Eden Summer

by Liz Flanagan

It starts like any other day for Jess - get up, draw on eyeliner, cover up tattoos and head to school. But soon it's clear this is no ordinary day, because Jess's best friend Eden isn't at school . . . she's gone missing. Jess knows she has to do everything in her power to try to find Eden before the unthinkable happens. So she starts to retrace their steps, looking back over the summer she and Eden have just spent together. She starts to notice new things. She starts to question everything she thought Eden's summer had been about . . .

A tense and thrilling journey through friendship, loss, betrayal and self discovery.

• ISBN10: 191098907X
• ISBN13: 9781910989074
• Publish Date: 7 July 2016
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 8 March 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: David Fickling Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 288
• Language: English

Reviews

[readingwithwrin]

"Not just that, no. But if you add it all up, it's a life. I'm drifting along, trying to please people, but it's like I'm a shadow, Jess. You're a real person, and I'm just... nothing."
Jess is Eden's best friend. So when Eden goes missing she's the first one that everyone looks to for answers. The Boyfriend Liam obviously is the one everyone wants to blame especially with his past, yet he and Jess both says he's innocent.
With them having no real idea where she could be, they decided to start looking for her themselves and trying to remember what brought them to this point in time.

Told through Eden's perspective throughout one day, we get to see what's happening in the present and what happened in the past that could have lead Eden to run away. We also get to see what happened to Jess and what has her being so jumpy all the time.
"Don't you get it Jess? Even after everything. Why is it OK for random bad things to happen, you can't let random good things happen? You don't owe anybody for what happened today. You don't have to give up what you want."
Overall I was left a little disappointed in this book. While I did enjoy it, I also had several problems with it. Not only because of how Eden acted, trust me I get teenage angst, but because of how far she took things when it came to dealing with her sister. The aftermath of her sister's death as well was just awful for everyone involved. Also, I can't imagine the amount of guilt Eden was caring around with no one in charge noticing it, and I'm glad Jess spoke about it to the principle, etc at school.
The romance between two characters while I could see happening also seemed like a really crappy thing to do to someone when they were obviously emotionally unstable.
I did like how what happened to Jess was explained and dealt with as its something that isn't really talked about in YA novels.
"Nah, Jess. I think you're brave. The rest, it's normal, isn't it? You get hurt: you bruise, you bleed. It's what happens. This is the same."


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