Review: The Gardener

The Gardener by S.A. Bodeen

 About: On a visit to the nursing home in which his mother works, Mason discovers that her job does not involve caring for the elderly patients as he imagined, but for several apparently catatonic teenagers. When his mother steps away, one of the teens awakens in response to a DVD that he puts on. She suffers from amnesia but somehow knows she must escape her current environment and begs Mason for his help. He suddenly finds himself on the run from TroDyn Industries, the scientific corporation that owns most of his town. It has been using the girl as part of some sort of research—but what kind? And might there be some link to the father Mason has never met?

Review: I started reading this book in amazon quick look and was completely intrigued. I knew I just had to get it from the library and read it immediately. I got through about 1/4 of the book and got really bored. It was predictable, it was boring, and I didn't enjoy it. I always feel bad posting bad reviews but honestly there wasn't a thing I liked about it. Each character sounded the same, I didn't get any type of recognition that these were real people with their own personalities, each one sounded like the author, all the same. The main character Mason was annoying, he complained about this mysterious girl and how all he wanted to do was be with her but there was no connection for me. Even while he was crying about leaving her all I wanted was the chapter to end so I was that much closer to finishing it. I thought there would be more of a twist or more of a plot even but the summary basically gives away exactly what will happen. With just reading the first chapter and the inside flap I knew the outcome of this story. I wasn't impressed with this book, the writing style, characters, plot line, basically everything. I still have The Compound to read and I'm determined to read and finish it to see if Bodeen redeems herself. I feel bad about not having anything good to say about this book, but really, there isn't. Sorry Bodeen.