The Gardener

By S. A. Bodeen

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?
The Gardener is a 2011 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
• Release date: May 25, 2010
• ISBN: 9781429947732

S. A. Bodeen

S. A. Bodeen is the author of The Garden and The Compound, which earned her an ALA Quick Pick for Young Adults, a Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year, and a Publishers Weekly "Flying Start." She is also the author of several picture books, including Elizabeti's Doll, winner of the Ezra Jack Keats Award. Bodeen grew up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin. Her first friends were cows, which she named after characters in books. From there she went on to be a Peace Corps volunteer in East Africa, and has lived in seven states, as well as a remote Pacific island. She adores books and is a big fan of cheese. She lives in Oregon.

Book preview

PROLOGUE

THE VIDEOTAPE OF MY FATHER WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE SEEN by me, and were it not for a chow mix ripping apart half my face, the man might have remained only a mysterious void. But it was that day when I was five, that day of growls and blood and pain and screams, when I first heard my father’s voice.

That morning ten years ago, I waited on the sidewalk for the kindergarten bus. Next door, the Sheffers’ dog, Packer, sniffed for a good place on the lawn to poop. I’d known him since he was a pup, and it was my daily ritual to call his name and pet him before the bus arrived. But that day, when my blue untied sneaker touched his lawn, he attacked, charging at me with vicious speed. As I fell backward onto the grass, there was only time for a small squeak to escape my lips: a sound way too tiny for someone to hear, for someone to come running and help. But when my screams started, they were loud enough. Plenty loud enough.

Two screen doors slammed in unison as both Mr. Sheffer and my mother ran outside. A swearing Mr. Sheffer kicked Packer off of me while my mother dropped to her knees, her wide, stricken eyes looking down at me as she said, over and over, My beautiful boy, my beautiful boy, my beautiful boy—

Then Mr. Sheffer shouted at her, For God’s sake, helphim!

Snapping out of it, my mother scooped me up and threw me over her shoulder, the front part of me hanging halfway down her back. As she ran with gasping sobs toward the garage, the driveway bounced below me, blood falling from my face, leaving shiny red flowers to bloom on the concrete.

After laying me on the front seat, my head in her lap, she drove to the hospital, screeching around the corners so fast I had to put my hand on the console to keep from falling. In the emergency room, there were whispers mixed in with my mother’s frantic pleas and my whimpers and cries, as hands held me down to clean out my wound. The doctor plunged long needles into my face to numb it before he started stitching.

By then, there was no more pain. My eyes wouldn’t stay open. I just lay there, eyes shut, feeling an occasional tug on my face as my mother clasped my hand in both of hers.

Ninety-seven stitches. He’s lucky. The doctor’s voice was a practiced calm. No damage to the facial nerves.

He left out the small detail that the damage was too close to those facial nerves to ever risk reconstructive surgery, and one side of my face would look like Frankenstein, but hey, I was lucky.

After the emergency room, my mother drove me home. Her hand shook as she turned up the volume of a Sesame Street tune for me, and the inside of the car had a metallic smell. Half of my face was bandaged, including my right eye, which Packer’s teeth had narrowly missed. So I peered out my left eye, afraid to move my head, as one of my hands gripped a purple Saf-T-Pop.

My prize for the day.

At home, Mom carried me to the couch and propped me up on a couple of pillows. I still sniffled from crying so much, but thanks to the meds, I was in no pain. Mom kept pacing from room to room, wringing her hands when she wasn’t blowing her nose and wiping away tears. After what seemed like a long time, she finally stopped and looked at me. She sighed and shook her head, then went into her room and came back out with a videotape. She slid it into the VCR and sat on the edge of the couch beside me.

With my left eye, I studied her pale, tear-streaked face. Her voice was low and calm. Mason. I know I’ve always told you your father was … gone. But it’s not true. He just can’t be your father right now.

Being five, of course I asked when he could be my father, but she didn’t answer. Just played the tape for me. A recording of a man in a green shirt, shown only as a torso, reading The Runaway Bunny. He could have been anyone from anywhere. His voice was not unique, no trace of an accent. Except for the blue butterfly tattooed on his right forearm, nothing about him was distinguishable. Not exactly the father I’d been dreaming about. But I was five and I’d just been scarred for life. And he said the word son before he started to read.

So I snuggled against my mom and listened. Really hard.

And when Mr. Sheffer took poor Packer out back, I didn’t even hear the gunshot.

ONE

IN THE LAST HOUR OF THE DAY, MR. HOGAN’S SOPHOMORE biology class gathered around to watch the small, green-dotted frilly snail slime its way up my arm. Taller than everyone, I looked down on heads as smells drifted up. To my left, someone had taco breath from lunch. And somewhere to my right was definitely the culprit who’d ripped the little sample of men’s cologne out of the school library’s latest issue of Sports Illustrated.

Hogan rolled his wheelchair closer. Fridays were T-shirt day for the teachers if they paid a buck to the party fund in the office, and his declared SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE! So this intertidal nudibranch is not just any marine snail.

Looks like it has a little green wig, said one of the girls.

Our teacher continued. This snail can photosynthesize. Which means?

As always, Miranda Collins blurted out the answer before anyone else could. When a plant uses sunlight to make its own food. Suck-up.

But this isn’t a plant. I couldn’t tell who said that, but I was wondering the same thing.

Aha, we have a genius! Hogan pointed at the snail. That is not a plant. But it eats zooxanthellae, organisms that eat algae. And algae, of course, are plants.

That makes no sense. Although my eyes were on the snail, I felt heads turn up in my direction and it got quiet. Odd for teenagers, but it probably had to do with the fact that, after the dog incident, I didn’t speak in school until fifth grade. I’m not sure if it was due to the trauma, although that’s what both the speech pathologist and school psychiatrist told my mom. I think it was more a matter of my not having much to say. But since then, when I did open my mouth in class, it was still considered a bit of a novelty, I guess, because everyone tended to get quiet and listen. I mean, I eat plants, but I can’t photosynthesize. Humans are… I searched for the word we’d just learned that describes organisms that have to get their nutrients from other organisms. Heterotrophic. We can’t feed ourselves.

Hogan nodded. Exactly. The zooxanthellae evolved so they could retain the cells of the algae, which are responsible for photosynthesis. Evolution, anyone?

Changes that take place in a species over time. Miranda again.

Exactly. And so in the case of the zooxanthellae, you are what you eat. They became autotrophic. Self-feeders. And the nudibranchs have evolved to do the same thing.

Mr. Hogan? Miranda Collins waved her hand. Is this on the quiz?

He growled at her. Not everything is on the quiz, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth knowing.

I moved my arm closer and stared at the snail. So why is this worth knowing?

Well, technically, this proves that an organism can turn autotrophic. He pointed at my arm. Skin graft those snails all over your body in a sunny climate and eventually you wouldn’t have to eat or drink ever again.

A few of the girls let out groans and prolonged ewwwws, while some of the boys laughed.

No, thanks. I like cheeseburgers too much. I gently picked the snail off my arm and set it in the glass tank on Hogan’s desk.

Thanks, Mason. Hogan rolled back behind his desk as we took our seats. Anyone heard of Giri Bala?

Most of us either shook our heads or didn’t respond at all.

With a remote, he turned on the projector, starting a black-and-white PowerPoint. The first grainy photo showed two old women wrapped in loose, robe-type garments. This is India, 1936. The woman on the right is Giri Bala, born in 1868.

Jack Meacham sat across the aisle from me. We’d been best friends since kindergarten. Kids had kind of shied away when I stopped speaking, but Jack talked so much he didn’t seem to notice I wasn’t saying anything. And when we started doing stuff at my house or his, he realized I did have things to say. But in school, he spoke for both of us until fifth grade, when I finally started talking again. I’d gradually outgrown him, and everyone else, by about eighty pounds and six inches. Two pairs of his Levi’s sewn together might just encase one of my thighs. He raised his hand. Who was she?

Hogan grinned. "You mean who is she?"

Jack glanced at me, and then lines appeared between his eyebrows. If she was born in 1868, she’d be, like…

I could see him doing the math in his head. Although Jack had high aspirations to become a doctor, he struggled in school. Not for lack of trying. He was really smart but just had some kind of mental block on test days. He shook his head slightly. Well, she’d be way over one hundred. Impossible.

Maybe not. Hogan clasped his hands together. At the time this photo was taken, Giri Bala had not eaten for fifty-six years.

The class erupted with sounds of disbelief. I even let loose with a No way.

Holding up his hand for silence, Hogan explained. She supposedly used a yoga technique that allowed her to get her energy from the sun. The leader of her province actually locked her in a room for several days with no food or water, and she was perfectly fine. And some people say she’s still alive.

The next picture came up, a view of Moscow and the Kremlin. There’s a group of people living in Moscow who claim to be autotrophs. They started out as vegans, gradually stopped eating all food, and now claim they neither eat nor drink.

I shook my head as someone called out, That’s crazy.

Maybe so. Hogan nodded. But one scientist claims he can take a human, put him in a tropical climate, and turn his body into a living solar cell within two years.

Jack raised his hand. Even in classes like Hogan’s, where we were allowed to just speak up if we had something productive to say, Jack still raised his hand every time he had something to say. But why would you want to do that? Save your lunch money or something?

Hogan smiled. Think about it, Jack. Imagine having an army you don’t have to feed or water.

The bell rang. Don’t forget, quiz on Monday! A few groans erupted, and before I could get up, Hogan called my name. See me after class.

I asked Jack if he could give me a ride home.

He nodded and said, Meet you in the parking lot.

Everyone filed out and I went up to the front. Hogan held up a sheet I recognized, the application form for the TroDyn summer science program. He shook it at me. You know the deadline is coming up for this?

TroDyn Industries was a huge scientific complex on a hundred acres looking over Melby Falls. Mainly working on environmental sustainability projects, the company supported the town. Although they didn’t employ many townspeople at their lab facilities, TroDyn owned most of the businesses, including the nursing home where my mom worked, and they paid for a lot of equipment and supplies at the school. I’d read about the summer program, and Hogan had told us about it several times. My mom would never go for it. She’s not a TroDyn fan. It might just be a case of not liking the company responsible for your sucky job, but she had no lack of bad things to say about them.

Hogan tapped the paper with a finger. If you do the summer program, you’ll have a good shot at the TroDyn scholarship. His eyes met mine, but not in a forced way. I mean, some people stare at my scar. I don’t mind, at least it’s honest, and when they’ve seen enough, they meet my eyes. But the ones who lock eyes with me, those are the dishonest ones. You can almost hear them chanting to themselves Don’t look at his scar, don’t look at his scar. Hogan’s eyes met mine the way his eyes met anyone else’s.

I shrugged. I’m not really sure about college.

Mason, come on. Hogan waved the paper. You’re one of the smartest kids I’ve ever had in class.

Miranda Collins is smarter.

Hogan rolled his eyes. I suspect Miranda Collins gets A’s because she spends three hours a night memorizing textbooks. Probably polishes a lot of apples while she’s at it. A potato could do that and get A’s. You actually understand this stuff. You get it. You need to go to college and learn more.

I didn’t say anything.

They’ll cover all your college expenses through grad school. They would pay for Stanford.

I rolled my eyes. Like I’d get into Stanford.

I’ve seen your standardized test scores. On the SAT, you’ll smoke kids like Miranda Collins. You’ll get in. He flipped the paper onto the desk, where it settled next to the stapler. All they ask in return is that you commit to working five years in their labs.

Other than getting my mom on board, I didn’t see the problem with that. I looked around at his biology room, my favorite place in the school. The shelves were lined with not only glossy books but pristine specimens in glass jars of whatever the liquid was that replaced formaldehyde. I’d always been drawn to the framed glass cases that housed expensive collections of bugs and butterflies and spiders. A bank of desktop computers lined one wall, and I knew them to be loaded with more biological research software than most college libraries held, courtesy of TroDyn.

I’d be lying to say I didn’t want to go to college. I’d also be lying to say I didn’t really really like biology. Going to Stanford to study biology, on a full ride no less, would be a dream come true. But it wasn’t easy for me to put my dreams out for everyone to see. I preferred to keep them to myself so only I was disappointed when they didn’t happen. That way, I didn’t have to have people telling me how sorry they were for me. I’d had enough of that to last my entire life.

Trying to shift the focus, I asked, Do they bribe you to talk kids into this?

He held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. You’re right. I mean, you can probably get a scholarship another way. Not to Stanford, but you’re the best offensive tackle Melby Falls has seen in a while.

I saw his point. Yeah, that just might pay for my books at a junior college. I picked up the application, pretending to read as if I’d never seen it before, when actually there was one half filled out in my locker, plus three extras at home, hidden in my copy of last year’s

Reviews for The Gardener

[vernefan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Future Steps in Evolution for the Fate of MankindAlthough S.A. Bodeen?s new sci-fi thriller The Gardener is somewhat predictable in its plot layout due to the cover subtitle blurb telling you outright what the story entails, and is formulaic in its execution, this new novel is still an outstanding science fiction read for teens and adults alike. This thought provoking book allows the reader to think ahead to the future of the human race and to the many problems our descendants will face regarding declining food supplies caused by the increasing warnings of global warming and over population that are rapidly depleting the world?s resources. Mason, a 15 year old biology enthusiast is raised in Oregon by a single mom who works at a mysterious facility called The Haven of Peace in which Mason has always been led to believe was a rest home for the elderly. He never knew his dad, the only experience of his father he ever had was a short home movie on a DVD that his mother gave him, that shows his faceless father reading to him from a children?s book, The Runaway Bunny. One night while visiting his mom for the first time at the Haven, he finds a group of comatose like teenagers being cared for by his mother. As she steps away for a minute leaving Mason alone, one of the young girls wakes up while Mason is passing the time watching is dad?s DVD. The girl seems to have reacted and awoken by listening to the words from Runaway Bunny. Laila, an angelic like teenager girl, fascinates Mason, and as she comes to life she pleads with him to take her away from there, to help her escape, that the ?Gardener is coming!?From this point on this creative young adult novel becomes a fast-paced sci-tech thrill ride as Mason and his best friend Jack, hijack Laila to a mountain cabin and soon realize they have gotten in over their heads and have embarked on a terrifying journey into the world of genetic engineering, and a lab experiment gone haywire created by scientists hell-bent on solving the problem of future starvation on planet Earth. As both Mason and Laila uncover horrifying mysteries surrounding both their pasts that reveal clues of their parents startling involvement with a company called TroDyn, the reader is caught up in issues of right and wrong, morals and values amidst the world of biology and genetics, and will wonder just what is ethical when planning the future survival of our children and the generations to come. The Gardener is enjoyable, fun, well written and creative. I give it high points for innovation alone. And, it appears, for once, a stand-alone book and not an installment of a multi-book series which in itself is a breath of fresh air!

[mybookaffair · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The best part of this book for me was the strong male's point of view. Not that Mason never showed emotion because he did, though it never came across as cheesy or over the top. He does have his issues, quite a few actually. However, I didn't feel that he was really whiny about them. Mostly he just seemed matter of fact. Like this is the life I've been dealt, now let's deal with it. I think the issue that he has the most trouble with is not knowing anything about his father. Luckily, he has a great best friend Jack, and he helps Mason maintain some fun and spontaneity in his otherwise boring small town life. Jack also tries to keep Mason grounded when things take a turn for the strange. The Gardener was a fast paced read that left me thinking about the world and the things we do in the name of science for days after I had read it. I definitely recommend it, especially if you enjoy speculative fiction (Fiction that extrapolates from some phenomenon or theory and postulates "What if?".) If you are looking for a guy to love, some romance on the run, twisted with a bit of mystery, then I think you will enjoy this as much as I did.

[piersanti-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A rather spooky idea for a book, but it's told very well by the author.

[abbylibrarian_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Mason's always had some questions about his past. He never knew his father and his mom is suspiciously quiet about a mysterious college fund that's been set aside for him. When Mason finds the beautiful girl locked away in the rest home where his mom works, something sparks. He knows he has to save her, no matter the cost. But the girl, part of an experiment designed to save humankind, will change everything. Somewhat predictable and the writing didn't particularly stand out to me, but I didn't want to put it down. The plot is pretty thrilling and it'll please teens looking for a diversion. It reminded me of an old-school Christopher Pike novel and I would have loved this when I was about 13.

[sullywriter_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Not as twisted or intense as The Compound but gripping thriller nonethelesse with an intriguing premise and lots of cliffhangers.

[lilibrarian · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A scientific company is the main employer in Mason's small town. His mother works in a nursing home they run. One night Mason goes to visit her at work, meets a beautiful and mysterious girl and finds himself on the run with her.

[ramonawray · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The concept was unlike everything I read in the past few years, WOW being the best way to describe it. Very predictable, though. I saw the twists and turns coming and I was little surprised by where it led. I guess that, past the scientific references, it falls under 'light reading' from my point of view. I liked Mason, overall, there were enough sides to him to keep things interesting. And the plot moved at a decent pace. But the concept ... I'll say it again. Wow!

[librarybrandy · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Could have been really interesting, but gets bogged down in its infodumps. And I don't care for this author's writing style.

[monsterofbooks · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Simply a irresistible & captivating read. S.A Bodeen does a great job at taking an important topic, and turning it into something uniquely new. I literally could not put this book down, and when I did I was left thinking about it afterwords.The most fascinating thing about this book, is you really felt that you were on the run from something. Everything was fast, there was no time to catch your breath. And I loved that!! I really did!! The characters were all fantastic, and I didn't hate a single one of them. My favorites were Mason & the girl (I won't say her name, since that might be a bit of a spoiler). Mason was your typical, nice guy. He is similar to one of my friends. He is the tall, love-able type (even with is scary scar on his face). And he always wants to do the right thing. Which did get him confused at times, but made him the first male protagonist (that I've read) who isn't turned down by how popular/uncool he is or how strong/weak he is.This book is a page-turner. The writing, dialogue, characters, realism and so fourth was perfect. I can't find anything that I hated about this book, or bugged me. Yes the identity of The Gardener is a bit obvious, but who was the real antagonist blew me off guard.Overall, this is a great and easy read that you can definitely do in one sitting. The novel will make you think and wonder. And the ending, will most certainly leave you screaming for more.

[austinr.g3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is about a kid who was attacked by a dog finds his way of life. In the beginning Mason is attacked by a "friendly dog" in which he used to pet everyday. Later when he is in high school he is offered a summer job at TroDyn. Mason's mom says that he cant go so he goes to her job so he can talk to her about going. Then he finds a girl sleeping. Mason was really scared so he played a video of his long-lost dad reading a book. One line in the book woke the girl up. Then Mason goes on the run with his friend to protect the girl form the gardener (masons dad) who grew her. I gave this book a rating of 3 and a half stars because this book was interesting. However there were some parts of this book that I think should be left out. These part were a little inappropriate. for example the girl didn't know how to get dressed so she asked Mason for help. Mason looked at her bare back which I thought that was uncalled for. Otherwise this was a good book. if there is another I would like to read it.

[redfrn · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Although predictable, this novel does raise some good questions about survival of the fittest. I was reminded of The Matrix while reading this one!

[tjsjohanna_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book sits on the edge between realistic fiction and science fiction which makes it seem more probable. There's an enjoyable amount of suspense as Mason untangles the mystery of his own life in pursuing answers about Laila. I couldn't help wondering how the solution to famine in this book was really a solution though.

[thepageturners · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Mason has applied for a internship at TroDyn, in hopes of getting a scholarship after graduation. But his mother is totally against Mason having anything to do with TroDyn. Mason soon learns of the experimentation going on at TroDyn and how close it is to him.Things to make you go hummm. Invasion to the body snatchers w/o the aliens.

[mirandalg14 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Interesting concept. Sure would save a lot of time.

[bettymc_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Don't even read the back of the book. It tells too much. Best you discover for yourself.I was grabbed from the first page by the protagonist, Mason, raised by a single mother. At age five, he sees a videotape of his father, the same day his face is disfigured by a dog. He grows to be a large 15-year-old football player who protects the underdogs. Mason is encouraged by his biology teacher to apply for a special summer program. But his mother says, "NO!" From there, it becomes a high-speed chase through the book.While reading, I kept thinking this would be a great movie. The author touches upon some moral issues in our society; I won't name those issues -- again, better you read for yourself.The only disappointment I had was the epilogue, everything was wrapped up down pat in a paragraph or two, leaving me to wonder how did this happen? At the end, I had to downgrade this book from 5 stars to 4.

[skstiles612 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fifteen year old Mason has a disfigured face from a dog mauling when he was five years old. That is when his mother played the DVD of his father for him. Because of his disfigurement, Mason goes out of his way to help people. Maybe it is to help them see him for something other than his face. He loves athletics and Biology. He is encouraged to intern where his mother works but she has put her foot down. It is because of secrets she has been keeping from him? When he visits four of his mother's patients, who just happen to be four teens in a coma he decides to play the DVD of his father for them. One of them, the beautiful Laila wakes up and convinces him she must escape. He helps her, curious as to the reason she has circle shaped scars on the back of her legs. What has happened to the world to create someone like Laila? Read the book and find out.

[tbert204_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Great premise for YA sci-fi. But falls short for a couple reasons. Number one, the publisher gave too much away with the cover. Don't get me wrong, it's a great cover, one of the reasons I picked it up, but it reveals they're growing humans. So right from the beginning, I know any potential surprises. It felt very predictable from the beginning. The cover could've shown a sparkly face looking up at a light, maybe in a greenhouse, or something so I don't know the entire premise from the onset because the story lacks genuine unknown turns. I found it easy to speed read without missing much. The second reason I think this great premise falls short is in the storytelling. Bodeen unveils the majority of the plot through telling. Dr. Emerson tells us. Mom tells us. Dad tells us. Eve tells us. There was so much more potential for showing this story, to let the characters discover humans beings growing in a lab rather than conversation. 2 stars because the premise is a good one.

[stephxsu · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Mason lives with his mother, and the only thing he knows of his father is a faceless figure reading from a children’s book on a DVD. His mother first played it for him when Mason was younger and had his face mauled by a dog, and since then it’s always been comforting for him.When Mason plays the DVD in front of a group of comatose teens his mother is carrying for on her job, one of them, a beautiful girl, miraculously wakes up. She immediately warns Mason that they have to run away from TroDyn, the company based in town. Who is this mysterious girl with the horrifying scars all down the backs of her legs, and what does TroDyn want with her? As Mason aids the girl in evading TroDyn, he stumbles across a shocking experiment that might change the future of mankind…I have not yet read S.A. Bodeen’s first book, THE COMPOUND, although I’ve heard it’s excellent in an almost creepy way. And after reading THE GARDENER, I’m willing to read anything she writes. THE GARDENER is a high-quality sci-fi thriller that will appeal to both male and female readers.Mason is a readily understandable and likable protagonist. Scarred from a young age, this hulking football player nevertheless has something akin to a hero complex: he will go to great lengths to help others out, and once he starts helping he won’t stop until it’s finished. The uniqueness of his character makes his subsequent adventures with the girl and TroDyn follow almost naturally. He’s the perfect protagonist, with bits of both underdog and hero in him.THE GARDENER rides the line between sci-fi and dystopian. The futuristic aspects of this novel are well-researched and presented in a reasonably comprehensible manner: the book isn’t striving to educate us on biotechnology, but it also doesn’t plop us into the middle of a woefully underdeveloped world. We can figure out everyone’s motivations—with the exception of the story’s true villain, who pops up rather suddenly and with little preparation.THE GARDENER isn’t perfect, with its caricaturesque villain and uneven pacing, but it is nevertheless a satisfying read that had me on the edge of my seat and flipping pages far into the night. I highly recommend this book if you’re looking for a unisex “softcore” sci-fi thriller.

[br14nama · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Gardner By S. A. Bodeen truly brought me into the mix of science fiction and realistic fiction. On a visit to the nursing home in which his mother works, Mason, the main character of the book, discovers that her mothers job does not involve caring for the elderly patients as he imagined, but for several teenagers who, look like teenagers but are actually science experiments. When his mother steps away from the experiments, Mason accidentally awakens teens awakens in response to a DVD that he puts on. Mason has had that DVD since he was a kid and shows this wieid guy that talks directly to Mason. The human experiment 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 evil scientific corporation that owns the town Mason lives in. It has been using the girl as part of some sort of research to help mankind—but what kind of research? And is there a way Mason can find his father that Mason has never even met before, even when he is sixteen years old?Bodeen made a lovely book that drowned me with a powerful voice that is meant to be heard. The tone of voice in the whole book is by far anything I have read. I have read The Compound, another great work of hers, but that doesn't even compare to the power she puts into every word of this book. A great book to read. But, it gets a little predictable at times, a hated thing for me. Also, she put some words and phrases that were a little uninteresting to me. But, overall, I think Bodeen did a good job on this, even though there were some bumps on the road to reading this. A good well thought out book.

[flashlight_reader · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Mary, Mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow? With silver bells and cockle shells, and people all in a row. Not exactly the nursery rhyme that we remember from our childhood, right? In S.A. Bodeen’s The Gardener, this is exactly the type of garden found inside of The Greenhouse at TroDyn Labs. The story begins when Mason, the protagonist in the story, is attacked by the neighbor’s dog while waiting for the school bus, leaving his face disfigured. To soothe him, his mother pulls out a DVD of a man reading the children’s book The Runaway Bunny. The voice on the DVD belongs to his father. Throughout his life Mason wonders who his father is, but he never finds any new information. The only reminder of his dad is the DVD that he carries with him. When Mason visits his mother at her job, he discovers that she is the care-taker for a group of catatonic teenagers. His is mesmerized by one girl’s beauty and lack of response. Disturbed by recent events, he puts the DVD in to the DVD player only to find that his favorite part of the book is a trigger to waken the girl from her sleep state. From there, Mason “rescues” the girl and begins his quest to discover her identity. However, the girl isn’t much help because she can’t remember anything about her life or how to perform basic functions (i.e. eating, changing clothes). The rescue seems fairly simple until the girl awakens in the middle of the night with a nightmare about a gardener, and then senses people lurking outside of the cabin that they are hiding in. So begins the game of hide and seek. Eventually, Mason meets an ex-TroDyn scientist at a book signing. The scientist, Dr. Emerson instantly recognizes the girl as Laila, an experiment on sustainability conducted by the lab. The discovery of Laila’s identity does not bring the sense of peace that Mason hoped for. Instead, he finds himself face to face with a disturbing discovery. TroDyn is conducting research on alternate forms of sustainability, but they are using humans as the test subjects! “The Greenhouse” isn’t for growing plants and alternate food sources; it is for growing a genetically altered race of humans. Stranger still, the “Gardener” responsible for the experiments seems to know a lot more about Mason than he feels comfortable with. After finishing this book, I had mixed feelings. The final 30 pages or so were pretty intense (and highly disturbing). Throughout the book I followed along with Mason and Laila as they tried to solve the mystery of Laila’s identity. For the most part I followed the twists and turns, but it seemed like the loose ends found too neat of an ending. As soon as Mason met Dr. Emerson all of his questions were answered. It only took about three pages. That was disappointing. There seemed to be a huge build up to who (or what) Laila was, and then poof, the mystery was solved. I would have liked to see Mason struggle with his hero complex a little more. More chase scenes would have been nice too. The TroDyn workers gave up too easily after the near miss at the cabin. I felt that if Laila was such a valuable commodity, there should at least be a valid chase. Alas, there was not. On a positive note, however, the concept of the book was something straight out of a Hollywood horror film. The thought of scientists growing people to be a genetically altered race of humans was disturbing (to say the least). Some of the concepts seemed a little far-fetched, but the premise behind the experiments made sense. Producing a group of humans that could make their own nutrients from the sun (like plants) would solve the problem of diminishing natural resources and wide spread famine—both of which are actual problems that we face. It was certainly a unique solution to a viable problem. Also, I enjoyed some of the characters in the book. Although it seemed likely to sympathize with Mason and Laila, they really didn’t move me. I didn’t feel much for them one way or another. In fact, I felt neutral. However, I did respond to Eve and the Gardener—two of the most disturbing characters I have ever read about. I find it very ironic that Eve has the name that she does. She certainly does not invoke the image of the Eve that first came to my mind. This Eve is pure evil. She manipulates situations, lies, tries to kill people, and even donated her own child to the research for a chance at immortality! Not exactly the Biblical image I associate Eve with. The author does a good job of showing her as a cold, uncaring person. Upon the first encounter with her that is exactly the feeling that I got. In contrast, the Gardener was pitiful. Throughout the book you are made to think that the Gardener is a horrible monster. When I finally met his character, I found myself feeling pity for him. He seemed weak and lonely, but at the same time compassionate. After all, his experiment started as a way to eliminate starvation because he was once a child who suffered the effects of famine in a third-world country. Overall, I enjoyed this book. I don’t tend to enjoy science-fiction, but this was a surprisingly good read for me. The book’s originality earns an A+ for concept, but the characters waiver between mediocre and lackluster for me. The plot moved quickly enough to make it an easy read, but it seemed underdeveloped at times. I ended up giving it a 3 ½ since it did make me think about the positive and negative of scientific advancements and the tendency to exploit discoveries for personal gain. If there ends up being a sequel to this book I would read it, just to see what happens to Laila when she stabilizes.

[missboyer3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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?