(ARC) YA Book Review: Everneath by Brodi Ashton

Release Date: 31 January 2012

Publisher: HarperTeen
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Get a copy! Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Goodreads description:

Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath, where immortals Feed on the emotions of despairing humans. Now she's returned- to her old life, her family, her friends- before being 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 months reconnecting with her boyfriend, Jack, the one person she loves more than anything. But there's a problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who first enticed her to the Everneath, has followed Nikki to the mortal world. And he'll do whatever it takes to bring her back- this time as his queen.

My Thoughts...


Everneath blends elements from the myths of Persephone and Eurydice into an original contemporary story.  I think that was my favorite thing about this story--it wasn't a simple retelling of a beautiful love story: it was a new love story all its own that happened to incorporate elements of classic mythology.  I loved that the mythology was used to create something new and not simply redone as it has been many times before.

Heroes are made by the paths they choose, not the powers they are graced with.

-p.92, eARC

Nikki, our MC, has made some bad decisions and they've cost her everything.  When we first meet her, she is just waking from a century attached to Cole with him feeding off of her. I found her a bit difficult to really connect with at the beginning simply because she was so disoriented herself.  Her perspective jumps between the past (before the Feed) and the present, which I think adds at the beginning to a sense of disorientation, confusion, and hopelessness. It was hard to watch Nikki attempt to work through the difficulties of her Return and figure out what she really wanted when she made that choice. She really did grow on me throughout the novel.

Jack, however, was just the most fabulous, swoon-worthy boy just about EVER.  He is so loyal and committed and KIND.  He doesn't push Nikki about what happened until she seems a bit more stable and together and then he's willing to listen to what she has to say and not push her away immediately.  It made me ache to know that she was going to hurt him again.  He wasn't your stereotypical brooding bad boy but an honestly nice guy.

I've read enough mixed reviews on this one to know that not everyone is going to love it, but I totally did.  The relationship that Nikki and Jack (re-)develop throughout the story is really a beautiful romance (without insta-love because, hello, they were together before).  The mythology is at the center of the story, but Ms. Ashton didn't simply take it and try to re-make it--she created something new and beautiful. If you enjoy mythology woven into stories, this is a definite must-read. The characters and the story truly won me over in the end.