This was bonkers but interesting I had seen a documentary about it and it just goes to prove no place is a utopia no matter how much you want it to be . It was a good read.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review the book

This was a strange story of a couple wanting to get away from the world by moving to the Galápagos on an uninhabited island called Floreana aka Charles Island. When two other groups eventually move there too, problems abound, spoiling their imagined utopia. Deftly told by the author as the mysteries play out.

This book (and everyone in it) is BONKERS. Abbott Kahler is one of my favorites and her newest book, Eden Undone, does not disappoint.

There is one major problem, though. I don't want to ruin this for you. I went in almost completely blind about the story. I think it's the best way to approach this. Here is what you need to know. Various people decide to try and create isolated lives with their significant others on a deserted Galapagos island. In order not to spoil anything specific, but to also explain just how bonkers the story is, I'd like to provide a list. The following things are in this book:

1. Spouse swapping
2. Hitler
3. Volcanic eruptions
4. Murderous cows
5. Actual murder....maybe?
6. Drownings
7. Shipwrecks
8. Nudity. So much nudity.
9. Sex, duh.
10. Bad philosophy

That's not even all of it. A story like this in the hands of a pro like Kahler is a guaranteed page turner. I shall say no more. I want you to end up on the edge of your seat like I was.

(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Crown Publishing.)

This book is very detailed. There was a lot of writings, from diaries to journal articles, to letters written to others to document the island life of the inhabitants.
The author does a great job on timeline and some of the reasons why people went missing or were murdered.

For me, it was a long build up, then BOOM! Two people are missing. Were they murdered? Did they leave? Who knows, the author then rushed to the next person.
Two bodies on the shore line, one was from the Eden, what happened to him? Authorities may have believed that it was thirst. He died from not having water.
Then the final mystery.....did the original inhabitant die from murder or food poisoning? Again, who knows?

The build up while it talked about the build up of insanity on the Baroness and her entourage, I was left with wanting more. The Baroness just stole items from the other settlers and there was no retaliation?

Then the mysterious deaths occur, no one bats an eye?!
it appeared to me that the author was done, ok here is the people, here is the mystery, the reader should be able to figure it out.
Then the end.

Overall, it was detailed, but the ending so abrupt I had to wonder what the author was leaving out.