By: Adam Sternbergh
Narrator: Carlotta Brentan
ISBN: 9781250886576
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Flatiron Books
Publication Date: 04/25/2023
Format: Audiobook
My Rating: 4 Stars 🎧
A galloping and exhilarating thriller."
—Laura Dave
“Sternbergh is a genre-bender of the highest caliber.”
—Dennis Lehane
From Edgar Award-finalist Adam Sternbergh, The Eden Test is an electrifying new work of domestic suspense for fans of The Perfect Marriage and The Last Thing He Told Me, about a couple who are forced to the ultimate extremes to save their marriage—and themselves.
Seven Days. Seven Questions. Forever Changed.
Daisy and Craig’s marriage is in serious trouble. That’s why Daisy has signed up for The Eden Test, a week-long getaway for couples in need of a fresh start. Yet even as she’s struggling to salvage her marriage, it seems Craig has plans to leave her for another woman. In fact, his bags are already packed—long before he arrives to meet Daisy in this remote cabin in the woods of upstate New York.
At first, their week away is marked by solitude, connection, and natural beauty—and only a few hostile locals. But what Craig doesn’t know is that Daisy, a slyly talented actress, has her own secrets, including a burner phone she’s been using for mysterious texts. Not to mention the Eden Test itself, which poses a searing new question to the couple every day, each more explosive than the last. Their marriage was never perfect, but now the lies and revelations are piling up, as the week becomes much more than they bargained for…How far are they willing to go?
Adam Sternbergh brings his wit, originality, and a Hitchcockian sense of dread to this chilling, surprising, and wholly entertaining portrait of a marriage on the brink.
My Review
Adam Sternbergh delivers a Hitchcockian vibe-like domestic suspense, THE EDEN TEST —a couple goes to the extremes to save their marriage and themselves.
Seven Days. Seven Questions. Forever Changed.
Daisy and Craig’s marriage is in trouble after two years. All looks perfect on the outside back in Brooklyn, but is there trouble in paradise?
Enigmatic Daisy signed up for The Eden Test, a week-long getaway for couples needing a fresh start. All the while, Craig has his bags packed, and he plans to leave the marriage for another woman.
Craig meets Daisy at a remote cabin in the woods of upstate New York. However, Daisy has her own secrets. She is a talented actress. Craig is a frustrated writer. Both are texting on forbidden phones.
Are they co-conspirators? Do they trust one another?
Lies, deception, and explosive secrets.
WOULD YOU CHANGE FOR ME?
WOULD YOU SACRIFICE FOR ME?
WOULD YOU FIGHT FOR ME?
WOULD YOU LIE FOR ME?
WOULD YOU DIE FOR ME?
WOULD YOU KILL FOR ME?
WOULD YOU FORGIVE ME?
HELP you find your LIMITS and TEST them.
What is The Eden Test, and will this marriage be stronger for it? How far are they willing to go?
Unfolding over a week at the cabin in a private getaway, but is it private with the outsiders? Who are the two bodies taken away from the property in the prologue?
HANG ON FOR A WILD RIDE.
The author keeps the tension high and mysterious, the atmosphere chilling as all the secrets are unraveled in this game of cat and mouse they call marriage as they await the next envelope with its question.
Twisty, darkly comic, atmospheric, and wickedly entertaining, I listened to the audiobook narrated by Carlotta Brentan for a chilling performance. Those who enjoy domestic mysteries, suspense, psychological suspense blended with literary fiction, and Gone Girl will enjoy THE EDEN TEST.
Thank you to #MacmillianAudio for a gifted ALC via #NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
My Rating: 4 Stars
Pub Date: April 25, 2023
Praise
“[A] wry, sly chiller. . . Wickedly inventive, briskly paced. . . . Darkly funny. . . . Crafty. . . . Hang on for a wild ride.” ―Kirkus (starred review)
“Outstanding. . . . One masterfully manipulative chiller just waiting for its close-up. Sternbergh has outdone himself.”
―Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A galloping and exhilarating thriller, The Eden Test is about marriage and deception and it will have you rooting (against all odds) for the couple at its center."
―Laura Dave, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Thing He Told Me
"What makes a successful marriage? That's the question at the heart of this twisty, twisted, and compulsively readable thriller. It's Adam Sternbergh's best novel yet―full of smart and thoughtful questions about husbands, wives, and the secrets of domestic bliss."
―Jason Rekulak, author of Hidden Pictures
"An utterly gripping thriller that pulls off a tidy trick―The Eden Test is about deceit, infidelity, and violence, yet somehow is also a thoughtful story about how to make a happy marriage."
―Rumaan Alam, National Book Award nominated author of Leave the World Behind
"Adam Sternbergh has quickly become one of my favorite novelists. His books are the perfect combination of high concept/flawless execution. The Eden Test continues his winning streak―twisty, timely, and darkly comic. I loved it."
―Laura Lippman, New York Times bestselling author of Lady in the Lake
"The Eden Test is addictive, fleet and thrillingly (and pointedly) of our moment, leaving you spent and exhilarated, with a lingering and potent frisson at just how close to home it’s struck. And with it, Adam Sternbergh proves himself the Ira Levin of our times, dancing from genre to genre while also skillfully intermingling and overturning them. His latest may be his most bravura feat yet." ―Megan Abbott, bestselling author of The Turnout
"A perfect recipe for some emotionally heavy suspense."
―CrimeReads
"A galloping and exhilarating thriller, The Eden Test is about marriage and deception and it will have you rooting (against all odds) for the couple at its center."
―Laura Dave, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Thing He Told Me
“Sternbergh is a genre-bender of the highest caliber.”
—Dennis Lehane
About the Author
I'm an Edgar-nominated novelist and an editor at The New York Times. My writing has appeared in New York magazine, the New York Times, GQ, The Independent on Sunday, The Walrus and elsewhere, and has been collected in Best American Political Writing; The Best Technology Writing; Never Can Say Goodbye: Writers on Their Unshakeable Love for New York; and New York Stories: Landmark Writing from Four Decades of New York Magazine.
My newest novel, THE EDEN TEST, is a taut examination of what it takes for a couple to survive in the most extreme and unexpected circumstances. Daisy and Craig retreat to the woods to try and save their troubled relationship by signing on to The Eden Test, a secretive program with a simple promise: Seven days. Seven questions. Forever changed. Spoiler: Things go wrong, nothing is what it seems, and soon they’ll find out what exactly they’re capable of and what they’re willing to do, to save their marriage and to save themselves.
My previous novel, THE BLINDS, is a thriller about a remote, secretive town in West Texas, and it's been described by Dennis Lehane as "part thriller, part Western, part pulpy whodunit... a propulsive and meaningful meditation on redemption and loss."
My first novel, SHOVEL READY, is a future-noir thriller about a garbageman-turned-hitman set in a dystopian New York City. SHOVEL READY was a Newsweek Favorite Book of 2014; a Booklist Best Crime Novel and Best Crime Debut of 2014; was long listed for the John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger, and was nominated for a 2015 Edgar Award for Best First Novel by an American. A sequel, NEAR ENEMY, is available now.
My novels have been developed for film and TV by Warner Bros., Sony Television, Scott Free productions, Wiip, Disney, and Netflix.
Raised in Toronto, I now live in Brooklyn with my family.
NOTE: The above photo was taken by Edwin Tse for a profile in the National Post, and the graphic is courtesy the National Post. The graffiti magically appeared long after the shot was taken. No walls were harmed in the taking of this photograph. WEBSITE
