Publication Date: January 24th 2012
Publisher: Harper Collins / Balzer + Bray
Hardcover, 370 pages
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...
Everneath is unlike any YA paranormal book I have ever read...It has such a melancholic tone to it that by the end of it I had fell in love with Brodi Ashton's writing style!
Everneath is based loosely on Persephone's and Eurydice's myth and I really liked that fact.I liked the fact that it wasn't just a retelling or strictly based on those myths but more of a story that took some elements of the Greek and Egyptian mythology and went a step further with the world building.
As I said,Ashton's writing style has such a melancholic tone to it and it's so lyrical that it immediately pulled me in this story.Plus, the style of narration the writer chose was really tricky that if not so well executed the whole book would be a total disaster.
Ashton decided to enrich her story with all the past events that led her heroine in her current state of being a Forfeit so the narration was going constantly back and forth.I may have said it in some of my other reviews but that isn't my favorite narration style.Or rather not my favorite,it's just a narration style that is rarely well executed,so most of the times I find myself completely lost in the story.But not in Everneath's case.In Everneath,past and present are so wonderfully given and so distinctive that there was no room for misunderstandings.Everything flows so smoothly in this book,that I felt completely mesmerised by it.
Nikki,Jack and Cole are really well developed characters and I really liked to read about how Nikki was before the Feed,right after her ascension and while she was on Earth.The difference in the way she thinks and perceives things are in order with the major changes in her life.
Nikki deciding to go for the Feed has also many allegorical meanings,at least for me.It mostly reminded me of a drug addict or someone suicidal.Like I said,Everneath is really melancholic...
The ending leaves clearly enough room for the second book to come,and since this ending didn't really leave me satisfied I just can't wait to see what happens in the next book.
*This title was reviewed via NetGalley
I usually don't like melancholic writing, but I'm dying to read this book because I love Greek Mythology.
ReplyDeleteTry it Gaby, Everneath is refreshingly well written.
DeleteGreat review Anna, glad you liked the book so much.
ReplyDelete