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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Car accident
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Is simply amazing! This is a real page-turner book.
I liked Nick and Allie, Lief and McGill, of course. They all have excellent personalities and they won everyone over with their warmness, insecurities and deep feelings.
I liked Nick and Allie, Lief and McGill, of course. They all have excellent personalities and they won everyone over with their warmness, insecurities and deep feelings.
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Another terrific, unique book from Shusterman! I've been meaning to read this for ages and finally got to it via Playaway. Nick and Allie meet when their cars crash into each other and they're thrown from the vehicles, landing in a mysterious forest where a young boy seems to live all by himself. They soon discover that they're dead--but they're in Everlost, a sort of limbo between living and "going on to where you're going" (which is never spelled out as any kind of heaven or hell, but rather just the final destination after you die. But Everlost is here on earth, just kind of...faded from reality. Nick and Allie have to learn the rules--for example, they can't just walk anywhere, because if they step off the "dead spots" of ground then they'll sink into the earth! They soon meet other Everlights and get involved in kidnappings, gangs, pirates, monsters and other cool stuff--especially "skinjacking" (inhabiting the body of a living person!). A very neat book, with a sequel.
I'm having a very hard time figuring out how to rate this book.
This is my 9th Shusterman book and 3rd series. I've read Unwind and Scythe, which means I've read his best works first. It might be a little unfair to this one, unfortunately. This definitely feels older; it still feels very much like his other books but maybe less developed. He's gotten better and better and it shows.
I really enjoyed the first sixty pages of this book, a lot. It had this eerie atmosphere to it and truly felt like being in limbo. I loved it. The introduction of Mary was interesting and while I did like her and the very forced limbo feeling of that, the story sort of shifted from there and went in a direction where they felt less like ghosts. Which I suppose is the point since Mary calls them Afterlights, and the characters themselves had forgotten they were ghosts, in a sense. And while I also liked the McGill, once he was added in, this started to feel like a combination of Unwind and Michael Grant's Gone series, and I felt like I had read this story already. It felt so similar.
The middle of the book was okay to me and I think the highlight really was Allie and the McGill's weird relationship. They really were the best part of the book to me, but even their parts felt a bit dragged out because that's what Allie was doing. She was buying time.
I'll admit, I'm not a huge fan of Nick and Mary. Nick had some great character development and I like where his story went but I honestly really kind of hate the chocolate thing going on with him. It could be mostly because I'm not a fan of chocolate and the idea of him having chocolate smeared on his face the whole time had me really grossed out. So as much as I wanted to like him, I kept being reminded he had food smeared on his face and I got grossed out. On top of that, Nick and Mary's relationship felt incredibly forced. They're "in love" but they're fourteen and fifteen, if I recall (and they feel a lot younger), so while I liked their ending in theory, I'm not a huge fan of either of their characters.
The ending for me was interesting, because we had one ending, where the big bad was defeated, but then the story kept going to set up for the next book. I do like the set-up we had, but it also felt maybe a little rushed and sort of a decent way to wrap things up. I can see how more can be added on from here but I also think it's slightly open-ended but in a good way. This would be a good open-ended ending.
I enjoyed reading it, I like the idea (because Shusterman does have great ideas), but I'm not sure. I don't know if I will pick up the next book or not. I just don't really care about Nick and Mary, but I do like Allie and the McGill, so maybe I'll pick it up for them? I really don't know. I suppose this is a solid 3 star read for me because I love the concept, I love where the direction was taken, the writing is very fluid and readable, I do like half the main characters, but I also don't know if I need to read the second book.
This is a rambling mess, whoops.
This is my 9th Shusterman book and 3rd series. I've read Unwind and Scythe, which means I've read his best works first. It might be a little unfair to this one, unfortunately. This definitely feels older; it still feels very much like his other books but maybe less developed. He's gotten better and better and it shows.
I really enjoyed the first sixty pages of this book, a lot. It had this eerie atmosphere to it and truly felt like being in limbo. I loved it. The introduction of Mary was interesting and while I did like her and the very forced limbo feeling of that, the story sort of shifted from there and went in a direction where they felt less like ghosts. Which I suppose is the point since Mary calls them Afterlights, and the characters themselves had forgotten they were ghosts, in a sense. And while I also liked the McGill, once he was added in, this started to feel like a combination of Unwind and Michael Grant's Gone series, and I felt like I had read this story already. It felt so similar.
The middle of the book was okay to me and I think the highlight really was Allie and the McGill's weird relationship. They really were the best part of the book to me, but even their parts felt a bit dragged out because that's what Allie was doing. She was buying time.
I'll admit, I'm not a huge fan of Nick and Mary. Nick had some great character development and I like where his story went but I honestly really kind of hate the chocolate thing going on with him. It could be mostly because I'm not a fan of chocolate and the idea of him having chocolate smeared on his face the whole time had me really grossed out. So as much as I wanted to like him, I kept being reminded he had food smeared on his face and I got grossed out. On top of that, Nick and Mary's relationship felt incredibly forced. They're "in love" but they're fourteen and fifteen, if I recall (and they feel a lot younger), so while I liked their ending in theory, I'm not a huge fan of either of their characters.
The ending for me was interesting, because we had one ending, where the big bad was defeated, but then the story kept going to set up for the next book. I do like the set-up we had, but it also felt maybe a little rushed and sort of a decent way to wrap things up. I can see how more can be added on from here but I also think it's slightly open-ended but in a good way. This would be a good open-ended ending.
I enjoyed reading it, I like the idea (because Shusterman does have great ideas), but I'm not sure. I don't know if I will pick up the next book or not. I just don't really care about Nick and Mary, but I do like Allie and the McGill, so maybe I'll pick it up for them? I really don't know. I suppose this is a solid 3 star read for me because I love the concept, I love where the direction was taken, the writing is very fluid and readable, I do like half the main characters, but I also don't know if I need to read the second book.
This is a rambling mess, whoops.