Admittedly, I am not much of a science fiction reader. When I heard about S.A. Bodeen’s The Gardener, though, I knew I wanted to read it. I’d read The Compound and while it wasn’t my favorite book, it’s a book that my teens really enjoy. I was ready to see what Bodeen could do in her sophomore effort.
Mason, our main character, is a maverick. Of course, we won’t know this immediately. It’s something we discover when he steals a pass into his mother’s work place — a nursing home of sorts run by TroDyn, a large science corporation that has its hands in about everything in their Portland-area home town of Melby Falls — and immediately spots a group of kids about his age who look completely comatose. What could be wrong with them, Mason wonders?
Of course, it doesn’t stop at wondering and of course, it’s the incredibly beautiful and flawless girl who somehow manages to convince Mason to free her from the home and save her. With his best friend. Mason does just that.
It’s here that the story unravels into an incredibly fast-paced story of science, deception, and corporate involvement in science and humanity.
Did I mention Mason has a huge scar on the side of his face from an accident in his early child hood? Oh, and he doesn’t know who his dad is beyond a DVD he stumbled upon in his mother’s files of him reading The Runaway Bunny. Oh, yeah, and mom is hiding a lot of money from Mason, too, which he would love to use in college when he goes to study at Stanford.
I realize I’ve left a lot of plot out of this, but the short and long of it is that saying any more will ruin the suspense and the action that develops. The story is well-developed in plot, with enough twists and turns that kept me flipping frantically through the pages. TroDyn is an evil empire set on solving one of the world’s greatest problems — food! — by doing something entirely unethical to future generations. Lalia, who is the girl Mason saves, will lead him into unleashing their secrets to the world. And it might just be his dad who has something to do with it. The Runaway Bunny also plays well into the evil-doing.
The Gardener will appeal to many readers, though hard-core science fiction fans will see many of the holes in the story. This will likely appeal to more reluctant readers, since it moves so quickly. We have a handful of well-developed characters who are interesting and encourage further reading.
My biggest problem with the book, though, is that we don’t have well-developed character relationships. Solomon and Eve, who we meet near the end of the story, were introduced as partners, but there is a quick turnaround in that relationship that never once made sense to me. She went from his assistant to suddenly evil, and since I hadn’t been introduced to either until the end of the story, that shift was never believable or easy enough to accept for me. I think since those two characters do play such a vital role in the end of the book that they could have been better sketched. I thought they were really interesting and was sad I didn’t get more.
The ending of the book, which we work toward at such a rapid pace, is actually a bit of a let down. I felt there was an opportunity to go out with a real bang, but instead, it’s kind of flat and undynamic. Mason the superhero never emerges where it could have been opportune.
A few plot holes are obvious, but because the story itself is interesting and unique, they are mostly forgivable. I thought they were quite similar to the holes I found in The Compound, which made me wonder if that’s Bodeen’s style. Most readers will suspend their belief in the story anyway, so forgiving the holes will be pretty natural.
Fans of The Compound will devour this title. I know my teens will really enjoy this one, and this is a title that begs to be book talked. And boy, if some of the ideas in here don’t terrify you, then you don’t watch the news quite enough.
*Review copy from publisher.