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Sunday, January 13, 2013

Everneath by Brodi Ashton Book Review


2.5/5 Stars
Details of the Book
Paperback, 370 pages
Published by Blazer & Bray, 
an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
Buy it: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository |


Synopsis: Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath. Now she’s returned—to her old life, her family, her boyfriend—before she’s 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 precious months forgetting the Everneath and trying to reconnect with her boyfriend, Jack, the person most devastated by her disappearance—and the one person she loves more than anything. But there’s just one problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who enticed her to the Everneath in the first place, has followed Nikki home. Cole wants to take over the throne in the underworld and is convinced Nikki is the key to making it happen. And he’ll do whatever it takes to bring her back, this time as his queen.

As Nikki’s time on the Surface draws to a close and her relationships begin slipping from her grasp, she is 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 queen.

Everneath is a captivating story of love, loss, and immortality from debut author Brodi Ashton.

This book really confused me because it left me with so many questions. I don't understand if Cole is in love with Nikki or just wants to use her. If Nikki was so in love with Jack, and so mad at the thought of him betraying her, then why was she spending so much time with Cole, knowing that he had more than just platonic feelings for her? At first I thought that I was just being harsh on this book because I only finished Veronica Roth's Divergent books a few day ago, so maybe because I loved those books so much others right now just pale in comparison. After breaking down the book and looking at what I liked versus what I didn't, I decided that my feelings towards it had nothing to do with my feelings for Roth's novels. 

All in all I have to say that this book really picked up at the end. I finally got involved in the characters and was wondering how could this book carry on to the next if Nikki was going to be dragged to the Tunnels. Now I'm left wondering if there is a way to save Jack. This is the kind of want that I needed at the start of the book. I needed a stronger pull as to why I needed to carry on with the story. 

Strengths:

1) A successful love triangle in which I couldn't decide who the heroin should pick. That's not saying much considering the fact that for majority of the book I didn't like either of them. 

2) Cole was by far the most interesting character in this entire novel. Again, this is not saying much. He just had the most personality. 

Weaknesses:

1) I found that the book was very slow. For a book that's about a girl being dragged to a place that's supposed to be Heaven and Hell combined, it was boring. Nothing about the way Everneath was described was enticing. For most of the novel it's just about Nikki going through her normal school routine, normal high school problems, the only difference is that she has a life-sucking tattoo that progressively gets bigger as the book moves forward. It needed more action and more about Everneath and the beings from there. 

2) Melodramatic. From what I understand, Nikki and Jack have been friends since Junior High, making them have a really close relationship for a long time. That is why it doesn't make any sense to me as to why over one misunderstanding does Nikki go running off to Cole? The normal, more realistic thing would have been for Nikki to at least have had a fight with Jack where some things were said in the heat of a moment, driving Nikki to run to Cole. I mean, if I thought my man was cheating on me I would at least want the opportunity to yell and throw things at him first, before engaging in idiotic self-destructive actions.

3) Character development and Relationships: As all of you know, I have a huge problem when a book has too many characters. In this book there are so many characters, but most of them are not necessary. This book had too many characters without concrete details.

 For example, we are told that Will is an army veteran with a drinking problem, and randomly throughout the book Jack is carting his big brother around because he is half passed out and can't be alone. It's sad, but it does nothing for the plot, so why is he there? The same goes for Nikki's younger brother Tommy. It is more sad, to add a little brother to the mix of people Nikki had to say goodbye too but there is only a handful of scenes where Nikki interacts with her brother. 

All of the band members, they are mentioned a couple times but I'm not sure what their significance is. I feel like if they are a part of Cole's crew, that their personalities should stand out more and they should be more of a focal point in the story. 

I didn't understand what was wrong between Nikki and her dad.  "Like when my dad told me he was so happy I was back and that he didn't blame me, but his disappointment in the air tasted as strong as a clump of salt" (15). It is never explained why he is disappointed in her missing, and there was no indication that her father looked for her even though she had gone missing for six months. What was clear is that her father and the entire town thought that she had run off with a drug problem, but that doesn't change how the only person who seemed to be looking for her was her boyfriend Jack. Especially because she is the mayor's daughter, she couldn't realistically just drop off the face of the Earth without the town spending a lot of time searching for her. 

4) Plot holes. How does a girl go missing for six months and the town does not have a stronger reaction to her return? If Cole is part of a famous band how is he not constantly swarmed by people? Why does Jack's mom dislike Nikki? What was Lacey doing in Jack's room, and why was one of his friends helping her sneak in there while he was sleeping? What was Lacey doing while he was sleeping? How did Jules know to go to Cole to take her pain away?

5) There were a few grammar errors that needed to be cleaned up. 

I wouldn't say that I hated this book, but I didn't love it either. The end made me wonder what is going to happen next. Hopefully it will change my current feelings towards this book and its characters. 

Favorite Quotes/Moments:

1) "We are a breath away--and a world apart--from each other" (370).


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