happyHarperTeen, trade paperback
352 pages, you don't know Evernight Academy like you think you know Evernight Academy gothic fun
Currently in print
***
A disclaimer: Anyone who picks up Evernight and flips to the back of the book, where the acknowledgments are, will quickly ascertain that we share an agent. We also share a web designer, the fabulous Tara O'Shea. This did not, oddly enough, bias me in favor of her book; if anything, it made me a little leery, in that whole 'you are parallel to but not part of my life, and I don't want to make our mutual important people sad by not enjoying your work' sort of a way. My ways are strange and not like your earth ways. Anyway, curiosity eventually beat out common sense, and I picked up the book. After that, I essentially didn't put it down.
Evernight is the story of a school, the Evernight Academy. It's the story of a girl, Bianca, whose parents have packed her up and dragged her off to Evernight 'for her own good' -- because going to an exclusive boarding school where your parents are also among your teachers is always great for teenage girls. It's the story of a boy, Lucas, whose interest in Bianca, and interest in Evernight Academy, may very well be more than it seems to be. And, as is so often the case in what's hot right now, it's the story of some vampires. When you go to Evernight Academy, there's a very good chance that everything you know is going to turn out to be wrong.
Told through Bianca's eyes, Evernight is first-person and fast, brutally honest in its portrayal of its central character's emotional state, and fascinating to read. There's a major twist about a hundred pages in that changes literally everything about the book, and I'm of two minds about it. On the one hand, the desire not to reveal what's behind the curtain somewhat limits what I can say about the book's specific plot elements ('and then, uh...stuff connected to the stuff that happened because of the stuff I can't tell you happens...'). On the other hand, the actual reveal was abrupt enough to be extremely jarring. The sort of thing that wouldn't have made me bat an eye if not for certain elements of the story's structure.
That said, my moment of disorientation was just that -- a moment -- and once I'd managed to recover, Evernight became ten times more fascinating. The world-building is excellent, the characters are consistent, and once the first big reveal is out of the way, all the reveals that follow start making perfect, natural sense. The foundations are solid, and if it hadn't been for that one little 'crap where did I leave the stairs' drop, I would have no complaints about the narrative structure at all.
(As an extra added bonus, going back and re-reading the book with full knowledge of what's actually going on is fascinating, and does turn it into something of an immediate 'let's start over!' experience. Plus, it would play amazingly well on screen. I think there needs to be an Evernight movie just as soon as is humanly possible. Come on, major Hollywood studios, get moving.)
Volume two, Stargazer, is due to come out soon, and I'm very, very excited to pick it up. The series is slated to run four volumes, and the author is dependably not the sort to leave you hanging after volume three while she wanders off to do something else -- jump on now, don't miss the fun. I would recommend Evernight to anyone who enjoys quality YA fiction, quality vampire novels, or Gothic things. Plus, I want to see Bianca go best two falls out of three with Antimony from Gunnerkrigg Court, but that's because I'm weird.
I give Evernight four unnerving black and red flowers out of five, and a dead squirrel. Give it a look.
March 5 2009, 19:47:24 UTC 8 years ago
March 5 2009, 19:49:19 UTC 8 years ago
we just almost never do, so I figure it's rare...
March 5 2009, 19:58:57 UTC 8 years ago
March 5 2009, 19:59:56 UTC 8 years ago
March 9 2009, 18:42:05 UTC 8 years ago