This was a little weird, but mostly not very polished. The story contradicts itself several times, the world outside the boundary isn't fully explored, and certain elements mature too late to bring much to the plot. The pacing was also weird: I read a bit, wasn't in love, thought about quitting, then noticed what percent my Kindle said was left-- it didn't match up with how far the story "felt" so I kept going. It didn't improve or have any amazing twists, though.

For dystopian survival, look elsewhere: [book:Life As We Knew It|213753] or [book:The End of the World Running Club|33160796] are two suggestions that read better.

Eden’s Return is an entertaining book. It has an interesting idea at its core and the author did something unique with it, even if it wasn’t what the description suggests. I enjoyed the two main characters and some of the development of the world. At the same time, this book leaves the reader with a lot of unanswered questions which is frustrating, and the ending was a bit of a letdown. The novel is a quick read and has some interesting elements, so I’d recommend it to someone looking for a book they can read without having to get too heavily invested in the story along the way.

This was OK. It didn't hold my attention the whole time. Interesting premise and a pretty quick read. This is an experienced author so it's a little surprising this one wasn't better.

Thanks very much for the review copy!!

Between two and a half and 3 stars.

It was a relatively quick read, which echoed Annihilation a lot more initially than I was comfortable with, but thankfully diverged into its own story. I really enjoyed Annihilation and was a bit disappointed that this wasn't so much focused on the mystery of stasis which is what I loved about Annihilation, but more on the people around it.

It is an okay story for the length of the book, but really didn't grab me at all, and the ending really didn't make sense to me and left a lot of loose ends. I wish it was tied up a little more, although I'm not sure if this is the first in a series or what.

A book I failed to love but still enjoyed, kinda.

The synopsis for Eden's return grabbed me and did not let go. It instantly struck me as the possible love child of Tim Lebbon's Eden (and no, not because of the name) and Jeff Vandermeer's Annihilation. Two novels I enjoyed. I just had to get my hands on this book and scratch that itch again. However, Eden's Return was a bit of a love/hate situation for me.

I want to start with what I enjoyed about this book. First of all, the plot was right up my alley. A 'mysterious zone' appears and rejects all humans. The zone weakens and humanity sends in a squad of soldiers to investigate and then they are rejected by the area with deadly consequences. What's not to like about a race against time with life and death as the stakes, am I right? Secondly, the character development for the main characters is good. We get to see the characters change according to the pressures put on them and the changes make sense. They react how we would expect a human to react. Thirdly, I liked the questions that come to mind while reading this story. In my opinion, a good book will always have you asking questions during the story, however, and this leads me nicely onto the parts I didn't enjoy about Eden's Return, and that is that a lot of these questions go unanswered. Which is Frustrating. I don't know if this is the intention of McGeary but personally, I needed the who, what and why answered. I can't go into specifics as it will require me to spoil some of the plot and as we know that is a huge no, no. Naughty spoilers. I also found myself hungry for more world-building. The synopsis tells us that the Stasis is 'a primaeval, unspoiled world' and McGeary does well to build on this bearing in mind that this is a short read but I was left wanting more. This isn't a huge deal-breaker and is more of a personal thing as people, as we know, have varying degrees of imagination and some will happily imagine a hostile, primaeval and unspoiled world with little to no description.

Finally, I want to say that I wished this book was a little longer. The parts I liked I wanted more of and I believe that my faults with Eden's Return would not be so if McGeary had room to expand on several parts.

If like me you enjoyed the natural elements of Eden by Tim Lebbon and the mystery of Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer then this story has the same vibes and will keep you entertained for a while. If you can live with some questions not being answered then this is worth a read however if loose ends annoy you then it's probably best to stay clear.