The Gardener - S.A. Bodeen

TroDyn Industries is a scientific complex just outside of Melby Falls. They own most of the businesses, and have paid for most of the equipment and supplies at the high school. Mason is considering doing a summer internship there, but his mom doesn't want him to. She doesn't give him a specific reason, so he decides to go snooping in his mom's room. He discovers that she used to work for TroDyn. He sneaks into the nursing home where she works to confront her. She doesn't want to talk about TroDyn. As his mom checks on her patients one of them, a teenage girl, wakes up. Mason helps her escape, and along with Jack, head to Jack's parents cabin. The stay for a day until the police show up. They go on the run again and head to Powell's Books, where a former TroDyn employee is giving a talk. Dr. Emerson ends up explaining that the teenage girl was an experiment to see if humans could be created to supply themselves with there own food. The girl is really weak and the only way to save her is to take her back to TroDyn. Mason will soon discover that there is more of a family connection to TroDyn than just his mother being a former employee. I enjoyed this book. A few plot points I had figured out before they were revealed in the book. It was just a matter of paying attention to the little things that may seem minor. I liked the idea that maybe one day we could live by producing our own food like plants do. Let's just hope that humans don't run out of food any time soon. T.B 4/9/11