Everneath

Book review of EVERNEATH by Brodi Ashton

Blurb-from Goodreads

“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.”

Everneath is a young adult paranormal romance based on the mythology of Hades and Persephone and Orpheus and Eurydice.    I’m a sucker for a modern take on mythology especially the Hades/Persephone thing, so I was really excited about reading this book.

I liked her take on the mythology.  I thought it was a fresh--kind of morphed Greek mythology with vampires--unlike anything I’d seen before, and I really wanted to see more of Everneath and see more of the Everliving.   The beginning was very intriguing, and ending was very satisfying (Okay, I may have shed a few tears).

But the middle dragged a bit.  It felt like the story was stretched out to make it longer.  I’d read a whole chapters where nothing really happened.  I also had a hard time connecting with Nikki.  I didn’t understand her motivation, why she came back, what she hoped to accomplish.  Nor did I really feel her pain.  In fact, all the three of the main characters were all a little weak.  Jack seemed a little too perfect, and I had a hard time getting a feel for Cole.  I never felt as if he really had a strong bond with Nikki.  He worked pretty hard to get her for a few chapters and then just seemed to give up.  That felt inconsistent to me.

I give it a 3.5/5 stars.  I did enjoy it, but it could’ve been so much better if the characters had been better developed.  I might read the next one because I’m really fascinated with her mythology, and maybe the characters will get more interesting as they are further developed.  I can always hope.

Overall, this was a pretty clean story, and I suggest giving it a try if you’re interested in fresh, modernizations of Greek mythology and YA love triangles.

~MaryAnn