EVERNEATH by Brodi Ashton

Review: EVERNEATH by Brodi Ashton

 

EVERNEATH

by Brodi Ashton
Release Date: January 24th, 2012

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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.

As Nikki's time grows short and her relationships begin slipping from her grasp, 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

Despite its gorgeous (like really I want that dress) cover, and interesting premise, I was initially cautious of picking up Brodi Ashton’s Everneath. You know the feeling when you think something sounds really good from the front but not from behind? Well I kinda had the feeling when picking up this book; the cover is beautiful and the summary sounds pretty interesting, but there has to be something wrong here right? Well let’s take a look and see if Everneath proves me wrong . . .

Brodi Ashton’s Everneath takes the classic Greek myth of Persephone & Hades, along with the focus of the myth of Persephone & Eurydice, and retells it throughout the book. The focus of the novel is on the character of Nikki, who has spent about a century trapped in the Everneath, which is basically Hell, with her own personal Hades, Cole. Cole feeds off of Nikki’s emotions in order to survive and stay immortal, but this leaves Nikki with a feeling of hollowness and no memory of her past life; the only remaining image she grasps on to is an image of a boy with brown hair. . . . now who could that be . . . . ladies and gentlemen allow me to introduce Jack, Nikki’s Ever Yours (believe me at the end you will be swooning). Focusing on the memory of Jack, Nikki is able to return home and remain with her loved one; however, Nikki’s time is only clocked at 6 months, and at the end she will either have to accept Cole’s offer of remaining with him for eternity or be sucked into the dreaded Tunnels.

First and foremost, the main focus on this book is centered on emotions. And boy can you literally taste the emotional turmoil and despair that Nikki feels throughout the course of the book on each and every page. I had shivers at certain points, especially the moments when Nikki felt completely empty or lost all hope. My heart broke a bit during this book because of the unfairness of Nikki’s situation and how things never really seemed to go her way, and there are a lot of those moments. But that only made my grin harder when some small glimmer of hope and positivity would occur. So yeah emotional journey and hardships are really big in this book!

Now if we are looking at characters, I was actually surprised that I liked Nikki. On paper she would be the girl I could not stand: she is pretty, popular, boys are totally into her, and she has a loyal best friend AND the hottest guy in school on her arm. But this is all pre-Everneath. Spending a century in the Everneath has stripped Nikki down and made her almost like an outsider in her own life. Nikki is the character that learns to treasure every insignificant moment she has, whether it just be talking about nothing with her best friend, watching her brother cast out or spending time with her father. But the important thing I noticed, as I read on, was that Nikki was not un-relatable as a character even pre-Everneath. Learning more and more about Nikki is what makes her situation so tragic and heartbreaking.

Enter her tormentor and manipulator: Cole, an immortal who leads Nikki on the path of emptiness. Cole is a wicked and cunning manipulator who centers on tormenting Nikki through playing with her emotions. Feeding off and twisting Nikki’s emotions becomes like a game to Cole, who plays Nikki’s emotions like a fiddle and twists her trust into doubt against Jack, her close friend-turned-boyfriend. Cole plays a huge factor in how Nikki behaves towards Jack, and he magnifies and intensifies her fears, pain, and confusion to the max. Cole and Jack are basically as different as night and day, yin and yang . . . peanut butter and mayonnaise! Not gonna give away who you should root for but well . . . one of these guys has definitely overstayed his welcome.

The chapters continually switch back and forth between pre and post Everneath time, and delves deeper into the events leading up to Nikki meeting Cole and allowing him to FEED off of her. I like the flashbacks in-between the chapters, especially as it strengthens the relationship and understanding between Nikki and Jack, which is one that you can definitely root for until the end! The mystery and suspense focusing on Nikki’s purpose to Cole and the cult of the Daughters of Persephone is intriguing, but I am happy that a majority of the novel focuses on Jack and Nikki’s relationship and rebuilding of trust between the two. My only hope is that the next novel (releasing January 2013) will focus more on the actual world of the Everneath, and continue building that bond between Nikki and Jack. Overall, it is the characters that drive this story and I only hope that Ashton continues to keep the focus there!

Overall, Everneath is definitely a read worth checking out. The language and characters are well thought out, and the emotions leap right off of the page. Not much action, but this book thrives on the emotion and struggles of its main characters! This book definitely has the potential to FEED off of readers!

RATING

4.5 out of 5