From the Bookshelf of Apocalypse Whenever…

The Gardener

S.A. Bodeen

Why we're reading this: Mason has never known his father, but longs to. All he has of him is a DVD of a man whose face is never s…more
[close] Mason has never known his father, but longs to. All he has of him is a DVD of a man whose face is never seen, reading a children's book. One day, on a whim, he plays the DVD for a group of comatose teens at the nursing home where his mother works. One of them, a beautiful girl, responds. Mason learns she is part of a horrible experiment intended to render teenagers into autotrophs--genetically engineered, self-sustaining life-forms who don't need food or water to survive. And before he knows it, Mason is on the run with the girl, and wanted, dead or alive, by the mysterious mastermind of this gruesome plan, who is simply called the Gardener.

Will Mason be forced to destroy the thing he's longed for most?

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Dec 02, 2009 Jennifer Wardrip rated it liked it

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Reviewed by Karin Librarian for TeensReadToo.com

Will there ever be a day when the world runs out of food? What if the entire planet was facing starvation? Should scientists be trying anything and everything to find a solution to this possible problem? Some think they should.

The reader will know, just by looking at the cover, what the major plot of the story involves and that, paired with the very clear foreshadowing in the beginning chapters, leaves no question. S.A. Bodeen again deals with cont Reviewed by Karin Librarian for TeensReadToo.com

Will there ever be a day when the world runs out of food? What if the entire planet was facing starvation? Should scientists be trying anything and everything to find a solution to this possible problem? Some think they should.

The reader will know, just by looking at the cover, what the major plot of the story involves and that, paired with the very clear foreshadowing in the beginning chapters, leaves no question. S.A. Bodeen again deals with controversial issues involving medical ethics like she did in THE COMPOUND.

Mason doesn't know his father. The closest Mason has come to seeing him is a video of his dad reading The Runaway Bunny, but even the video doesn't show his father's face - only his hands turning the pages of the book. The only visible, distinguishing mark is a blue butterfly tattoo on his father's arm.

Mason's uneventful life is transformed one night when he goes to confront his mother about the secrets she's been keeping. His mother works at a nursing home, so he is surprised to find she is taking care of four comatose teenagers. After his mother is called away for a meeting, Mason puts in the video of his father reading The Runaway Bunny. He is shocked when one of the teenagers starts talking - a beautiful girl about his age. She is scared to death and feels the need to escape, and Mason can't stand the thought of abandoning her.

The events that follow lead Mason and the girl into unknown territory. She doesn't remember much about where she came from or even her name. The only thing she knows is the intense fear she feels when she thinks about going back and seeing the Gardener, but when her health starts failing Mason has no choice but to take her back. What he discovers changes his life forever.

I was hoping THE GARDENER would be creepier than it was. It really had the potential to be...after all, the tag on the cover says, "This Greenhouse...Grows Humans." Come on, doesn't that sound creepy?

THE GARDENER is a fast-paced story, and even though I wanted it to be scarier, it was still fun to read. ...more

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