Everneath #1
Release Date: Jan 24th, 2012 by Balzer + Bray
Details: 370 pages, hardcover
Genre: Young Adult > Paranormal
Source: Publisher for review (Thank you Balzer + Bray!)
Summary (Goodreads):
Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath, where immortals Feed on the emotions of despairing humans. Now she's returned- to her old life, her family, her friends- before being banished back to the underworld... this time forever.
She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can't find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists.
Nikki longs to spend these months reconnecting with her boyfriend, Jack, the one person she loves more than anything. But there's a problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who first enticed her to the Everneath, has followed Nikki to the mortal world. And he'll do whatever it takes to bring her back- this time as his queen.
As Nikki's time grows short and her relationships begin slipping from her grasp, she's forced to make the hardest decision of her life: find a way to cheat fate and remain on the Surface with Jack or return to the Everneath and become Cole's...
I really wanted to LOVE Everneath, I did, really. Because for one, I love Greek Mythology. For two, I love retellings. And for three, LOOK AT THAT COVER! IT'S GORGEOUS! But I just... didn't.
That's not to say I didn't enjoy it, because I did. I just didn't LOVE it like I thought I would and I'll tell you why. Nikki wasn't the most pleasant of characters to be around. After the feeding she sort of shut herself out from everyone at school. Which didn't really make much sense since wasn't the whole reason why she returned to the Surface was to say goodbye? I understand that she felt the distance between her and her friends, but half the time it didn't seem like she made an effort. Nikki had bi-polar thoughts; one minute she would be optimistic and try to make the best of her six months, then out of nowhere she would get low and gloomy and blah. She was pretty much blah the majority of the time and I mean, if I had six months left, I know I wouldn't be the happiest of people but I would at least not be all... blah.
So Nikki's gone for six months and she suddenly, out of thin air, comes back. No one's really freakin out, her dad didn't attempt to chain her to the house and demand questions and her boyfriend/ex boyfriend Jack? He's totally acting like it's cool she just vanished one day and now she's suddenly back. It was kinda just... unrealistic. To me at least.
I don't know where to put this, so I'll just start randomly talking about Cole. I thought he would be one of those characters I really hate in the beginning then somewhere through out the story he'd redeem himself and I'd fall madly in love with him. No. Not really. If you see my notes on Goodreads the majority of them consists of me calling Cole stupid. Cause he was and he was just everywhere. Like dude, don't you have a life, or someone to snack or something? GTFO! He wasn't a horrible guy, just not my favorite. And really Nikki? Is it that hard to see how Cole feels about you?
Another blogger (I wish I could remember who!) mentioned in their review that once they got to the point where the book tells you why Nikki went through with the feeding that it was hard to buy. And I agree, it was. There were so many other options.
What I did like was how the author described the Everneath. I mean it sounded sort of creepy but cool at the same time. I like the twist in the whole Everneath thing but how it still pretty much stayed on the lines of the Persephone/Hades myth. I liked how it wasn't just a Persephone/Hades myth but a retelling of other myths too. Ones I haven't heard of, so that's always interesting! Also, how cool is it that their high school gets to take a mythology class? Uh, so unfair!
I LOVE Jack. My heart literally broke for him several times. The way he still cared about Nikki, the way he'd do anything for her. His persistence is getting her to open back up to him after not even knowing where she was or why... poor guy, he went through so much and ugh, Nikki sometimes just really frustrated me when it came to Jack! I loved the romance between Jack and Nikki, I wish we got to know more about how they were together. It looked like they had a really sweet story to tell. I also really liked Mary, my heart broke for her too, she deserved better than that!
And finally, I liked how Everneath switched from present day and the past, both with countdowns. That really did build the anticipation!
"That's what's bothering you? Yes, we broke up."
"Does she... know that?"
Jack smiled. "I hope so. She was there."
LOL! Sounds like something my best would say.
oh good! I keep seeing everybody love this book, but it just did not click with me until the very last 50 pages. I hated Jack through most of it, but at the end he was my favorite character. I felt this exact same way when I read Abandon by Meg Cabot (which I only rated 3 stars as well) I am just not a huge fan of stories being told so much in flashbacks, I just cannot connect with anything that way, I prefer present day. :)
ReplyDeleteKrista