After Eden by Helen Douglas

After Eden by Helen Douglad

Publisher: Bloomsbury Childrens Books     
Publication date: November 5th 2013
My rating: 1 star

Eden Anfield loves puzzles, so when mysterious new boy Ryan Westland shows up at her school she's hooked. On the face of it, he's a typical American teenager. So why doesn't he recognise pizza? And how come he hasn't heard of Hitler? What puzzles Eden the most, however, is the interest he's taking in her. 
As Eden starts to fall in love with Ryan, she begins to unravel his secret. Her breakthrough comes one rainy afternoon when she stumbles across a book in Ryan's bedroom - a biography of her best friend - written over fifty years in the future. Confronting Ryan, she discovers that he is there with one unbelievably important purpose ... and she might just have destroyed his only chance of success.

Eh, what a mess this book turned out to be. I'm really disappointed. There were so many things I didn't like. I can't think of any redeeming quality. Nothing. I often get trapped by the cover when requesting books on NG. I must seek help if I play to move from this state. 

Eden's life changes when a new guy shows up at their school. Ryan's a bit weird. He doesn't remember basic historical facts and acts weird, in a way. Eden's best friend Connor hates Ryan because he's been in love with Eden since forever. I was in a similar situation so it's not hard for me to connect with him but here's the thing. Connor was annoying as hell. He was mean to Ryan and even to Eden. I couldn't picture Connor and Eden ever being BFFs, not even in the beginning, before Ryan showed up. Not even my genetically installed always-root-for-the-underdog mind couldn't help me out to feel for Connor. 

Romance was... *sigh* Now I have to explain this too? Oh, why? Well, there's nothing much to say but that the levels of instalove were getting to out of hand. Nothing could save it from disaster. Both Eden and Ryan were bland. 

This is the perfect example of adult writing a book about how to correct a teenager whenever s/he is acting like a brat and that was pretty much the whole time. It's as if Douglas set out to write as many annoying and childish things she could come up with so she could put a line in there of someone telling them it's wrong to talk to people in that way. I'm not sure how many times I came across with lines like- Connor! or Eden! 

Last month I read another time travel novel, All Our Yesterdays and I can't even begin compare them. AOY was more engaging than After Eden.