Evermore

Evermore by Alyson Noel

320 pages

Rating: 4/5

Goodreads blurb:

Since a horrible accident claimed the lives of her family, sixteen-year-old Ever can see auras, hear people’s thoughts, and know a person’s life story by touch.   Going out of her way to shield herself from human contact to suppress her abilities has branded her as a freak at her new high school—but everything changes when she meets Damen Auguste…
Ever sees Damen and feels an instant recognition.  He is gorgeous, exotic and wealthy, and he holds many secrets.  Damen is able to make things appear and disappear, he always seems to know what she’s thinking—and he’s the only one who can silence the noise and the random energy in her head.  She doesn’t know who he really is—or what he is.  Damen equal parts light and darkness, and he belongs to an enchanted new world where no one ever dies.

My thoughts:

Evermore is a young adult fiction novel revolving around Ever herself.  Told in first person by Ever, the novel opens our eyes to the world of immortals.  I will not say anything else related to the plot, as I tend to ruin things.  But I will say this: it was a new take in YA fantasy for me.

This novel surprise me.  For once, I did not have it all figured out.  And at times, I was as confused as Ever was about Damen and what the heck was going on.  As the plot was told from one person's point-of-view, Alyson Noel only gave us only so much as to the underlying happenings.  It intrigued me, which is saying a lot from a person who is almost on overload from YA fantasy.  I can get tired of the vampire, werewolf, alternate reality scene, but this fresh take on the world of immortals had me as intrigued as the first time I read Twilight (which was my first YA fantasy, vampire story ever).

That being said, Ever as a character got on my nerves.  Perhaps it is because she and I are not similar, but sometimes I wanted to hit her upside the head.  (Which was probably Noel's purpose.)  I've never been the popular pretty girl, but I've also never been the goth girl either.  So maybe that was my frustration with Ever, I just did not get her. There are times when I get irritated with first-person stories, and this was one of those times.  She just got on my nerves a little bit.  I could relate to what she was feeling, and I myself was frustrated with the situation - I just did not have patience for the way she was dealing with it.

Moving on, Damen as a character was a complete mystery to me right up until the end.  I was just as confused as Ever.  He was so hot/cold all the time.  I was stumped.  At least in Twilight, I kind of had a clue as to what was going on.  This - not a clue.  Even when he was explaining things to Ever, I was still like, "Oh my gosh - really?"  That being said, it was harder for me to get the whole loving-for-eternity thing from him.  Perhaps, Damen will be more convincing in the next book.  I believe it was just because I spent half the novel mad at him for being so hot/cold that I couldn't instantly change my feelings about him and start loving him.  Either way, he made a good opposing character to Ever.  And I do like them together, confusion aside.  I'm looking forward to reading the next book where I have some idea of what's going on.

Overall, I enjoyed Evermore.  I read the entire book in a day, and I could not put it down.  I got a little frustrated with the drama of some of it.  But, I feel that if Ever had not had those qualities to make me lose patience with her, I probably would have doubted her credibility due to a lack of emotions relating to her family's death.  The simple fact that she reacted made her more believable as a character.  I gave this novel a 4/5.  If I gave half points, I would have given 3.5/5 - but since I did read in one day and couldn't put it down, I thought it deserved to be rounded up.  I would recommend this book for lovers of YA fantasy.  I think it was every bit as good as other YA favorites that I have.  

I apologize if this review is vague.  I had trouble putting my feelings into words about this book without revealing too much.  My family is always on me about spoiling things, so that is that last thing I want to do for these books.  Ultimately, if you like YA books, go read it.  I believe you'll enjoy it.  Then, we can talk about my love/hate relationship with Ever.  You'll see.