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lyderature 's review for:
Everneath
by Brodi Ashton
Spoilers.
Everneath by Brodi Ashton. Some parts were great, and other parts were more on the "meh" side.
Let's start with the plot. Am I the only one who found it slightly, er, sketchy? I guess I don't feel like it was fully fleshed out enough. We never got a full description of the Everneath and the whole process of Everlivings sucking the energy? soul? heat? from human victims and my mind still can't fully wrap around that concept. Brodi Ashton probably wanted us readers to take some "imaginative liberties" so to speak, concerning that part, but still! The Everneath is an absolutely key element that drives the plot and Nikki, so I would hope for a leetle more detail, ya know. It was vague. And it intrigued me, but we don't really learn about it. Instead! The book is mostly about how Nikki is haunted by it.
And that comes to point numero dos. Nikki Beckett. So she returns to the Earth to truly redeem herself, and fix all those things that she left broken when she left her friends, her boyfriend, and her family the first time. But the problem is, is that I didn't really get the feeling that she was trying hard. She was really just focused on Jack Caputo, and was torn between preserving his attachment to her and building up their relationship to some form of "love", or ending in then and there, so he could get on with his life, because she secretly knows that he would be better off not obsessed with her. She basically wants him to love her, and wants him to not love her at the same time. So because she's at this standstill, Nikki does virtually nothing . She just has those utterly, painfully, extremely awkward afterschool sessions where she pretends to be doing schoolwork when she's actually just scrutinizing every action that Jack makes, oh, and no actual conversation really happens between the two for like, half the book. And she sometimes fends off Cole and his creepy persuasion techniques. This is pretty much the first 3/4 of the book. The rest is flashbacks of Nikki and her life before the Everneath, and how she happy she was and everything, and now she's all broken inside and lonely.
And I'm thinking, "Girl! We know you have regrets! But the past is over and done with! It's history! Shouldn't you be trying, to er, fix things? Like you told yourself you would?" And I guess that's my main problem with Miss Beckett. She's the kind of person who tells herself she'll do something, but ends up not following through. And so time slips away, and suddenly we have what? Two months left? And Nikki finally is like, "Oh, shoot, I haven't done anything." And this is another issue with me. I feel like, if most people had a chance, even the slightest chance, to come back from the dead basically, and make things right on the earth, they would throw themselves at it, and devote themselves wholeheartedly toward redemption or something. And Nikki...she just doesn't. She's just obsessed over Jack, even though she spends most of the time hiding from him when people ARE trying to reconnect with her. And nearing the end, she toys with the idea that it might be possible for her to stay on the Earth. It finally occurs to her, when she has like a month left! And even then, she doesn't fully focus on that. There are two things. Living life to the fullest for the last six months, or finding a way to stay on the Earth. And because she's I don't know, confused, upset, and kinda lacking will (understandable of course), she tries to do both, but ends up getting really nothing accomplished until the last month.
This sounds like I'm bashing on Nikki. But I'm trying not to, that girl seriously needs a hug and some R&R. She has my sympathy. But the rest of the characters...Jack Caputo for instance. He felt slightly flat at times. And Cole, who's supposed to be "smoldering", came off more like whiny, insistent, and kinda creepy. But when you put the characters all together, they fit. They work.
And then the end of the book. Or, at least, the 25% where things really start happening.
Wait, backtrack a bit. First of all, there were some very predictable things in this novel. Meredith. I knew she was Mary the first time the strange-Mary-disappearance-thing was mentioned. To me, it was like Ashton kept trying to drop subtle hints, oh Meredith knows something about Persephone, oh Mary was involved with Cole's band (whatever their band name was), etc. but these hints were more like forty-pound anvils.
Now, back to the end of the book. The mythology makes a reappearance now, finally! Except...this time, it's Egyptian. It started out with Persephone...and ended with Isis. Huh? So yeah, the mythology is kinda tangled together, but aren't all myths like that? So I appreciate what Ashton did there.
In a nutshell. Whoa, "major discoveries"! Meredith is Mary! She knows how Nikki can stay on earth! Aaah, Meredith is taken by a swirling tornado vortex thing (Wizard of Oz, anyone?) Oh, but she leaves a bracelet! The bracelet, has weird charms! What do they mean, what do they mean? Whoa, Nikki is some special daughter of Persephone! Smash Cole's heart, it's in his guitar! No, wait, it's his pick!
Uh-oh. Too late. The Everneath has come.
And Jack sacrifices himself instead.
Oh my, that was slightly cliche, but also touching. Maybe Nikki has found redemption after all. And now that she's lost love...well at least she finally has a will. To fight for it.
Yeah, this review was a lot of criticism...*cringes*. But the book is better than what I've made it sound like, I assure you! Brodi Ashton writes in a way that's straight to the point. She's not some lyrical, purple-prose spinner. And through this, you get the the harsh, gritty feelings Nikki has in full color—desperation, pain, hopelessness, regret.
And, there were times when the story was really just...sad. Nikki realizes that she made mistakes, and she rashly might've just thrown away her life in an emotionally charged moment by accepting Cole's offer, but now she's determined to make amends. Yet, also, it's almost like she's almost given up a bit, and she's in such pain...it's just sad.
But those bits like where she finds out she can laugh, and smile, and genuinely feel it, are bits that I really enjoyed. Nikki's self-confidence is boosted, and her heart slowly heals.
It's an intriguing concept, with and oddly-paced plot and a kinda forlorn feel at times, but still, it's well-done. 3.5 stars!
Everneath by Brodi Ashton. Some parts were great, and other parts were more on the "meh" side.
Let's start with the plot. Am I the only one who found it slightly, er, sketchy? I guess I don't feel like it was fully fleshed out enough. We never got a full description of the Everneath and the whole process of Everlivings sucking the energy? soul? heat? from human victims and my mind still can't fully wrap around that concept. Brodi Ashton probably wanted us readers to take some "imaginative liberties" so to speak, concerning that part, but still! The Everneath is an absolutely key element that drives the plot and Nikki, so I would hope for a leetle more detail, ya know. It was vague. And it intrigued me, but we don't really learn about it. Instead! The book is mostly about how Nikki is haunted by it.
And that comes to point numero dos. Nikki Beckett. So she returns to the Earth to truly redeem herself, and fix all those things that she left broken when she left her friends, her boyfriend, and her family the first time. But the problem is, is that I didn't really get the feeling that she was trying hard. She was really just focused on Jack Caputo, and was torn between preserving his attachment to her and building up their relationship to some form of "love", or ending in then and there, so he could get on with his life, because she secretly knows that he would be better off not obsessed with her. She basically wants him to love her, and wants him to not love her at the same time. So because she's at this standstill, Nikki does virtually nothing . She just has those utterly, painfully, extremely awkward afterschool sessions where she pretends to be doing schoolwork when she's actually just scrutinizing every action that Jack makes, oh, and no actual conversation really happens between the two for like, half the book. And she sometimes fends off Cole and his creepy persuasion techniques. This is pretty much the first 3/4 of the book. The rest is flashbacks of Nikki and her life before the Everneath, and how she happy she was and everything, and now she's all broken inside and lonely.
And I'm thinking, "Girl! We know you have regrets! But the past is over and done with! It's history! Shouldn't you be trying, to er, fix things? Like you told yourself you would?" And I guess that's my main problem with Miss Beckett. She's the kind of person who tells herself she'll do something, but ends up not following through. And so time slips away, and suddenly we have what? Two months left? And Nikki finally is like, "Oh, shoot, I haven't done anything." And this is another issue with me. I feel like, if most people had a chance, even the slightest chance, to come back from the dead basically, and make things right on the earth, they would throw themselves at it, and devote themselves wholeheartedly toward redemption or something. And Nikki...she just doesn't. She's just obsessed over Jack, even though she spends most of the time hiding from him when people ARE trying to reconnect with her. And nearing the end, she toys with the idea that it might be possible for her to stay on the Earth. It finally occurs to her, when she has like a month left! And even then, she doesn't fully focus on that. There are two things. Living life to the fullest for the last six months, or finding a way to stay on the Earth. And because she's I don't know, confused, upset, and kinda lacking will (understandable of course), she tries to do both, but ends up getting really nothing accomplished until the last month.
This sounds like I'm bashing on Nikki. But I'm trying not to, that girl seriously needs a hug and some R&R. She has my sympathy. But the rest of the characters...Jack Caputo for instance. He felt slightly flat at times. And Cole, who's supposed to be "smoldering", came off more like whiny, insistent, and kinda creepy. But when you put the characters all together, they fit. They work.
And then the end of the book. Or, at least, the 25% where things really start happening.
Wait, backtrack a bit. First of all, there were some very predictable things in this novel. Meredith. I knew she was Mary the first time the strange-Mary-disappearance-thing was mentioned. To me, it was like Ashton kept trying to drop subtle hints, oh Meredith knows something about Persephone, oh Mary was involved with Cole's band (whatever their band name was), etc. but these hints were more like forty-pound anvils.
Now, back to the end of the book. The mythology makes a reappearance now, finally! Except...this time, it's Egyptian. It started out with Persephone...and ended with Isis. Huh? So yeah, the mythology is kinda tangled together, but aren't all myths like that? So I appreciate what Ashton did there.
In a nutshell. Whoa, "major discoveries"! Meredith is Mary! She knows how Nikki can stay on earth! Aaah, Meredith is taken by a swirling tornado vortex thing (Wizard of Oz, anyone?) Oh, but she leaves a bracelet! The bracelet, has weird charms! What do they mean, what do they mean? Whoa, Nikki is some special daughter of Persephone! Smash Cole's heart, it's in his guitar! No, wait, it's his pick!
Uh-oh. Too late. The Everneath has come.
And Jack sacrifices himself instead.
Oh my, that was slightly cliche, but also touching. Maybe Nikki has found redemption after all. And now that she's lost love...well at least she finally has a will. To fight for it.
Yeah, this review was a lot of criticism...*cringes*. But the book is better than what I've made it sound like, I assure you! Brodi Ashton writes in a way that's straight to the point. She's not some lyrical, purple-prose spinner. And through this, you get the the harsh, gritty feelings Nikki has in full color—desperation, pain, hopelessness, regret.
And, there were times when the story was really just...sad. Nikki realizes that she made mistakes, and she rashly might've just thrown away her life in an emotionally charged moment by accepting Cole's offer, but now she's determined to make amends. Yet, also, it's almost like she's almost given up a bit, and she's in such pain...it's just sad.
But those bits like where she finds out she can laugh, and smile, and genuinely feel it, are bits that I really enjoyed. Nikki's self-confidence is boosted, and her heart slowly heals.
It's an intriguing concept, with and oddly-paced plot and a kinda forlorn feel at times, but still, it's well-done. 3.5 stars!