Eden’s Everdark

Following her botanist mother’s death, 12-year-old Eden Gardener travels with her father to her mother’s birthplace, which her mom mysteriously left following a grave injury at age 12. On Safina Island, off the coast of Georgia, Eden meets her extended maternal relations—descendants of the formerly enslaved inhabitants who’ve owned the north side of the island since the Civil War’s end—as they prepare to celebrate the anniversary of purchasing the land. She encounters, too, a bevy of frightening creatures in her mother’s childhood sketchbook, including a hauntingly beautiful witch in a spirit world known as Everdark. After passing into Everdark through a dark portal, Eden learns that the Witch of Everdark wants to take Eden as her own daughter; it will require all of Eden’s wits, and the magic she inherited from her mother, to escape. Strong (Just South of Home) sets an impeccable scene, imbuing Safina Island with a turbulent history and fully fleshed culture that stands in stark relief to Everdark’s opulence. Though interactions can have an RPG feel, undercutting character connection, Strong portrays the island’s mythos, and Everdark’s extraordinary dangers, to bone-chilling perfection. Ages: 8–12. Agent: Patrice Caldwell, New Leaf Literary & Media. (Sept.)