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racheljade100's review against another edition
4.0
A retelling of Hades and Persephone. With only three months to farewell her family and friends forever, she attempts to find a way to end her curse before being sucked into the underworld forever...
timeliss's review against another edition
3.0
this book is about a girl named nikki who was sucked into a place called everneath for 100 years but it was only six months on earth. she wasnt supposed to be able to come back, but she held on to her love for her boyfriend jack. when she returns, her and jack fall back into love and they go on a mission to try and keep nikki on earth befor the tunnels come to get her. a boy name cole, who was the one who took her to everneath in the first place, offers her an alternitive: instead of being sucked under by the Tunnels, she could agree to be his queen of everneath. she declines over and over, but he never gives up. at the end of the book, jack sacrifices himself by throwing himself to the Tunnels. nikki is safe, but she can only worry about what is happening to jack. i thought this book was good, but it was written as if it were the second book in a series and not the first. it got extremly confusing at times. the book would be so much better if another book was written before it.
hannahfs7's review against another edition
3.0
Thought the author could have rapped up the story in one book instead of stretching it out into a trilogy. If the story could have finished in this book I think I would have liked it more.
reddyrat's review against another edition
3.0
My impression of Everneath is mixed. Brodi Ashton creates a unique twist on a well known Greek myth. She turns it into a young adult novel without succumbing to the stereotypical young adult plot arcs. However, I had trouble connecting to the characters. In addition, or perhaps because I couldn't connect to the characters, the story dragged.
Loosely based on the story of Hades and Persephone, Nikki shows up in her hometown after disappearing for 6 months. She looks strung out and everyone assumes she got caught up in drugs and ran away. In reality, she spent 100 years down in the Everneath (6 months in human time). Nikki and her emotions served as food for Cole, her immortal. Once the feeding ends, most humans are effectively soulless. They spend eternity mired away in the tunnels, having shriveled away all their desires, hopes, dreams, and nightmares during the feeding. Not Nikki. She had the strength of character to go back to the real world, if only for a short time.
Nikki has 6 months to set everything right and then she has to go back to the Everneath. She has dreamed about seeing her old boyfriend Jack. It's kept her alive. And of course, she misses her father and little brother. But it's much harder to reintegrate back into the real world than Nikki expected.
There are a lot of things I like about Nikki. She has a great amount of inner strength, despite being weak enough to succumb to Cole's promises of eternal emotional relief. She is kind to her friends and her family. She is also amazingly patient. The post-Everneath Nikki realizes she screwed up royally and understands that it is going to take time for people to reaccept her. She quietly plods through in the background, always toeing the line.
I guess my main problem with Nikki was that she was a closed book - both to the other characters in the story and to the reader. As the plot goes on, I understand what happened to make her desire an emotional drain, but I didn't -feel- it. I understand the surface-level Nikki, but despite seeing the world through her eyes, there were layers of her past and her pain that I never broke through.
Brodi can be congratulated for having two hot guys in this story yet not turning the plot into a love triangle. An almost unheard of feat in YA literature. Unfortunately, I think I would have liked the story better if there had been a love triangle. On the Cole v. Jack front, a big part of me wanted Cole to win. Jack is nice, sweet, and understanding, but too Wonderbread for me. He actually has more facets than many cardboard nice guys that I've seen in novels, but I couldn't connect to him.
On the other hand, haunted, funny, sarcastic Cole totally did it for me. Yet he is clearly the villain. You get hints that Cole has real emotions and really cares for Nikki, yet most of the time he is out for his own interests. He seems to want Nikki for what she can do for him, rather than because he likes her. But it's not cut and dry. Since I love Cole, I wish he had a few more redeeming qualities. I would like to see a real love triangle - preferably with Cole winning in the end. I'm pretty sure that Jack is the guy that readers are -supposed- to root for. I wish Brodi had done a better job of making him endearing. I'm having too much trouble resisting Cole's bad-boy charms.
Everneath is split into Now v. Then time points. The story goes back and forth between Nikki's life before going to the Everneath and after. It takes almost the entire book to understand what drew her to the darkness. The mystery made the book weaker. If I had understood Nikki's past sooner, I would have connected better with her. By the time I learned all the details, I was so emotionally disconnected from the characters that I thought Nikki's heartbreak was superficial.
For all my criticism, Everneath is an interesting and enjoyable story. It was quite slow, but to readers who get sucked in more than me, I'm sure the plot will flow much better. Part of me liked all the characters. I just couldn't connect well enough to them to really care about them. I loved the mythology and the concept of immortals and emotional feeding. I'd recommend that you give Everneath a try (if for no other reason than the gorgeous cover), because there's a good chance you'll like it more than me.
Rating: 3 / 5
Loosely based on the story of Hades and Persephone, Nikki shows up in her hometown after disappearing for 6 months. She looks strung out and everyone assumes she got caught up in drugs and ran away. In reality, she spent 100 years down in the Everneath (6 months in human time). Nikki and her emotions served as food for Cole, her immortal. Once the feeding ends, most humans are effectively soulless. They spend eternity mired away in the tunnels, having shriveled away all their desires, hopes, dreams, and nightmares during the feeding. Not Nikki. She had the strength of character to go back to the real world, if only for a short time.
Nikki has 6 months to set everything right and then she has to go back to the Everneath. She has dreamed about seeing her old boyfriend Jack. It's kept her alive. And of course, she misses her father and little brother. But it's much harder to reintegrate back into the real world than Nikki expected.
There are a lot of things I like about Nikki. She has a great amount of inner strength, despite being weak enough to succumb to Cole's promises of eternal emotional relief. She is kind to her friends and her family. She is also amazingly patient. The post-Everneath Nikki realizes she screwed up royally and understands that it is going to take time for people to reaccept her. She quietly plods through in the background, always toeing the line.
I guess my main problem with Nikki was that she was a closed book - both to the other characters in the story and to the reader. As the plot goes on, I understand what happened to make her desire an emotional drain, but I didn't -feel- it. I understand the surface-level Nikki, but despite seeing the world through her eyes, there were layers of her past and her pain that I never broke through.
Brodi can be congratulated for having two hot guys in this story yet not turning the plot into a love triangle. An almost unheard of feat in YA literature. Unfortunately, I think I would have liked the story better if there had been a love triangle. On the Cole v. Jack front, a big part of me wanted Cole to win. Jack is nice, sweet, and understanding, but too Wonderbread for me. He actually has more facets than many cardboard nice guys that I've seen in novels, but I couldn't connect to him.
On the other hand, haunted, funny, sarcastic Cole totally did it for me. Yet he is clearly the villain. You get hints that Cole has real emotions and really cares for Nikki, yet most of the time he is out for his own interests. He seems to want Nikki for what she can do for him, rather than because he likes her. But it's not cut and dry. Since I love Cole, I wish he had a few more redeeming qualities. I would like to see a real love triangle - preferably with Cole winning in the end. I'm pretty sure that Jack is the guy that readers are -supposed- to root for. I wish Brodi had done a better job of making him endearing. I'm having too much trouble resisting Cole's bad-boy charms.
Everneath is split into Now v. Then time points. The story goes back and forth between Nikki's life before going to the Everneath and after. It takes almost the entire book to understand what drew her to the darkness. The mystery made the book weaker. If I had understood Nikki's past sooner, I would have connected better with her. By the time I learned all the details, I was so emotionally disconnected from the characters that I thought Nikki's heartbreak was superficial.
For all my criticism, Everneath is an interesting and enjoyable story. It was quite slow, but to readers who get sucked in more than me, I'm sure the plot will flow much better. Part of me liked all the characters. I just couldn't connect well enough to them to really care about them. I loved the mythology and the concept of immortals and emotional feeding. I'd recommend that you give Everneath a try (if for no other reason than the gorgeous cover), because there's a good chance you'll like it more than me.
Rating: 3 / 5
dreizehn's review against another edition
4.0
★★★★½ -- Everneath left me speechless. I suppose I should preface this by saying that I am a sucker for mythology. I love well-done, modernized stories that bring in elements of traditional tales, folklore or mythology. On top of that, I always liked the Greek myths of Hades and Persephone and Orpheus and Eurydice. I picked up Everneath because it had a gorgeous cover and I recognized it as a modern nod to the Persephone myth. I was not at all disappointed. Everneath flawlessly blends traditional fantasy, mythology, fatalism, redemption, love, angst, sacrifice and redemption.
If you had six months left, what would you do? Nikki Beckett decides, not even fully understanding why at first, to take this time to reconnect with the family and friends she has left behind. As far as they are concerned, she disappeared without a word of goodbye for six months. For Nikki, it has been a long hundred years since she fled the Surface, broken and desperate. The only thing she remembers as she makes the decision to make her Return is the face of a handsome boy she can scarcely assign a name to -- Jack.
However, her Return is not a smooth transition. She left her father with harsh words about his feelings toward her deceased mother. She left her boyfriend without giving him a chance to explain his actions because of her crushing doubts. She left her best friend without a word. Everyone who knows her thinks she was strung out on drugs for the six months she was gone. Can she really reconnect with them when she can't dare to tell them the truth, and can barely work out for herself what needs to be said? To make matters worse, Cole, the Everliving that seduced her into Everneath with promises that she never had to feel again, has followed her to the mortal world. He wants her to rule Everneath as his queen by his side, and he will not take no for an answer.
Everneath is full of emotion and masterfully styled. At its core, you have a story about a broken girl who has six months to make up for all the pain she caused those that love her by running away. Nikki's draw to Everneath reminds me of the show Dollhouse, where participants often agreed to lose control of their lives for years to escape from the obstacles of the world. The styling of the world of the Everneath, with the Everlings, Forfeits and Shades has an almost modern science-fiction/fantasy movie-type feel to it. However, the messages of fate, redemption and sacrifice are timeless, like the myths on which the novel is based.
I would recommend Everneath to absolutely anyone that thinks they might like the story, even a little bit. It has so much to offer, and I think that young adult paranormal/romance/dark fantasy fans will find Ashton's story especially refreshing. I eagerly await devouring the next two novels in the trilogy.
If you had six months left, what would you do? Nikki Beckett decides, not even fully understanding why at first, to take this time to reconnect with the family and friends she has left behind. As far as they are concerned, she disappeared without a word of goodbye for six months. For Nikki, it has been a long hundred years since she fled the Surface, broken and desperate. The only thing she remembers as she makes the decision to make her Return is the face of a handsome boy she can scarcely assign a name to -- Jack.
However, her Return is not a smooth transition. She left her father with harsh words about his feelings toward her deceased mother. She left her boyfriend without giving him a chance to explain his actions because of her crushing doubts. She left her best friend without a word. Everyone who knows her thinks she was strung out on drugs for the six months she was gone. Can she really reconnect with them when she can't dare to tell them the truth, and can barely work out for herself what needs to be said? To make matters worse, Cole, the Everliving that seduced her into Everneath with promises that she never had to feel again, has followed her to the mortal world. He wants her to rule Everneath as his queen by his side, and he will not take no for an answer.
Everneath is full of emotion and masterfully styled. At its core, you have a story about a broken girl who has six months to make up for all the pain she caused those that love her by running away. Nikki's draw to Everneath reminds me of the show Dollhouse, where participants often agreed to lose control of their lives for years to escape from the obstacles of the world. The styling of the world of the Everneath, with the Everlings, Forfeits and Shades has an almost modern science-fiction/fantasy movie-type feel to it. However, the messages of fate, redemption and sacrifice are timeless, like the myths on which the novel is based.
I would recommend Everneath to absolutely anyone that thinks they might like the story, even a little bit. It has so much to offer, and I think that young adult paranormal/romance/dark fantasy fans will find Ashton's story especially refreshing. I eagerly await devouring the next two novels in the trilogy.
justlily's review against another edition
4.0
I loved this! The take on the Greek mythology was really interesting and unique, little confusing at first but it gets there.
Also in a shocking turn of events: This is a YA, includes a love triangle, and I didn't hate it. Jack and Nikki's relationship is actually I think one of the best I've read in a YA fantasy. It's really believable and sweet and you can tell they genuinely love each other. I tend to feel like all the teenage romances are really shallow and pointless and this was completely the opposite. And even though Cole is The Bad Guy and a complete jerk the entire time, he's still pretty interesting and complex. Granted I may feel this way because I actually read book 1.5 before I read book 1 so I know a little more about Cole than is told here.
In general this was a SUPER fast read (seriously, I would sit down and read for like 10 minutes and get 50 pages, it goes crazy fast) and really enjoyable. Looking forward to the next one.
Also in a shocking turn of events: This is a YA, includes a love triangle, and I didn't hate it. Jack and Nikki's relationship is actually I think one of the best I've read in a YA fantasy. It's really believable and sweet and you can tell they genuinely love each other. I tend to feel like all the teenage romances are really shallow and pointless and this was completely the opposite. And even though Cole is The Bad Guy and a complete jerk the entire time, he's still pretty interesting and complex. Granted I may feel this way because I actually read book 1.5 before I read book 1 so I know a little more about Cole than is told here.
In general this was a SUPER fast read (seriously, I would sit down and read for like 10 minutes and get 50 pages, it goes crazy fast) and really enjoyable. Looking forward to the next one.
cari1268's review against another edition
3.0
I read the low reviews on this book and had pretty mild expectations. I am happy to be able to say that this book exceeded my expectations. I found the characters were likable enough and I'm always a sucker for retellings of myths and legends. Normally, books that jump through time drive me batty as I quickly tire of reading the "before" parts but the author did a good job with it. Just as I started getting bored of reading about "before", she started focusing more and more on the "now". That being said, I'm still not sure that I wouldn't have enjoyed reading the story more in chronological order. This book was well done and I enjoyed it. I was pretty glued to it and I finished it quickly.
Now all that being said, I did have some qualms. I wasn't in love with the ending. I got slightly annoyed when the characters started talking about redemption because I did not feel that the main character, Nikki, redeemed herself. She made a majorly stupid decision and didn't do anything very selfless throughout the story. That being said, I didn't dislike her as a character. She's a teenager and so a little self-invovement is expected and although I wouldn't call her selfless, selfish is too strong of a word.
I also think I would have liked this story more if it was one novel. I felt that the author could have tied up all the loose strings in one book and I'm not sure that I'll be as glued to the second one. *We shall see*
I didn't like that Nikki's impending doom to the tunnels was called her "debt". This is rather nit picky but it bothered me. I couldn't understand what she had been given to owe a debt. She had given six months (or 100 years depending on which time you're going to count) and her emotions. What did she get in return besides a void of emotions that she herself didn't seem to like? How was she in debt? It didn't make sense to my mind.
For being a high school romance, the love was highly unrealistic. That being said, it is a fiction novel and I did enjoy the romance. Although I wish I could have seen Nicki and Jack falling in love. Oh, and I also wouldn't say that there was a love triangle as other reviewers have mentioned. In my humble opinion, Nikki needed to love both guys for there to be a love triangle.
Overall, I enjoyed this one and I'm sure I'll get around to reading the second one someday.
Three stars.
Now all that being said, I did have some qualms. I wasn't in love with the ending. I got slightly annoyed when the characters started talking about redemption because I did not feel that the main character, Nikki, redeemed herself. She made a majorly stupid decision and didn't do anything very selfless throughout the story. That being said, I didn't dislike her as a character. She's a teenager and so a little self-invovement is expected and although I wouldn't call her selfless, selfish is too strong of a word.
I also think I would have liked this story more if it was one novel. I felt that the author could have tied up all the loose strings in one book and I'm not sure that I'll be as glued to the second one. *We shall see*
I didn't like that Nikki's impending doom to the tunnels was called her "debt". This is rather nit picky but it bothered me. I couldn't understand what she had been given to owe a debt. She had given six months (or 100 years depending on which time you're going to count) and her emotions. What did she get in return besides a void of emotions that she herself didn't seem to like? How was she in debt? It didn't make sense to my mind.
For being a high school romance, the love was highly unrealistic. That being said, it is a fiction novel and I did enjoy the romance. Although I wish I could have seen Nicki and Jack falling in love. Oh, and I also wouldn't say that there was a love triangle as other reviewers have mentioned. In my humble opinion, Nikki needed to love both guys for there to be a love triangle.
Overall, I enjoyed this one and I'm sure I'll get around to reading the second one someday.
Three stars.
audreychamaine's review against another edition
3.0
Everneath is a great answer for readers who loved Twilight, but want a book with a plot that differs from what has now become standard in YA paranormal romances. Ashton has succeeded in writing a novel that captures the romance and angst of Twilight, but with an original story to tell. There is a love triangle of sorts involved, but not really, since one of the guys is clearly a villain. And the good love-interest guy is no supernatural, but just a very dedicated boy.
I think what made this book work for me is the way that Ashton uses time as a plot device. We're constantly aware of the clock ticking down, and current chapters are alternated with chapters revealing earlier events leading to the present. Had the flashbacks taken place linearly, I don't think I would have been as intrigued as I was.
My only real frustration with with this story was Nikki. She goes back to earth to make amends with the people she left behind, knowing she only has about six months left, yet she doesn't talk to anybody and spends her lunch hours in a private "nook" knitting. I didn't get it. I know she was supposed to be empty after her time in the Everneath, but if you're going back with that as your only purpose, why did she waste so much of it? I couldn't get into her mind frame, and it frustrated me.
Fans of YA paranormal romance are going to eat this book up. The romance is definitely of the slowburn variety, and there's a great deal of tension as we wait for it to develop. Jack is "swoon-worthy" for those who are into that, and for people who like bad boys, Cole will be your man.
Overall, I enjoyed this book, although the romance was a bit thick and the action a bit light for my taste. I know it's going to have a ton of fans, all eager for the next in the series.
I think what made this book work for me is the way that Ashton uses time as a plot device. We're constantly aware of the clock ticking down, and current chapters are alternated with chapters revealing earlier events leading to the present. Had the flashbacks taken place linearly, I don't think I would have been as intrigued as I was.
My only real frustration with with this story was Nikki. She goes back to earth to make amends with the people she left behind, knowing she only has about six months left, yet she doesn't talk to anybody and spends her lunch hours in a private "nook" knitting. I didn't get it. I know she was supposed to be empty after her time in the Everneath, but if you're going back with that as your only purpose, why did she waste so much of it? I couldn't get into her mind frame, and it frustrated me.
Fans of YA paranormal romance are going to eat this book up. The romance is definitely of the slowburn variety, and there's a great deal of tension as we wait for it to develop. Jack is "swoon-worthy" for those who are into that, and for people who like bad boys, Cole will be your man.
Overall, I enjoyed this book, although the romance was a bit thick and the action a bit light for my taste. I know it's going to have a ton of fans, all eager for the next in the series.
evanipatel's review against another edition
5.0
Woah this was definitely not what I was expecting. Such a cool twist on mythology.
silvyinwonderland's review against another edition
5.0
4.5
Ma che finale è??? DeA, voglio il seguito subito!!!
Recensione: http://wefoundwonderlandinbooks.blogspot.it/2016/01/recensione-everneath-di-brodi-ashton.html
Ma che finale è??? DeA, voglio il seguito subito!!!
Recensione: http://wefoundwonderlandinbooks.blogspot.it/2016/01/recensione-everneath-di-brodi-ashton.html