This book has a very good plot, but not a decent way of presenting it. I often got bored even when important events were happening and I dislike the writing style. The plot was literally the only thing causing me to finish the book. If it were written better, it would probably have four stars from me.

When Steven L. Layne came to my grade school to talk to us about being an author, I never expected to read his books. Later into his presentation, he told us about This Side Of Paradise, and I couldn't help but to be interested. Soon after, I began to read this book. When Jack's father starts to work for Eden Corporation, everything seems to be fine in their family. Then, his father wants to relocate to Paradise, the CEO for Eden Corporation. Everyone in Paradise seems to be perfect, and once they move there, Jack's own father starts to become weird. He strives for perfection, and Jack wants to know why. Not knowing what he's getting himself into, Jack goes on a mission to try to discover what is going on in Paradise. What he discovers was never what he imagined.

An exciting book that shows just how far some people will go....

oh my god remember THIS hot mess

This book is literally written like a robot wrote it. I've never read something so terribly written. It feels like a ten-year-old trying to imitate adult writing wrote this. know a girl who was writing better stuff than this at ten. I'm pretty sure I wrote something better than this at age ten.

Every single character is a trope. The grandmother can kick your ass. The brother is a complete fuckboy. The dad is a creep. The mom is a robot. I mean that literally, she's replaced by a robot halfway through. Every plot twist is completely predictable, to the point where I don't think the author was trying to surprise anyone.

This book is embarrassing. Seriously. I am fucking embarrassed that this got published. And moreover. I'm confused as to how this wasn't a parody? You could've sold this to me as a parody and I would've fucking loved it. But in this form it's hysterical in a bad way.

Blog | Goodreads | Twitter | Instagram | Youtube

This was a bit twisty but the overblown dialogue was a bit much. I'll still read the sequel but just going into it knowing what to expect a bit more. It reminds me of the first Twilight book--you were warned about how badly it was written, and the writing was so horrible. So if you knew that going in then it was possible to enjoy it for just a silly premise. This has the same feeling.

I'd rather go to Paradise and be replaced by an android than read this book.

I don't mean to throw any shade to all those 'Eden fans,' but I have a strong urge to throw this book down a well. Hey! It'll make a yummy snack for the rats living down there.
This book was a good idea, but horrible execution. Did a ten year old pick up a thesaurus and not know how to use it? I will bet you anything that no seventeen year old talks with as exquisite dialogue as Jack does. If I were him, I would ditch the crap and jump over that electrical wire bisch. My teacher obviously doesn't know about the kinds of books that actually appeal to middle schoolers. Just because your friend who lives 30 minutes away wrote this trash, doesn't mean you have to force us to read it. Someone fell asleep during class today. I don't blame them.

When Jack and Troy’s father forces the family to move to Paradise, a community established and operated by his boss, Mr. Eden, the inconsistencies in their family and school lives threaten to overwhelm the boys and their grandmother. Nothing about Paradise rings true and as the family struggles to understand their new environment they run into extremely violent reactions from their father.

This book has many suprises (i trying not to give thme away) and the story play is new for me i haven't seen it other books.

Genre: Science Fiction

Quarter One

How many questions does this book raise? Here are some:

1. Why do books for young adults always have an unusually high number of photographs on the cover? I am quite serious when I say this--I have seen more fiction books of this kind with full facial photographs on the front than I have seen fiction books in other genres with any cover photographs.

2. Has anyone considered whether the low standards of YA novels might jeopardize the imaginations of their readers? By "most YA novels", I do not mean Harry Potter, Inheritance, or The Hunger Games, but rather this work, Twilight, Percy Jackson, and the plethora of derivative works that seem to propagate in the genre faster and more catastrophically than rabbits in New Zealand.

3. Someone in their review of this book mentioned that this book would work well for reluctant readers. I am not sure whether this is really true or not, but if so, why do so many books for reluctant readers have to be stale and derivative to the highest degree?

(More to come...)

Jane asked me to read this book because she thinks it is "the best book ever." I can see why she likes it--action, science fiction weirdness, big unresolved question at the end. I enjoyed it. Mostly enjoyed that my kid wanted me to read it.

Stupid cover but EXCELLENT story!