My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Category: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal
Content: Clean
Nick and Allie don't survive the car accident...
...but their souls don't exactly get where they're supposed to get
either. Instead, they're caught halfway between life and death, in a
sort of limbo known as Everlost: a shadow of the living world, filled
with all the things and places that no longer exist. It's a magical, yet
dangerous place where bands of lost children run wild and anyone who
stands in the same place too long sinks to the center of the Earth.
When they find Mary, the self-proclaimed queen of lost kids, Nick feels
like he he's found a home, but Allie isn't satisfied spending eternity
between worlds. Against all warnings, Allie begins learning the
"Criminal Art" of haunting, and ventures into dangerous territory, where
a monster called the McGill threatens all the souls of Everlost.
In this imaginative novel, Neal Shusterman explores questions of life, death, and what just might lie in between.
In December our book club did a ladies choice where all the ladies brought a book and we voted for one to read. I brought Everlost and it ended up winning the vote. I was excited to read this for a second time. The last time I read this was back in 2009. I originally gave this book 4 stars, but after reading it this time, I bumped my rating up to 5. Since I was going to be reading this anyway, I also turned it into a buddy read at Fantasy Buddy Reads and it was nice getting to discuss this book with two different sets of people.
I really love this unique fantasy about the space between this life and the afterlife. If I had to describe it, I guess I would say Everlost could be compared to Never Never Land in some ways. Maybe Lord of the Flies meets Peter Pan would be a good way to put it. The thing I enjoyed most about this book is the world of Everlost and how imaginative it was. I enjoyed the characters as well. There are so many humorous moments that had me giggling, despite that fact that some rather dark things were happening. I also enjoyed the way objects could be pulled into the world of Everlost if they were loved enough or had a tragic ending.
This is a trilogy and I'll be rereading all three books at Fantasy Buddy Reads. We're doing one a month through March.
“There are mysteries in Everlost. Some of them are wonderful, and others scary. They should all be explored, though- perhaps that's why we're here: to experience the good and the bad that Everlost has to offer.”
Now onto some book club photos-
It was easy to come up with food ideas for this book because there's a lot of food mentioned, but also I had to find a way to incorporate the pickle barrels in the book. I ended up finding these on Amazon, then writing "Pickles" on them and putting sour patch kids inside them. If you read the book then you will know about the kids in the pickle barrels.
There was a birthday cake in the book that got pulled into Everlost so my friend Rebecca brought a birthday cake. She even wrote "Happy Birthday Suzie!" on the cake cover.
Suzie was 5 in the book, but she put 7 candles on the cake because coincidentally, it was the seventh anniversary of our book club this month.
My husband had a couple of ideas too. A bucket of chocolate coins.
And a bowl (we didn't have a spittoon) of some fortune cookies. Again, If you read the book, you'll know what these two things are about.
The finder in the book was finding lots of different kinds of food, so our friends brought several kinds of things.
Chicken by Risa
Egg rolls by Natalie
Salami with cheese and crackers.
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