Book: Eden review
Author: John Cooper
Illustrator: Chris Hunt
Pages: 144
Published: 2019
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Age Suggestion: 13+
Trigger Warnings: Some intense and scary images (including monsters and violence)
Quick Summary:
In a post-apocalyptic world with monsters (known as rowdies), John Cooper keeps having a vision of an opening door and upon waking has glowing lilac eyes. His family starts seeing the vision as well, also getting the glowing eyes. The neighbors start thinking that the the Coopers are causing problems in the neighborhood. A mysterious group of individuals, some of which have the same glowing eyes, come into town and cause great disruptions. What will happen to everyone with glowing eyes? And to those without them?
We suggest the book for fans of the band Skillet, fans of post- apocalyptic stories, and fans of good allegory.
Eden Review
Plot summary (Contains light spoilers)
This is the first graphic novel written by John Cooper, who is the lead singer of the Christian rock band, Skillet. The story follows John and his wife, Korey, and his two children (who are all named after and based on his real life family). The story starts as John keeps having a vision via a dream of a glowing door that progressively opens up a little each night. After having this vision for a while, his eyes start glowing. Soon, his entire family starts seeing the vision and their eyes also start glowing.
The town starts getting attacked by rowdies, monsters that look somewhat like 11 foot naked mole rats with a dozen eyes. Along side this problem, there are also a group of new people who come to town, some of which have golden eyes. This is when we get introduced to Harry Trench who is going around trying to find people with glowing eyes so that a glowing door will open a bit more. Harry comes off as a nice man with good intentions, but ends up making the town susceptible to rowdy attacks.
In the climax of the story, Harry brings together everyone he knows with glowing eyes and is willing to step on and destroy anyone who gets in his way in order to get through the door. Whereas John wants to help his friends whose eyes are not glowing get through the door. The statement “All of us or none of us” becomes the mantra of their team. Who will win and will everyone make it through the door?
Writing/Artwork
Despite the fact that this the John Cooper’s first graphic novel, the writing is very well done. It comes off as natural, realistic, and easy to follow. The artwork of Chris Hunt sets a good tone for the story and matches the style and flow of the story.
Characters/World
This was an interesting read for a fan of the band Skillet because four of your main characters are the four band members. They have the same names and barring a few cyborg improvements, look the same as their real life counter parts. Overall, the characters are well written. There is some good character development with Jen and Seth as they start on the side of Harry and have to come to terms with what his philosophy really is- exclusion, fear and selfishness.
The setting is sometime in the future when Chicago still exists, but so do large, post apocalyptic, flat lands being attacked by rowdies. The town the main story is set in felt like a post-apocalyptic town that had protections set up from the rest of the world. There isn’t a whole lot of backstory that tells you about the world, you’re dropped in and start figuring it out as you read.
Metaphors/lessons
There are a few things in this book that are metaphorical. The biggest one is the opening door from the vision. To us, it was a metaphor for heaven or paradise. They show two different reactions to seeing a bit of paradise. John’s reaction is to try to take all of his friends and loved ones with him while Harry’s reaction is to get there through any cost. This begs the question of what is your willingness to share heaven. Is your instinct to share with others or to keep it to yourself?
Another interesting metaphor that wasn’t quite as obvious as the door was the creatures known as rowdies. At first glance, they seem to be a metaphor for sin, but it becomes less straight forward as the story progresses. The conclusion we came up with was that the rowdies are a metaphor for demons. Throughout different places in the books both the villain and hero hold control over the rowdies. This is analogous to demons in the Bible through being controlled by satan and also Jesus and his followers.
Eden Review Discussion questions:
- If you were shown a door to paradise, how would you react? Would you try to get in as soon as possible or try to bring lots of people with you?
- When are we most tempted not to share love with others?
- What would you do if your friend woke up one day with glowing, lilac eyes?
- If you’re a fan of skillet, were there any songs that you thought of while reading this graphic novel?
Check out some of our other graphic novel reviews:
–Alls Faire in Middle School
–Awkward
–Space Boy Vol. 1 and Space Boy Vol. 2
–Cardboard
–Gear
–Dog Man: For whom the Ball Rolls
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