Neal Shusterman - Everlost (Skinjacker Trilogy #1)
Offered for review by Simon and Schuster
Available now through May 30, 2011 (for free online review)
Synopsis
Nick and Allie don’t survive the car accident…but their souls don’t exactly get where they’re supposed to go 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’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.
My Review
Where there is good there is evil. Learn the difference. Find what's worth living for and live you shall! Everyone has a purpose.
I love how History is so evident in this novel such as the Twin Towers of Manhattan, UFO sightings in Roswell (among other places) and the space shuttle Challenger off the coast of Florida. Shusterman's mere mention of such places had chills running down my spine. I was almost disappointed there was no mention of the Titanic. I found the shock-factor to be just that, I usually see things like that coming but I was so wrapped up in the unending levels of seemingly unimportant details that I missed all the signs just in enough time to realize all of those details were just a distraction. But I'm sure they'll come in handy for the second & third novels in this spine-tingling, thought-provoking trilogy.
Where there is good there is evil. Learn the difference. Find what's worth living for and live you shall! Everyone has a purpose.
I love how History is so evident in this novel such as the Twin Towers of Manhattan, UFO sightings in Roswell (among other places) and the space shuttle Challenger off the coast of Florida. Shusterman's mere mention of such places had chills running down my spine. I was almost disappointed there was no mention of the Titanic. I found the shock-factor to be just that, I usually see things like that coming but I was so wrapped up in the unending levels of seemingly unimportant details that I missed all the signs just in enough time to realize all of those details were just a distraction. But I'm sure they'll come in handy for the second & third novels in this spine-tingling, thought-provoking trilogy.
This book is written from a child's perspective about children who have found themselves stuck in Shusternman's visionary purgatory, however, the story itself is very deep if you allow yourself to go there. One of the first things I asked myself was "why are there no adults in Everlost?" As an adult, as a Christian, I found connections to our knowledge (and often lack thereof) of our choices for salvation. The longer we live the more opportunities we have to learn the truth and if we choose to believe, we get to where we're going upon death. There is the unknown world (Earth for us, Everlost for Allie, Nick & the other characters in this trilogy) where our days are spent in mundane repetitiveness until we learn of our choices and by extension, our purpose. I found that near the end of this opening book Shusterman's characters find their purpose and I'm very interested in reading the next two books to see if the connection I've made continues through the trilogy.
Everlost was originally released Aug 22, 2006
So now you have no excuses, you can read the entire trilogy without waiting for the next installment! I know I will!
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