too, a bevy of frightening creatures in her mother’s childhood sketchbook, including a hauntingly beautiful witch in a spirit world known as Everdark. After passing into Everdark through a dark portal, Eden learns that the Witch of Everdark wants to take Eden as her own daughter; it will require all of Eden’s wits, and the magic she inherited from her mother, to escape. Strong (Just South of Home) sets an impeccable scene, imbuing Safina Island with a turbulent history and fully fleshed culture that stands in stark relief to Everdark’s opulence. Though interactions can have an RPG feel, undercutting character connection, Strong portrays the island’s mythos, and Everdark’s extraordinary dangers, to bone-chilling perfection. Ages: 8–12. Agent: Patrice Caldwell, New Leaf Literary & Media.