My synopsis of The Gardener:
Mason is a young boy, age 15, who lives alone with his mother. Mason has never known his father. The only proof Mason has that his father even exists is a DVD where his father is being filmed, but it only shows him from the neck down. In the DVD Mason's father is reading from a story book for little children, the DVD is Masons most treasured belonging.
Masons mother she struggles to keep her job, she has a problem with alcohol and Mason have to make up excuses for her when she has been drinking. Their relationship has been turned upside down, Mason is the parent. One day after Masons mother has gone to work, he makes a discovery that throws some light on his mothers past, she has been hiding important stuff from him for years. When Mason shows up at the nursing home, where his mother works, he ends up by waking a girl from coma. She is scared, really scared and Mason knows he probably should leave her at the nursing home, but how can a hero keep from saving the most beautiful girl he has ever laid eyes on? Something happens at the nursing home and all of the sudden Mason finds himself on the run with a strange girl. When he helps the girl to bed on the first night he notices that she has some bad scares on her calves, what has been done to this girl?
My thoughts:
I loved the main character Mason from the first page. He is a big guy with an ugly scar on one side of his face, he knows how it is to be stared at, to be different but he uses it to his advantage. Mason has rescued other kids in trouble more than one time, the bullies fear him. He is one of the first characters I've come across(as far as I can remember) who isn't a reluctant hero and for that I loved him. Who wouldn't feel good if they could save someone else from trouble?
Mason suddenly finds himself in the middle of a horrible scientific experiment, scientist are trying to create humans who can survive on sunlight. In my opinion Bodeen's plot is original and horrible. One should think this is an experiement going on sometime in the distant future but in the book it is being referred to Al Gore and that tells me that we are operation in the present.
One can literary feel that this could be happening right under our noses,scary thought.
The story floated very well until somewhere in the middle of the book, an introduction of a character somehow didn't sit very well with me. Despite my little problem I highly enjoyed this novel and the ending was just perfect. I might just have to look up Bodeen's first novel, The Compound, one day.
The cover:
I think the cover is eerie and dark and it fits perfectly to the story.
My rating:
4 out of 5 stars.
Want a second opinion? Check out the reviews below written by some of my book blogging friends:
Sophie from So Many Books, So Little Time
Steph Su from Steph Su Reads
Eleni from La Femme Readers
Lauren from I was a teenage book geek
Want to know more?
Visit the authors homepage
Full disclosure:
Received from the publisher for honest review.
This book can be purchased from a number of local retailers and on-line book stores such as Amazon or The Book Depository(I'm not an affiliate).
My thoughts:
I loved the main character Mason from the first page. He is a big guy with an ugly scar on one side of his face, he knows how it is to be stared at, to be different but he uses it to his advantage. Mason has rescued other kids in trouble more than one time, the bullies fear him. He is one of the first characters I've come across(as far as I can remember) who isn't a reluctant hero and for that I loved him. Who wouldn't feel good if they could save someone else from trouble?
Mason suddenly finds himself in the middle of a horrible scientific experiment, scientist are trying to create humans who can survive on sunlight. In my opinion Bodeen's plot is original and horrible. One should think this is an experiement going on sometime in the distant future but in the book it is being referred to Al Gore and that tells me that we are operation in the present.
Al Gore gave them that award last year.
One can literary feel that this could be happening right under our noses,scary thought.
The story floated very well until somewhere in the middle of the book, an introduction of a character somehow didn't sit very well with me. Despite my little problem I highly enjoyed this novel and the ending was just perfect. I might just have to look up Bodeen's first novel, The Compound, one day.
The cover:
I think the cover is eerie and dark and it fits perfectly to the story.
My rating:
4 out of 5 stars.
Want a second opinion? Check out the reviews below written by some of my book blogging friends:
Sophie from So Many Books, So Little Time
Steph Su from Steph Su Reads
Eleni from La Femme Readers
Lauren from I was a teenage book geek
Want to know more?
Visit the authors homepage
Full disclosure:
Received from the publisher for honest review.
This book can be purchased from a number of local retailers and on-line book stores such as Amazon or The Book Depository(I'm not an affiliate).
