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A review by eba497
Everlost by Neal Shusterman
3.0
3.5 Stars
Spoiler Free TLDR:
Children who die and get lost heading to the light become Ghosts. The plot of the story is exploring the world the MC's find themselves in after dying, and the characters they run into. This book has a good plot, really good writing, great characters, and fantastic world building.
Recommended for ages 13+. This book has an extremely toned down theme of the naughtiness of children when left alone, such as witnessed in 'Peter Pan' and 'The Lord of the Flies'.
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Thoughts and (major) Spoilers Below:
Plot: 3/5
Allie and Nick (both MC's) get into a fatal carcrash that sends them towards the light. However, they get knocked off course and end up as Ghosts ("Afterlights") in Everlost (parallel dimension to Earth). The book follows as they learn more about their new world and explore it's secrets.
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Writing: 3.5/5
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World Building: 5/5
When people die, their souls find it's way towards the light. Adults, being as smart and determined as they are, never miss heading straight to the light. Children, however, can stray off the path towards the light, ending up in Everlost, a parallel dimension to Earth, and becoming Afterlights (Ghosts). As birth takes 9 months, so does becoming an Afterlight.
Afterlights are prone to forget memories if they don't often try to think about them, and their image/body can become distorted if they forget what they look like. They're stuck in whatever fashion they died in (messy hair, exact clothes, food on their face), don't need to eat/sleep/breathe, and glow in the dark. As they are ghosts, they are only solid on dead-areas (places that cross over into their dimension that has sentimental meaning (i.e. Twin Towers)). If they do not keep moving on non-dead-areas, they will sink all the way into the Earth's core. Due to the constant habit of continuous moving, Afterlights are prone to becoming stuck in a rut, repeating the same actions for years.
Some Afterlights are also able to contain special abilities, such as taking over a human body or bringing items from Earth into the Everlost.
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Characters' Rating: 4/5
The two MC's, Allie and Nick, and the two 'villains', Mary and Mikey, do a great job serving as foils to their antithesis.
-Allie: Starts as goal-oriented, practical, and stubborn. She butts heads with everyone around her, and is an annoying know-it-all. She doesn't really end as all that likable, but you do see a shift in her character when she decides to drop all her plans and go with Mikey.
-Nick: Another MC that begins as an annoying character but ends up significantly growing throughout the book. He starts as an easy, go with the flow type of character who doesn't take charge, and in the end becomes a type of 'Savior' character. Even though he "loves" Mary, he accepts that she is a horrible person and vows to do everything in his power to stop her from imprisoning children in Everlost. As such, he becomes the new 'boogieman' at the end of the book.
-Megan McGill/Mary Hightower:
For the majority of the book, I saw her as a 'Savior' figure. We learn that her biggest dream was to become a mother, and she has certainly done that in Everlost, adopting every lost child that comes her way. She also becomes a renoun author, teaching all she knows about Everlost and the Afterlights. She was one of the more likable characters, to the extreme that I disliked Allie because of her animosity towards Mary. However, at the end of the book, we learn that she actually keeps the knowledge of returning to the light a secret from the other kids. In the end, the reader sees her as the true monster she is, even though she's hailed at the end of the book as an "angel".
-Mikey Mcgill/The McGill: Everlost's biggest monster, he obtained his beastly form by escaping from the Earth's core and forgetting what he looks like. His biggest dream is to become human again, and he pursues that dream by reading fortune cookies which lead him to capturing over 1000 Afterlights. His feelings towards Allie lead him towards trust and emotions and, after re-meeting his sister Megan, he retains his normal human form. At the end of the book, he swears to make up for all his bad deeds and wants to try becoming good again.
Other characters like Vari, Lief, and Pinhead were really good characters as well, but didn't have much exposure.
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Overall Enjoyment: 3.5/5
Last few chapter wrapped everything together and changed the whole way I viewed the story. Looking back, the author did a really good job. It just seemed to drag a bit for me.
Loved:
-Barely read the first page, and my heart just dropped.
-Excerpts from Mary Hightowers book, which provide extra outside worldbuilding.
-Mary being the bad guy, and The McGill trying to become good.
-The McGill remembering Megan's real name when even she doesn't (proving how important she is to him)
-Why Lief has so many freckles
Nitpicks:
-The Mary and Nick/Mikey and Allie pair up. Probably because they're all just 14/15 year olds.
-The skin jacking scenes. There's not enough of them to warrant them being in the book.
Spoiler Free TLDR:
Children who die and get lost heading to the light become Ghosts. The plot of the story is exploring the world the MC's find themselves in after dying, and the characters they run into. This book has a good plot, really good writing, great characters, and fantastic world building.
Recommended for ages 13+. This book has an extremely toned down theme of the naughtiness of children when left alone, such as witnessed in 'Peter Pan' and 'The Lord of the Flies'.
---
Thoughts and (major) Spoilers Below:
Plot: 3/5
Allie and Nick (both MC's) get into a fatal carcrash that sends them towards the light. However, they get knocked off course and end up as Ghosts ("Afterlights") in Everlost (parallel dimension to Earth). The book follows as they learn more about their new world and explore it's secrets.
------
Writing: 3.5/5
------
World Building: 5/5
When people die, their souls find it's way towards the light. Adults, being as smart and determined as they are, never miss heading straight to the light. Children, however, can stray off the path towards the light, ending up in Everlost, a parallel dimension to Earth, and becoming Afterlights (Ghosts). As birth takes 9 months, so does becoming an Afterlight.
Afterlights are prone to forget memories if they don't often try to think about them, and their image/body can become distorted if they forget what they look like. They're stuck in whatever fashion they died in (messy hair, exact clothes, food on their face), don't need to eat/sleep/breathe, and glow in the dark. As they are ghosts, they are only solid on dead-areas (places that cross over into their dimension that has sentimental meaning (i.e. Twin Towers)). If they do not keep moving on non-dead-areas, they will sink all the way into the Earth's core. Due to the constant habit of continuous moving, Afterlights are prone to becoming stuck in a rut, repeating the same actions for years.
Some Afterlights are also able to contain special abilities, such as taking over a human body or bringing items from Earth into the Everlost.
------
Characters' Rating: 4/5
The two MC's, Allie and Nick, and the two 'villains', Mary and Mikey, do a great job serving as foils to their antithesis.
-Allie: Starts as goal-oriented, practical, and stubborn. She butts heads with everyone around her, and is an annoying know-it-all. She doesn't really end as all that likable, but you do see a shift in her character when she decides to drop all her plans and go with Mikey.
-Nick: Another MC that begins as an annoying character but ends up significantly growing throughout the book. He starts as an easy, go with the flow type of character who doesn't take charge, and in the end becomes a type of 'Savior' character. Even though he "loves" Mary, he accepts that she is a horrible person and vows to do everything in his power to stop her from imprisoning children in Everlost. As such, he becomes the new 'boogieman' at the end of the book.
-Megan McGill/Mary Hightower:
For the majority of the book, I saw her as a 'Savior' figure. We learn that her biggest dream was to become a mother, and she has certainly done that in Everlost, adopting every lost child that comes her way. She also becomes a renoun author, teaching all she knows about Everlost and the Afterlights. She was one of the more likable characters, to the extreme that I disliked Allie because of her animosity towards Mary. However, at the end of the book, we learn that she actually keeps the knowledge of returning to the light a secret from the other kids. In the end, the reader sees her as the true monster she is, even though she's hailed at the end of the book as an "angel".
-Mikey Mcgill/The McGill: Everlost's biggest monster, he obtained his beastly form by escaping from the Earth's core and forgetting what he looks like. His biggest dream is to become human again, and he pursues that dream by reading fortune cookies which lead him to capturing over 1000 Afterlights. His feelings towards Allie lead him towards trust and emotions and, after re-meeting his sister Megan, he retains his normal human form. At the end of the book, he swears to make up for all his bad deeds and wants to try becoming good again.
Other characters like Vari, Lief, and Pinhead were really good characters as well, but didn't have much exposure.
------
Overall Enjoyment: 3.5/5
Last few chapter wrapped everything together and changed the whole way I viewed the story. Looking back, the author did a really good job. It just seemed to drag a bit for me.
Loved:
-Barely read the first page, and my heart just dropped.
-Excerpts from Mary Hightowers book, which provide extra outside worldbuilding.
-Mary being the bad guy, and The McGill trying to become good.
-The McGill remembering Megan's real name when even she doesn't (proving how important she is to him)
-Why Lief has so many freckles
Nitpicks:
-The Mary and Nick/Mikey and Allie pair up. Probably because they're all just 14/15 year olds.
-The skin jacking scenes. There's not enough of them to warrant them being in the book.