Eden's Everdark: 02/26/25

Eden's Everdark by Karen Strong (2022) begins as a road trip for a daughter to grieve her recently dead mother while visiting her home and relatives. They go to Safina Island where her mother's family has lived for generations.

Like many island based novels the first conceit is that people don't leave the island. You're either from the island or you're from away and are not to be trusted. Children of those who left are a special kind of trouble, akin to changelings. Eden is one of these not quite island people but she carries her mother's shine.

The other piece of the set up is a spooky old house, now abandoned, tied up in local lore. It's said there's a witch who lives there — or lived there. It's said that the man who built the house was poisoned by his wife. It's said to be haunted. It's said to be tied up in the darker aspects of the island and the sketches done by Eden's late mother seem to bear witness to these legends.

A mysterious, insular island community with a spooky old house initially put me in mind for Sea Change by Aimee Friedman (2009). Except instead of selkies, I was expecting mermaids or sirens, like in The Deep by Rivers Solomon (2019) or The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste (2015). Instead we get something more like Coraline (2002) but with Black folklore as the foundation.

Eden is lured in or accidentally wanders into the Everdark version of Safina Island where she is captured and forced to join the "family" of the witch currently residing in the mansion in this parallel version. The witch and everyone (except for Eden) she has captured is dead but not passed on. They can neither reunite with their departed family for the afterlife nor can they be claimed by the Old Buzzard. They are stuck to relive a certain moonlit night in themes and variations.

There's no easy way out for Eden. She has lose before she can even begin to fight. It's a dark, scary, and depressing response to the COVID outbreak in 2020 as the author explains in the afterword. It's also commentary on the inevitability of death and our many stories humanity has made to cope with that truth.

But it's also about the strength we get from knowing our ancestors and their stories. For Eden she has hope and a way out of the Everdark even after she loses. I was grateful for the happy ending.

Eden's Everdark also sits on the Road Narrative Spectrum. Eden as the only living character in the Everdark is an orphan traveler (FF). Her destination is utopia, the no-place of the Everdark (FF). Her route there is the maze (CC) as represented by the numerous dead ends and traps and the fact that she loses (albeit temporarily).

Five stars

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