Review: The Legacy of Eden by Nelle Davy

We did not understand then, the power such an action has.  We shed our blood on Aurelia, willingly, to claim it, to be part of it, just like our grandmother:  yield for us and we are yours.  And so we are tied to Aurelia and to each other until the day we die.  Somehow when I think of that, despite a shiver of horror, I feel less alone.  (from The Legacy of Eden, pages 103-104 in the advance uncorrected proof; finished version may be different)

Meredith Pincetti has spent nearly two decades trying to forget her family and what prompted her to leave, Aurelia, the sprawling family farm in Iowa dominated by her grandmother, Lavinia Hathaway, and later run into the ground by her cousin.  When she receives a letter informing her that her cousin is dead and the farm is to be sold to pay his debts, all the memories come flooding back, and Meredith decides to return to Aurelia to get her parents’ things and make sure everything is handled properly.

The Legacy of Eden is the story of the Hathaway family and how Aurelia became prosperous and respected in the hands of its manipulative matriarch.  Drawing from her own memories and the stories told to her by a dying Lavinia, Meredith recounts her family history from 1946, when Anne-Marie Parks became Lavinia Hathaway.  Lavinia used her first husband, a much older doctor, to secure her freedom, and with Cal Hathaway, she sees an opportunity to create a dynasty.  From the moment she spills her own blood on the land of Aurelia, Lavinia does whatever it takes — even hurting the people she is supposed to love and protect above all else — to ensure the farm’s success and maintain the family’s ties to the land.

It’s hard to believe The Legacy of Eden is Nelle Davy’s first novel.  I was hooked from the beginning, and I couldn’t put the book down because I had to know how far the family would fall and what made Meredith leave in the first place.  The novel is a bit Gothic, with ghosts plaguing Meredith, Aurelia having such a hold on the Hathaways, and the mystery of why Meredith left, why she and her two sisters are estranged, and why the remaining Hathaways want nothing to do with the farm that was a part of them for so long.

Davy wisely lets Meredith tell the story, as she is not afraid to display the faults of her relatives and doesn’t shy away from admitting that a little bit of Lavinia rubbed off on to her.  The novel is paced perfectly, and there is a haunting quality to the narrative so you know that bad things will happen as the family’s secrets are revealed and the layers of the story are peeled back.  You know the family is falling apart, and all you can do is just sit there anxiously and wait for it to happen.

The Legacy of Eden is a beautifully written family saga with complex and intriguing characters.  The hint of mystery and the foreshadowing of bad things to come keep the story moving forward, and it never once lags.  Even when the characters are ruthless, readers  can see where they are coming from and how they came to be that way, making it difficult to draw the line between good and bad, right and wrong.  I like that I was able to feel for the characters even when I didn’t like them very much.  This is a must-read if you like novels about dysfunctional families and their secrets.  Davy’s debut shows that she is a gifted storyteller, and I can’t wait to read more of her work.

Disclosure: I received a copy of The Legacy of Eden from Meryl L. Moss Media Relations Inc. for review. I am an IndieBound affiliate and an Amazon associate.

© 2012 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.