Evermore (The Immortals, #1)

by Alyson Noël

Since the car accident that claimed the lives of her family, sixteen-year-old Ever can see auras and hear people's thoughts, and she goes out of her way to hide from other people until she meets Damen, another psychic teenager who is hiding even more mysteries.

• ISBN10: 031253275X
• ISBN13: 9780312532758
• Publish Date: 3 February 2009
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: St Martin's Press
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

In the rush of books hastily published on the wake of Twilight's success, there's only about 5% that are well-written, worthwhile books.

Evermore is not quite one of them.

Evermore is about a girl who survives a car crash that killed her family.  She comes out of the accident with a near-death experience and goes to live with her wealthy young aunt who is rarely around and deals with her newfound psychic abilities by hiding in awkward hoodies and loud music.  Then she meets Damen.  Damen is the only person whose thoughts are quiet in Ever's head.  And he's drop dead gorgeous.  And she won't let you forget it.

I listened to this book slowly.  The narrator was fine, but the one-dimensional characters were tiring, and it's a story we've all heard before.  It's a young supernatural romance and we deal with a "blonde goddess", a goth girl, a stereotypical gay best friend, and a Brooding YA Hero.  Before you get excited that this is a vampire book, it's not.  At least, the author repeatedly tells you it's not.  They drink a "strange red liquid" and can materialize flowers and live forever and heal instantly and move faster than light, but they are not vampires.

You know what kills me most about Evermore?  If you take out Damen and look at the story from the psychic POV and follow Ever and Riley's story... it's a good book.  The sibling story was what kept me reading.  Unfortunately, this was relegated to subplot in the face of the YA paranormal romance due to the publishing needs at the time.

I will be honest and say I expected Evermore to be worse, and I was pleased to discover parts I enjoyed.  Fans of cheesy YA romance and paranormal romance will love this.  For myself, I won't continue on with the series (the parts I enjoyed were all resolved in this book) but I would give Alyson Noel another chance.

[Leah]

Why did I wait so long to start this series? It was by no means perfect - Damen seemed to blow hot and cold, and Ever was okay with going along with that???? "He's my boyfriend." "Oh, he's ignoring me, but that's okay we're boyfriend & girlfriend." etc. and I kinda wished she had more of a backbone, but I liked the book overall, the addition of Riley and it made me cry. So there's that.

[Linda]

I stopped reading at 34%, I just couldn't take the drama anymore, and really, nothing much has even happened so far! Ever is so adamant to not hear what other people are thinking she forgets she's still alive. *sighs*

I experienced deja-vu while reading Evermore. This story has the same themes and structures of almost every other YA book that I've read and its aura fails to shine in comparison to the other books that deals with the same themes. The whole story is predictable.

Ever, the main character, annoys me so much. I understand her grief, but her bratty, selfish and annoying behaviour didn't allow me to connect with her character.

Her love interest is Damen, the tall, dark and handsome mysterious guy who is good at everything and has no flaws, because apparently perfection isn't overrated. Even although he acts like a total jerk all the time and continually puts Ever's life in danger, she still manages to fall madly in love with him. CUE THE INSTA-LOVE! I'm not interested or invested in Ever and Damen as a couple and I feel that Ever could have found a much better love interest, preferably someone who doesn't have any ties to their past relationships. ).

What kept me reading is Riley, Ever's dead sister. She brings fun and laughter as well as sadness grief and her relationship with Ever reminded of me a little of my relationship with my older sister.

Evermore lacks a solid plot and has no shock factor. The insta-love romance is focused on more than the paranormal aspect and this book fails to draw me in and keep me invested.

[elysium]

DNF page 188

Nothing has happened yet and I'm too bored to continue...

[neddieb]

Wow this book was TERRIBLE!!!!!

[bookishzelda]

This book has been sitting on my TBR shelf since it came out in paperback. I had picked it up because I liked the cover and the premise seemed good. Somehow it just kept getting pushed off the top of the pile.




The book was interesting. It kept me reading because I was quite sure what was going on, about half of the way through I was still wondering who was who. I kept checking the cover to make sure it said the Immortals and not the Vampires. Alyson Noel does have the characters joke about that a little in the book themselves. Evermore was like a mystery novel figuring out why Ever is the way she is and why Damen is the way he is. It does have a lot of similarities of some of the other popular YA novels that came out around that time.




I really liked Ever in the beginning. She was going through a lot but she still had a sense of strength about her. I liked that she didn't cave to Damon easily and would even take control of the situation at times. Towards the end of the book I felt she digressed a little bit, she seemed to get more sappy and selfish. Where was that strong girl I enjoyed in the beginning of the book. Even though she hid under a hoodie she didn't seem like she was going to take anyones crap.

Damen was mysterious and seemed totally devoted to Ever. I don't think it was ever really explained why he could silence her thoughts. There are five more books to explore just that I'm assuming.

Drina was good as the villian and when her and Damen's true relationship comes to light. I found that perspective unique. She wasn't just following Damen around for no reason. I also liked her influence on some of the supporting characters, it made her seem more clever.

The writing flowed and I actually finished the book quickly. I had to know what the mystery was! So as far as keeping me engaged it did a good job with that. I'm not going to pretend I would consider it my favorite book ever but it is definitely an interesting read. If you like paranormal romance, this definitely falls in line with that.

[boghunden]

Da jeg havde læst første kapitel, blev jeg bange. Jeg tjekkede lidt anmeldelser på nettet og blev endnu mere bange. Alle sammenlignede med Twilight. Jeg bryder mig ikke om Twilight, så udsigten til 345 sider med samme plot, det var bare for meget. Jeg lagde bogen på hylden to ugers tid, men tog så fat på den igen, den skulle jo have en chance.
Og hvor er jeg glad for, jeg gav den en. Den overraskede mig meget. Og de første 100 sider kunne måske godt minde om Twilight, men synes den her bog havde et eller andet ekstra, som gjorde jeg holdt mig kørende. Jeg endte faktisk med at være ret glad for den her bog og jeg skal helt sikkert have fat i fortsættelserne engang. Det var en sød og varm historie. Plottet var måske lidt tyndt og man skulle egentlig relativt langt, før der begyndte at ske det helt store, men der var noget der gjorde, at jeg faktisk var lidt ligeglad.
Det var egentlig en lidt ligegyldig bog, som alligevel var værd at læse. Jeg håber I forstår, hvad jeg mener. Den er et friskt pust i hverdagen.
Jeg vil helt sikkert anbefale bogen her til min søster, der er ret glad for Twilight, men jeg vil også anbefale den til folk der ikke kunne lide Twilight. Lad jer ikke afskrække! Det er jeg i hvert fald glad for, jeg gjorde!

[Suz @ Bookish Revelations]

I found Evermore to be a really quick and fun read, that was somewhat interesting. Ever isn't your normal stereotypical teenager that you find in most young adult books, these days. She's a bit different, unique in her own way. It's not hard to relate to her character at all and while she is likable on some levels, there were times when I found her a bit frustrating. She goes from being one of the more popular girls, to a pony-tailed freak who gets visits from her dead little sister and tries to block out the rest of the world with loud music filtered through her i-pod.

I wasn't incredibly thrilled with the insta-love developed between Ever and Damien, but I did like the fact that his touch could calm the noise inside her head and at the same time, give her shivers. There was a definite connection there and I found myself wanting to see it explored a bit more, it was sort of sweet and romantic.

Riley, I have so much love for this character, and she was only secondary but one of the most important things to Ever. She was totally adorable and was able to provide just the right amount of comedic timing when needed. I also enjoyed her purpose for being there and for showing Ever that she needed to move on, that some things were meant to happen and you just have to deal with them - that you can't change them no matter what you do.

In a way Riley represented Ever's past, while still giving her the strength and push to move on and live her life the way that she should be doing, instead of clinging to what was. Riley's final moment with Ever in the book was one of the most emotional for me, personally. I couldn't help but ache for Ever in relation to the lonliness that she felt.

There was good character and plot developments, the imagery and world building that Noel sets up is quite interesting, as is the otherworldly elements as well. If you're looking for something light and interesting, something akin to the House of Night series or The Vampire Academy, then I would suggest the The Immortal series most definitely.

[liz089]

I liked the story, but sometimes I found it to childish for me. Also a little predictive every now and then. But part from that it is a great story.I love the whole concept of past lives, and it's very romantic.