This Side of Paradise
by Steven Layne
is sort of like The Stepford Wives with a razor edge. Jack Barrett has always been happy living with his family, including his mom, dad, brother Troy and Gram, even though his dad is often on edge. But now Jack's dad has a new job at a marvelous company called Eden. It seems like this will be a great thing, until his dad insists on moving the whole family to Eden's corporate village--Paradise. Instead of making things better, however, the move starts with violence, and quickly moves to oddity. Something is not quite right in Paradise, and Jack needs to find out what. Otherwise, he suspects he may not live to find out. The suspense in his novel rocks...maybe not quite the best mystery I've read this summer, but at least the second best! In fact, I just ordered this author's next novel, Mergers, and I can't wait to see it.

It's wickedly awesome...!

I agree with what the other reviewers are saying that also rated the book below 3 in that Layne's characters' voices are not genuine. Layne writes the voice of his 17 year old character in the way that a college educated, highly intelligent, professional speaker would talk. I read about this book in the introduction to his professional book, Igniting a Passion for Reading. The two teachers writing the intro seem to actually worship Layne. They said their sixth graders couldn't put this novel down. I then borrowed twelve copies from other schools in my district and started a sixth grade book study on it. My sixth graders are very low socio-economic level kids. A few of them are reading it, and a couple have returned the book and said it didn't interest them as much as they thought it would. I didn't realize the book was self-published until I started reading it. I'm embarrassed that I shared this book with my kids, but will still do the book study and talk about the plot, voice, and characters in comparison to better books. It's an example of utopianism and could be compared to The Giver.

As Jack and his brother Troy move to a new village called Paradise, they think everything is fine. They're just a normal family with their father working for the man who runs this village. Everything is good and Jack meets this girl he likes and they instantly fall in love. Jack soon realizes everything gets a little weird, a little too perfect. So when a fight breaks out between Dad and Jack over school clothes, Gram makes a phone call and finds out their and no police and they can't leave! Jack goes hunting for answers! But when he leave he takes Jori {the girl} with him to protect her from whatever is going on. They soon come back and realize they have to face the evil Mr. Eden! With people dieing and evil robots taking over the town! Will Jack and Jori make it out alive? Was it just a miss understanding? Well you'll have to find out as you read This side of Paradise. This side of Paradise is becoming too perfect.

Great for reluctant middle school readers.

This book was an incredible letdown. It was an interesting idea, but I really wish the story was in somebody else's hands.

The story is told in the fisrt person by seventeen- year- old Jack. I know of no human being who talks the way he does, and certainly no high shcool juniors who sound like that. The people don't sound like real people when they talk, either. I really was very interested to find out what happened, but the way the book was written bugged me so much that I could never really enjoy the story. The author wasn't very good at expressing emotion, either. That parts that were supposed to be touching were phony and awkward. And this is from the person who cries every time she reads a book.
As for the general idea of the story, it was original, but it wasn't very believable because the whole thing was set in the present day.

I will give this book points for the characters, who had very distinct personalities, but they're still not enough to bring my rating above one star.

Wow! Couldn't put this book down....it was suspenseful and kind of creepy. Don't think I liked it as much as Mergers, another book by Layne. It's about a father who is bent on perfection. He works for a man named Mr. Eden and he decides to move his family to a beautiful town where everyone is happy. The name of the town, of course, is Paradise. But of course, while Paradise appears to be beautiful, clean, peaceful and so on, there is a much darker current underneath it all. A book that I can imagine both boys and girls would like, probably beginning around 6th grade.

The summary of this book sounded great, and I was excited to read it. I was expecting something like Point Blank by Anthony Horowitz, where students are cloned to be perfect. This story, however, was just too crazy. It had great potential, but as it went, it got more and more stupid. I only finished for the sake of it; I don't like to not finish a book and give it a chance, but this was terrible.

It was also slow and boring, and the characters weren't that great. The main character didn't seem to act his age, and even the writing in general felt like it was written for a younger audience than the plot suggested, and I found it annoying. For one thing, the use of exclamation points was ridiculous, especially considering they were used during narration, not in dialogue. Overall, it felt like as he was writing, he was simply checking things off his list to write about, without really developing the story or characters...like he was just going through the motions, but not really getting anywhere. There's no depth at all.

Jack and Jory's relationship is laughable. You don't basically fall in love after one meeting and only saying a couple of sentences to each other. It was a bit over the top.

I didn't like this book, and I can't see there being any more in this series. That's just crazy. I will not be reading them.

Jack's father has always been a perfectionist, but lately, his need to control every aspect of the family's life has stepped up a notch. Mr. Barrett, Jack's dad, has been offered a wonderful opportunity with the company he works for, the Eden Corporation. Eden owns a gated village in Paradise, a nearby town, where only the most successful and devoted employees are invited to live. The village is all inclusive and there is no need to ever leave. The village even has a school for the children of the employees.




Mr. Barrett's family isn't handling the news of the move very well. His wife has been drinking more and more since Mr. Barrett's controlling nature has intensified. Troy, the youngest child, has used his rebellious attitude to spark conflict within the household. Gram, Mr. Barrett's mother and the boys' biggest protector, doesn't mince words when it comes to how crazy she thinks moving the whole family to a strange community is, and Jack, the oldest son, tries to keep the peace by attempting to please his father and trying to keep Troy under control.




Eventually, the day comes and the family packs up and moves to Paradise. Jack's mother has gone ahead in order to get the house ready so it is just Mr. Barrett, Jack, Troy, and Gram following the moving van. Once they reach the entry gate, Jack sees a site that leaves him speechless. Jori is a beautiful girl that works at the entry gate of Paradise and a girl that he definitely wants to get to know better, but for some reason, Mr. Barrett doesn't want him to have anything to do with her. His exact words are, "She doesn't belong in Paradise." This statement is just one of the things Jack, Troy, and Gram consider strange when they get settled in their new community. Everyone seems too happy, their mother hasn't been seen since they've arrived, and Mr. Eden, the owner of the Eden Corporation, has been sneaking into the Barrett's house at night and taking Troy somewhere after knocking him out so he won't wake up. The boys, with a lot of help from Gram and Jori, attempt to get to the bottom of all the mysteries and find a way out of Paradise.




THIS SIDE OF PARADISE is a science fiction thriller reminiscent of The Stepford Wives. It was awarded the Hal Clement Award for best science fiction novel for young adults in the United States. This is Steven Layne's first novel and is far from perfect, but at the same time, has many characteristics that will appeal to young readers.

I heard Steven Layne speak and he said this book was written because of a dare by a student who hated books and reading. He wrote the first chapter in one night. It was my first sci-fi book and I know it will be the perfect book for one of my students someday.

was a bad book

Reviewed by Karin Perry for TeensReadToo.com

Jack's father has always been a perfectionist, but lately, his need to control every aspect of the family's life has stepped up a notch. Mr. Barrett, Jack's dad, has been offered a wonderful opportunity with the company he works for, the Eden Corporation. Eden owns a gated village in Paradise, a nearby town, where only the most successful and devoted employees are invited to live. The village is all-inclusive and there is no need to ever leave. The village even has a school for the children of the employees.

Mr. Barrett's family isn't handling the news of the move very well. His wife has been drinking more and more since Mr. Barrett's controlling nature has intensified. Troy, the youngest child, has used his rebellious attitude to spark conflict within the household. Gram, Mr. Barrett's mother and the boys' biggest protector, doesn't mince words when it comes to how crazy she thinks moving the whole family to a strange community is, and Jack, the oldest son, tries to keep the peace by attempting to please his father and trying to keep Troy under control.

Eventually, the day comes and the family packs up and moves to Paradise. Jack's mother has gone ahead in order to get the house ready so it is just Mr. Barrett, Jack, Troy, and Gram following the moving van. Once they reach the entry gate, Jack sees a site that leaves him speechless. Jori is a beautiful girl that works at the entry gate of Paradise and a girl that he definitely wants to get to know better, but for some reason, Mr. Barrett doesn't want him to have anything to do with her. His exact words are, "She doesn't belong in Paradise." This statement is just one of the things Jack, Troy, and Gram consider strange when they get settled in their new community.

Everyone seems too happy, their mother hasn't been seen since they've arrived, and Mr. Eden, the owner of the Eden Corporation, has been sneaking into the Barrett's house at night and taking Troy somewhere after knocking him out so he won't wake up. The boys, with a lot of help from Gram and Jori, attempt to get to the bottom of all the mysteries and find a way out of Paradise.

THIS SIDE OF PARADISE is a science fiction thriller reminiscent of THE STEPFORD WIVES. It was awarded the Hal Clement Award for best science fiction novel for young adults in the United States. This is Steven Layne's first novel and is far from perfect, but at the same time, has many characteristics that will appeal to young readers.