What’s it all about?:
Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath. Now she’s returned—to her old life, her family, her boyfriend—before she’s 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 precious months forgetting the Everneath and trying to reconnect with her boyfriend, Jack, the person most devastated by her disappearance—and the one person she loves more than anything. But there’s just one problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who enticed her to the Everneath in the first place, has followed Nikki home. Cole wants to take over the throne in the underworld and is convinced Nikki is the key to making it happen. And he’ll do whatever it takes to bring her back, this time as his queen.
As Nikki’s time on the Surface draws to a close and her relationships begin slipping from her grasp, she is 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 queen.
Everneath is a captivating story of love, loss, and immortality from debut author Brodi Ashton.
What did I think?:
Everneath is the first book in the start of a dramatic and compelling new YA series and was recommended to me by my sister and fellow blogger Chrissi Reads. I tend to trust whatever my sister recommends, after all she’s one of the people who knows my biblio-tastes best, but I knew I had to read it fairly soon and that it had to be something special when she kept asking when I was going to start it! Our heroine in this series is teenager Nikki Beckett who one day seemed to disappear into thin air, leaving her family, friends and boyfriend behind to become part of the Everneath. This was a personal decision on Nikki’s part as at the time she was struggling to cope with the death of her mother and was in a seemingly hopeless situation with her boyfriend, Jack. Her desperation to “stop feeling things,” leads the mysterious Cole into tempting her to The Everneath (with an agenda of his own of course) and he promises Nikki the peace she desperately craves but is not granted from her tormented mind. You see although Cole is immortal, known as an Everling, he requires humans as “Forfeits,” to feed off their emotions whilst replenishing his energy. His latest acquisition Nikki, is a particularly valuable prize when instead of forgetting who she is as par normal procedure she remembers everything and survives the so-called “feed.”
The Everneath is a mystical, terrifying underworld and Nikki is forced to remain there for one hundred years as Cole’s food-source before Cole returns her to the surface – unfortunately only for a period of six months so that she can say her goodbyes to her loved ones and prepare herself for returning to The Everneath permanently to be reclaimed by the horrifying Tunnels. Even though Nikki spent a century in The Everneath only six months have passed on Earth which is still a significant period of time to be AWOL and she has a lot of explaining to do. Nikki must re-gain her father’s trust and try to build bridges with her boyfriend Jack who was understandably confused and hurt by her disappearance. She must also resist Cole who she has a unique bond with due to the whole feeding experience and almost like a dealer to a drug addict bothers her on a daily basis, attempting to make her submit to him and return to the underground as his Queen. Nikki understands that her return to The Everneath is compulsory and attempts to reconcile herself with her broken father and her boyfriend but becomes increasingly alarmed by the power that Cole holds over her and fears returning to the dreaded Tunnels where she will remain for eternity. If there is a choice to be made the other option being relinquishing herself to Cole, should she do this despite all her morals and misgivings? Or will true love shine through and give Nikki the opportunity to escape her fate?
Well, this story sure packs a punch. The novel is loosely based on the mythology of Persephone/Hades and Orpheus/Eurydice and as I studied Greek mythology for a while I was instantly attracted to the idea which is presented beautifully with a bit of a modern twist. Nikki is a strong and admirable female character who accepts that she made a terrible decision by agreeing to accompany Cole to The Everneath. Instead of being self-pitying about it she uses that final opportunity of life on Earth to try and re-connect with her father, recognising that he is suffering also. The author has created a fascinating idea of life after death and her description of the Tunnels sent a definite chill down my spine. In fact, from the moment I opened this book I found it very hard to put down and was instantly swept away into a world of darkness, grief and impossible situations. The imagination used to create all the threads of this story is enviable, the characterisation superb and I’m really very excited to get to the next book in the trilogy after an explosive ending.
Would I recommend it?:
But of course!
Star rating (out of 5):