Found this book to just be okay - enjoyed the beginning, however, the plot lost steam and I did not really care for some of the characters. Enjoyed the cult sections and will look out for the next book in the series - just hope it's a little better!

Will and Shannon were not expecting a baby to tear into their tiny budget in New York. With Shannon working her dream job, Will finds himself working at a terrible restaurant and feeling incredibly overwhelmed. In an attempt to be a good person, he helps feed two homeless men outside of the restaurant and almost loses his job. It only gets worse when this action draws attention to Will by the creepy Victor Degas. Degas belongs to an old cult called the Edens, who are on a killing spree. Soon the two homeless men are throwing rocks into the restaurant window and Will and his son are kidnapped by the cult.

The concept of this book would make for some awesome television, but the book was overwritten and made it very difficult to get into the story.

Unfortunately this didn't live up to my expectations at all.
The first 40% were so slow and I was constantly thinking, why do I need this information. I didn't care for any of the characters (Will's wife was despicable) and I wantd more background story about the cult and why the cult existed in the first place.
And let me just say that butchering that horse wasn't necessary for anything in the story. I knew this was supposed to be horror, but that just shows that the author needs violence to portray a feeling of horror to the reader.
I do prefer atmospheric horror.
This was an interesting premise, however the execution was poor in my opinion.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with an eARC.

The Cult of Eden by Bill Halpin is a cautionary tale of human frailty and the unremitting power of the dark side.

Will Battese is the quintessential good guy. He loves his wife Shannon and his son Gideon. He abandons his bucolic upstate country life to move to New York City and work as a waiter in a seedy restaurant so that his wife can savor her dream job. Shannon, on the other hand, will not so much as forgo her maiden name for him. In addition, she looks down on her husband’s pitiful paychecks. Will, an ardent Christian, demonstrates his innate kindness by smuggling restaurant leftovers out into a nearby alley to feed homeless men.

One day after work, Will and his friend Kavi return home. Will’s wife thoughtlessly brings home hamburgers for them. Will reminds her that is it lent, so he cannot possibly eat meat. Instead of holding true to his beliefs, he folds. Will decides that since lent is almost over, he will disregard his beliefs and eat the hamburgers—unknowingly choosing to take the first step onto the proverbial slippery slope.

Before long, Victor Degas enters their lives. He is a diabolical member of The Eden Cult, and he needs Will to play a crucial role in his quest for fusion with a demon. He and his cohorts are determined to victimize Will’s family and friends who soon find themselves fighting for their lives.

The Eden Cult boasts a complex plot that includes plenty of twists, turns, action, and betrayals. However, it also includes a bit too many interruptions in the form of backstory that do not propel the plot forward. Nonetheless, only readers who insist on a quick read will find fault with this aspect of the story. The plot is unlike most evil-cult tales in that it places more weight on the religious nature of the battle between good and evil as well as on the frailty of the human psyche and the believer’s tendency to let his faith falter during times of stress.

The only drawback of the tale is the cast of characters. Although they are well drawn, they may not elicit empathy from the average reader because they lack laudable characteristics and realistic behavior. For example, although Shannon later tries valiantly to save her family, she lacks motherly feelings. She even once wishes that the cultists would go after Will and the child instead of her. The most fascinating character is Victor Degas. He oozes danger and behaves as one would expect a demonic entity should. He is driven, focused, and deliciously evil. Unfortunately, it also appears that he just might be invincible. Degas will urge readers to hope for a sequel.

The Eden Cult will entertain readers who are drawn to tales of good and evil. This may be especially true of those who believe that Christianity is the force that will ultimately prevail.

I struggled so much for the first 1/3 or so of this book. I felt like it was A LOT of detail and struggled to figure out why we needed so much info. Then 2/3's of the way into the book, everything started to come together and started making more sense. It was a slow build and I almost didn't keep with it. Over all I liked the book and if you are someone who likes cult-y books...then this may be up your alley.

I found this book very hard to get into. Am not sure whether it was how it was written, or the theme, but I just found it difficult. I think I had preconceived ideas of what it would be like and it didn’t live up to that. I will say, that the more I read, it did get a bit more interesting. This book may not have been for me but others might like it.

Horror. Pure horror in its right. Not ghost stories or hauntings. Pure horror from torture and murder and cults. Sometimes it’s purely Good vs Evil. It’s been with us since the beginning. And it’ll be with us until the end.
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A very powerful story between Good and Evil. Christianity and Satanism. Doing what’s necessary for your family and loved ones. How far would you go to protect what is yours? Will the line be blurred or crossed? Can you forgive yourself after all is said and done?
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This book was not at all what I expected. I am here for it. It brings me feelings of The Exorcist. A tingle in your spine. A chill on your scalp. The feeling as though someone is watching you. I picked this book up and finished it in one sitting because I could not put it down. I’m not going to lie there were some parts in this book I was not prepared for or probably never would be prepared for. It is not for the faint of heart.

The Cult of Eden is super subversive fiction - the type of hyper-violent qausi-fantasy that I found utterly shocking and enthralling, but at the same time, completely perplexing. If you have a strong stomach, the first of what promises to be a thrilling trilogy is a terrifying ride, just let it find its feet first.

If you come in expecting a straight-up culty thriller, look elsewhere; The Cult of Eden is a slow burner, more akin to say, Rosemary's Baby than the wild antics of the Manson's. The first third of the book focuses on Will and his wife, as they prepare for Will's father, brother and grandfather to move in with them. We spend a lot of time getting to know Will, his wife Shannon and his extended family, as well as having a strong focus on Will's job at a downtrodden New York Italian Restaurant. Will isn't keen on his new life in the Big Apple, but he'll do anything to keep Shannon happy, especially now he has his newborn son, Gideon to care for. Unlucky for Will, if he thinks that life in New York is hell now, it only gets worse when he becomes forcefully embroiled in the titular cult, even if it takes half the book to take us to that particular plot point.

Apart from establishing the main and supporting cast, it's not immediately clear what the point of spending so much time on what feel like boggy chapters is at first. Will and Shannon in particular aren't straight off likable, Shannon is mean-spirited and selfish, and Will is weak and doesn't stand up for himself. It's hard to follow chapters that bat to and from two characters that, at first, feel hollow, unrelatable and unlikeable.

By the second and third act, many of the character flaws make sense, as personalities change with the increasing tide of anguish they all face. It's a testament to Harpin's strong penmanship, his character development is absolutely flawless, even if it's not immediately obvious where the narrative is taking us. Many of the characters choices feel natural to their personalities at different points in the book, for example, Shannon commiting acts of heroism at the start would be completely uncharacteristic, but towards the end of her arc? Totally believable.

Characters like Richard, Will's father, however are compelling from the off, a deacon locked in an inner battle between his Catholic beliefs and his personal values. Harpin is heavy handed with the religious aspects of the book, but it's done in both a respectful and interesting way, neither forcing it down our throats or making it too sexy. Quite the contrary, actually, there's a great deal of time spent establishing both the differences and similarities between both the satanic cultism and the deeply Catholic that form the cast of the Cult of Eden. It's because, no matter your feelings on the book as a whole, Bill Harpin is an absolutely formidable writer, able to pen deeply disturbing scenes just as well as thought provoking musings on belief systems in the same breathe a1bsolutely effortlessly.

Let's just touch on that second and third act. It does feel like it takes forever to take us to the cult, who are fully established and well funded when we meet them. It's hard to discuss them as a group without giving too much away, but they definitely vary between the absolutely insane and terrifying, to the slightly comical, like their leader who, whenever he pops up, constantly gives me Emperor Palpatine vibes. That being said, they make a genuinely menacing force, and once they show up, they waste no time showing they mean business. Even the oddest Eden's are absolutely crazy, willing to torture and kill without hesitation to show their commitment. Because the book spends so much time taking us to the cult, we never really have enough time to establish why we have the cult, or even much about them, which is an absolute shame. It does however give reason to read the rest of the series as there's ample room for lore to woven into the intricate backstory.

As I mentioned, Bill can write, for sure. The dialogue is witty, I didn't see any of the twists coming, (and I'm usually great at spotting something amiss) and overall it's just a really solid novel. There's definitely things that are off, the pacing for a example, it takes too long to establish a goal and for some, this is a first strike and you're out issue, plus the R-Rating and then some might be a little much for some readers, but if you stick with it, it's thought provoking, fun and genuinely compelling.

Bill Harpin's first novel is a little bit Toby Litt, a little bit King, but a lot Harpin. Go in with an open mind and absolutely no expectations and come out feeling horrified, stunned but ultimately, wanting more.

It is unfortunate, but no matter how much I tried I couldn't make this book work for me. It just wasn't what I wanted at all. The tone of the book matched exactly what Bill Halpin was trying to do, it just didn't match what I wanted out of the book. It was overly violent with an air of anticipation for more bad things to come.

It didn't help that this was incredibly low on fantasy. Everything until the final pages can be explained away as a bunch of well-equipped, well-funded crazy cult people with an agenda. Which has its place, and I can enjoy a good low fantasy book. However, I was just left frustrated by the lack of overt fantasy for too long.

The story moved a bit slow, too. The Cult of Eden shows the happy, if a bit strained, life of the Battese family before evil crashes down on them. The narration is split between the Battese family, and one of the high ranking Eden members on a mission. Which leads me to admit that the book does showcase the evil side very well. It isn't just chaotic evil, there are rules and expectations to the evilness. Yet despite how slow the book started, the entire book takes place in the span of a very awful 24 hours. It was probably even less than 12 hours, I wasn't counting. The entire book was just a series of horrifying action sequences, pain, and death.

The Cult of Eden was also surprisingly way more religious than I thought it would be, based on the blurb. I expected some Christian mythology. I was unprepared for the amount and depth. I'm certain that I missed an entire level of cleverness that people who were raised in religion or are religious would understand a heck of a lot more. Not only is it religious in nature, it also manages to skew those beliefs when needed quite well, to my untrained sensibilities.

It really is unfortunate that I couldn't get into this book. It was a bit too slow and a bit too violent for me. On paper, this should be everything I wanted to read. I just couldn't make it work for me.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Bill Halpin, Cosmic Egg Books, and Netgalley for providing the opportunity to review this copy!

Not my cup of tea. It's well written but I couldn't connect to the characters.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Although this book had an interesting enough first 20% when we meet underachieving Bill Battese working in a cheap and nasty Italian New York restaurant it went downhill fast and the constant chopping and changing of characters killed both continuity and atmosphere. After an incident outside the restaurant Bill meets a guy called Victor Degas, the landlord of one of his work colleagues, and the book loses all sense of credibility and becomes ridiculous. I love far fetched plots, but they have to convince me, this missed by a mile. Degas is connected to an ancient cult and has something nasty in store for Will which involves his visiting family, who have problems of their own, and his baby son Gideon. Throw in uninspiring dialogue, samey characters and the result if a book I struggled to finish. It is the proposed first book in a supernatural trilogy about the battle between good and evil and I will not be reading book two.