Everneath (Everneath Trilogy, #1)

by Brodi Ashton

"Enthralling and suspenseful, EVERNEATH is pure indulgent escapism!" - Becca Fitzpatrick, NYT Bestselling Author of Hush, Hush

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.

She's forced to make the hardest decision of her life: find a way to cheat fate and remain on the Surface with Jack or return to the Everneath and become Cole's...

"Ashton s debut, is complex and intriguing. Drawing inspiration from such myths as Osiris, Orpheus, and Persephone, it explores the nature of loss and longing and what it means to be alive." - Publishers Weekly
"I was pulled under by this bittersweet, beautiful retelling of the Persephone myth. Ashton's lovely storytelling and strong-on-her-own-terms main character set this one apart. Wonderful!" - Ally Condie, author of the MATCHED trilogy
"The powerful emotions, moving and painful rebuilding of strained relationships, and star-crossed love story is sure to resonate with teen readers." - School Library Journal
"A fresh, innovative concept to young adult fiction with well-developed characters and a fantastic plot line .... Libraries are advised to buy multiple copies-this one will fly off the shelves." - Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA) (starred review)

• ISBN10: 0857074598
• ISBN13: 9780857074591
• Publish Date: 2 August 2012 (first published 3 January 2012)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster Childrens Books
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

4,5 stars

"Heroes are made by the paths they choose, not the powers they are graced with." (Mrs Stone)

There are no words that can suffice in explaining how utterly sad and depressing Everneath is.

Nikki wakes up in the human world after spending 6 months in the Everneath. When she wakes up in the human world - 6 months after she disappeared to the Everneath (time works differently in the human world and Everneath) - she has about 6 months left to say goodbye to the people that she loves before the Everneath claims her for good.

From the moment that I started reading Everneath, I was hooked. Everneath is influenced by Mythology specifically the Greek Myths involving Hades and Persephone and Orpheus and Eurydice. I love books that deal with Mythology and in Everneath, the mythological aspect is unique. The world of the Everneath, the Forfeits, the Feeding etc. is quite intriguing.

Everneath is also told through a then-and-now timeline and this gives us a view into what led Nikki into the Everneath as well as the events that take place when she resurfaces in the human world. The back-and-forth timeline narration also shows the relationship that Nikki had with her family and friends before and after her time in the Everneath and also adds to the mystery.

Nikki is a strong character who meets the challenges that come her way head-on. She also admits to her faults and takes responsibility for her actions. Her loss, grief and hopelessness seeps through the pages of Everneath.

Everneath is also a romance heavy book. The romance is believable and plays such a huge role in Nikki's emotional journey. Jack, is such a sweetheart and I love reading about his relationship with Nikki.

The antagonist of Everneath is Cole, a sympathetic bad-boy and a complex character. One doesn't know whether his actions are genuine or whether he has ulterior motives. I don't know how I feel about him and I love that he's a morally grey character.

One of the secondary characters that stand out in Everneath is Will Caputo, Jack's brother, and while he's drunk for the majority of Everneath, I feel like he's going to play a larger role in Everbound.

Nikki's aim for coming back to the human world was to 'fix' her relationship with her father and brother and get a proper chance to say goodbye, but not much page time is dedicated to her relationship with her family.

Here's the thing about Everneath, we already know what happened to Nikki, but what we see is the journey that led her there and what happens afterwards. I can't wait to dive into Everbound.

"Remembering is easy. It's forgetting that's hard." (Will Caputo)

[jesstheaudiobookworm]

2.5

[elysium]

I had high hopes for this since everyone seemed to love it but it was little painful to read. It got better towards the end, when something actually started to happen, but not much.

[girlinthepages]

This book had such good reviews among the goodreads community that I was disappointed when I finally picked it up.

I love the idea of basing it off of the myth of Persephone, and there's so many directions the book could have gone in. I loved the glimpses into the world of the Everneath, and the idea of the Everliving, but these bits were few and far between compared to the mundane high school events that comprised a majority of the book. It felt disjointed and was hard for the reader to settle into, because the author just throws you into the story with little world-building and background and reveals things in small pieces later, by which the reader has already had to make their own assumptions or has lost interest in the author's original intent.

I enjoyed the use of the anti-hero in Cole and while Jack is loveable and a seemingly genuine good-guy, a lot of the relationship drama felt weak. For example, the "falling out" with one of the males that drove the protagonist to make a life-altering decision was nothing more than a simple misunderstanding that was rather cliché and easily detectable. Had the situation that she thought she saw been real would have made the book much more complex and interesting, as it would have given the characters actual issues to work through and a realistic portrayal of the flaws in every relationship.

I was also frustrated with the shallow character development of the two main males in particular. In a YA series where there is so obviously a love triangle being employed right from the get-go, depth is needed with all love interests involved in order for it even to seem remotely interesting or dramatic. Cole's story is obviously going to be expanded upon during the sequel, but I was so disappointed in Jack. He's a likeable character, but he's reportedly some major heart-throb and known for being a player in half of the book and in the other half portrayed as the most steadfast, one-woman man there is with a serious, if shallowly explained, emo streak.

Also, many of the plot drivers in this book are just too convenient, you can see where the author blatantly came up with a solution rather than intricately weaving a story. I mean, at one of the climactic and down to the wire moments at the end the characters just happen to know someone who knows a leading expert on anthropology and apparently Egyptian archaeology as well who can be conveniently called on his cell phone to answer a bunch of vital questions that gives them info on the existence of Everlivings...

Overall I came into this book with way too high of expectations. It was a quick read once I decided I may as well finish it because there were some mythological details and world-building I so desperately wanted, but was never really satisfied with. I did enjoy some of the peripheral characters, finding Will especially likeable and hilarious, as well as the barely mentioned subplot of his PTSD after spending a year in active military service. But alas, as with most of the novel, an interesting idea was presented and then never expanded upon or properly explained.I may pick up the sequel for a quick read if I happen across it at the library, but I'm honestly glad I didn't spend my money investing in this particular YA series.

[Kelly]

Ooh, loved it! I really expected it to be like the majority of supernatural young adult books involving hell, but I was utterly awed. Well written and unique. Bad boy Cole, the ever loyal Jack, but it's much more than the cliched awkward triangle. It does however end on a cliffhanger, which makes me more determined to read the next installment, that much more.

Awesome.

[Ashley]

As posted on booknook - YA and Fantasy book reviews

Wow, did this book have me hooked! I started reading it, sat down, and somehow wound up on page 232, with no sense of how long I had been sitting there reading. I just got sucked right in and didn’t want to stop (but got dragged away to a family dinner!).

The way this story is written is awesome! It’s done in such a way that you’re hooked from page one and have to keep reading to find out more. The book starts off throwing you into the midst of things. Nikki is in the Everneath but you have no idea what that is, how she got there, who she’s with, or how long she’s been there. Slowly, we find out the story through alternating chapters. Nikki tells us about what’s happening in her life now — post-feeding, and then she tells us how the story unfolded pre-feeding and why she decided to become a Forfeit. We switch back and forth between the two different times to slowly piece together the story and learn how she came into that situation, and then how she’s going to deal with it now.

So six months before the ‘current time’ in the story, Cole convinced Nikki to come with him to the Everneath, where he would feed on her energy and take away the pain in her life. 100 years later — which is 6 months in normal time — Nikki is back in her old life. She has six months to say goodbye to her family and friends before she is forced to return to the Everneath forever… but she didn’t realize how hard it would be to say goodbye. Nikki struggles to find a balance between comforting her family and friends, but trying not to get too close to them since she knows she’ll have to say goodbye again in six months… this time for good.

This book made me so emotional! It was probably because I had to read about Nikki trying to find a way to say goodbye to her ex boyfriend Jack, and I hadn’t seen my own boyfriend in 2 weeks. Just the nature of the story made me miss him even more! I kept thinking that if I had to be around him, but force myself to not get too close to him, and find a way to say goodbye to him, I would constantly be in tears. I don’t know how Nikki held herself together! My eyes were literally tearing up for half the time I was reading.

The one thing that annoyed me was how Nikki put up with Cole. He was a real ass. He practically stalked her, showed up in her bedroom every night to bother her, practically threatened her little brother, etc. I really wanted Nikki to rage at him or throw sharp objects at him. She obviously wasn’t pleased, but she didn’t have the kind of forceful reaction I would have expected. She usually just calmly told Cole to stop and left it at that. If it were me, I would have really raged at the guy!

Also, I’m a stickler for details and this kind of made me roll my eyes a bit:

Jack came over that night, so we could research the Daughters of Persephone. We didn’t know where to start other than Google and the search produced just two results.

Of course then I proceeded to do a Google search for “Daughters of Persephone” and got:

About 12,300 results (0.23 seconds)

I’m weird and things like that just bug me. And just to be clear, Nikki wasn’t saying that there were only two *relevant* search results, because one of the two was completely irrelevant. So she did mean two overall.

I guess the story did move pretty slowly. It kind of drags on and takes you a while to figure out exactly what happened to Nikki to make her want to become a Forfeit, and then it takes a while for her to actually make progress with Jack in ‘current time.’ But the book is so intense and full of emotion that the slow paced nature of the book is not not too big of a deal. There were a few parts were I was like, “Okaaay, I’m ready for her to make progress!” But most of the time I was really into the story and hungry for more!

[Amber]

The ending ;_; I think I'm being a bit over emotional lately. JACK IS MY HERO.

----

Everneath provides a very fresh take on Greek mythology. I am always cautious when it comes to retellings of the Greek myths that I adore, but made sure I went into this one with an open mind. Thankfully, I ended up falling in love with Brodi Ashton's original story and I really liked this book.

The story is told from Nikki's point of view, and takes place both in the past and the present day. In the past, there is a countdown to the Feed, and in the present there is a countdown towards when Nikki has to go back to the Everneath.

I was a little confused in the beginning, because the reader was kept very much in the dark. However, I think this worked well because it kept me reading to discover what the heck was going on with these immortal creatures, and what happened to the main character when she was in the Everneath.

I liked the main character, Nikki, well enough, although she made some really stupid, hypocritical decisions and she was very slow to figure things out. This became quite frustrating.

There is a love triangle in this book, in case you couldn't tell by the synopsis. I have very strong feelings about one corner of the triangle, but first let's talk about Jake.

Jake is my HERO. I love him so, so much. He was definitely my favourite part of the novel, mostly because of the way he handled everything that was happening around him. While his scenes with Nikki were a little cheesy and almost cringeworthy at times, I still adored him.

Then there's Cole. I didn't like him AT ALL. I was hoping nothing would happen between him and Nikki and I hope nothing happens between them in the sequel/s. Cole was abusive, controlling and almost violent. I don't get the appeal. I was hoping he would die starting from the first few chapters. I think if anything can keep me from reading the sequel/s, it would be him.

Overall, this was a very good book and I loved the original take on the Greek myths that were explored. I am really looking forward to seeing what other myths Brodi Ashton explores in the sequels!

[Kelsenator]

Originally posted on my blog Kelsey's Cluttered Bookshelf

(3.5)

The Everneath is pretty much another word for the Underworld, like in Greek mythology. After staying in there for 6 months of our time, 100 years of theirs, Nikki decides to come back. She wants to try to say the goodbyes she never could before to the people she cared about, before getting sucked into the Tunnels. Cole, who she was with that entire time, comes back with her, trying to convince her to be with him, that because she survived, she could be a queen, but at the cost of stealing the life from other people.

I loved the thought behind the story, the retelling of myths and Persephone. While I read quite a few reviews that said it was a slow start, it wasn’t really that bad for me actually, I understand that the author has to build up the story and the background of the characters. One thing I thought was nice was the little snippets of the past events that would show up between the current story, to help explain what happened before she went to the Everneath. Also the little counter for how much time of the 6 months was left helped me keep track, which was pretty cool.

Aside from that, for some reason I just had trouble connecting with the characters, until closer to the end of the book instead of the beginning. Though that’s not saying this book isn’t good! I really enjoyed reading it, it just wasn’t super amazing, but I’m sure other people will absolutely love it. I have a feeling the second book will be even better!

I recommend this for anyone wanting a young adult book with fantasy, romance and mythology.

[Angie]

Everneath is an interesting mix of Greek and Egyptian mythology, paranormal, and contemporary fiction. The story follows Nikki after she has spent a century in the Everneath, but only 6 months has passed on the Surface. She's void of emotions, since she served as a life-force for an Everling during that time. However, her memories are safe, well one memory at least, which gave her the strength to make it through. Of course no one knows where Nikki has been this whole time, and they all think she went on a drug binge then checked into rehab. Nikki has 6 months to live her life before she must return to the Everneath and decide her fate: immortal life or the Tunnels.

Nikki wanted to return in order to say goodbye to her loved ones, but after receiving her punishment for "running away", there are no more mentions of her father and her interacting with him on any important level. There's only one page dedicated to her brother. I would have liked to get more of them, especially since they had recently lost their wife/mother also. It was like a double blow, but we barely get any of them and how Nikki's disappearance effected them. We do get plenty of Nikki and Jack, the boy from her memory. Jack is so sweet, kind, and patient with Nikki when she returns. He doesn't push her for information, and doesn't seem to automatically accept the rumors about her. However, she can't let herself get too close, since she knows she won't be staying.

Even though Jack seemed like the perfect guy, I found myself drawn to Cole. He's a rockstar, but not of this world, and he wants Nikki for himself. He was incredibly alluring even though I knew he was bad. There's just something about him that I couldn't get enough of. Every scene with him was chilling. In fact, the whole book has this dark tone, which I quite liked. Nikki's life isn't sunshine and rainbows; it's dreary and full of shadows.

I really enjoyed this book. It held my attention from the prologue to the very last page. It was heartbreaking, suspenseful and compelling, and I seriously cannot wait for the next book! I must say that this is not exactly a re-telling as much as it is just based around ancient myths. It uses the myths to explain the world, and not so much as a basis for the story. There are a few confusing bits, but overall I think it was very well done.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[bookishzelda]

First of all the cover art for this book is amazing, and even more so in person. I felt like I wanted to blow it up and hang it on my wall. With this amazing cover came an amazing book. I adore the way Brodi Ashton has written Everneath. Starting in the core of the conflict then kind of spreading out both backwards and forward from there. It made the characters a little more endearing I felt by being able to pick and choose the flashbacks. You didn't have to waste time with the filler. It also kept my attention, not only did I want to know what was going to happen, I wanted that glimpse of what did.

Normally I'm all about the bad boy, but I loved Jack's dedication to Nikki. I felt like Cole couldn't hold a candle in that respect. He was interesting and mysterious but I'm not sure I really ever got a grasp on him. Is he really in love with her or does he just want power. He kind of seems confused on the subject himself. While Jack, even though he gets mad at times, even though he was hurt by Nikki, he wants to help her anyway. He cares enough about her to see through all the nonsense. Jules the conflicted best friend fell a little flat for me, but I didn't think she was pivotal to the story so I don't think she was supposed to stand out.

When I was a kid, I read book after book of mythology so I loved how this incorporated some of the myths. I found it was unique and well done, giving them that slightly modern twist but still preserving some of the romanticism myths are known for. It actually made me want to pick up a couple of my mythology books and reread some of the stories.

Honestly I couldn't get enough of this book, I can hardly wait for book two.