Sunday, August 24, 2008

"Evernight" Bites... In a Good Way!

Synopis from B&N.com:

Bianca must attend Evernight Academy when her parents take jobs as teachers there. Evernight is a school that has been strictly for vampires in the past, but now also admits humans. After her small town upbringing, it is hard for Bianca to make the transition to a school where most of the other students are rich, beautiful and snobby. She falls for Lucas, a student who, like her, is a social outsider, and he becomes her boyfriend. Suprising events unfold, and Bianca must decide who she wants to be
















I've heard a couple of reviewers say that they did not enjoy Evernight as much as they thought they would simply because the author withheld information from the reader until later in the story. This is a stupid reason to dislike a book, especially one as wonderfully written as this one. Yes, she did choose not to tell us that the main character was a vampire until almost a fourth or more of the way through the book, but if you read the book, I believe you will agree wtih me when I say that choosing not to tell us at the very beginning actually made this book better, making it stand out from all the other vampire books that are popping up left and right *Not that this is a necessarily a bad thing, since I have read most of all the new vampire books and enjoyed almost all of them*.



By 'misleading' us, not telling us at first that she is a vampire, the story was more interesting, capturing your attention and holding it longer because you did not know where, exactly, the story was going to next. It was almost like a good mystery novel, twisting and turning, always keeping you on your feet. You find yourself asking 'Can we trust this character?' or 'What will this person do next'. Personally, if you find yourself asking these questions, wanting, no, needing to find the answer, feverishly flipping page after page, devouring the book not only for the answers but for pure enjoyment too, then the author must be on the right track. Not everyone wants a book where the plot line and characters' stories and pasts are practically spelled out for you from the first page, that's just boring. But when the author leads up to that point, like bread crumbs to lead the way to the end, each one telling you a little bit more, hinting towards what is next *or so you think...* then the story is much more compelling.



I loved the new twist on vampires in Evernight. Gray added something new to the story, making it fresh and captivating, making the reader hang onto the every word, every chapter, until the end of the story, when they find that they NEED to have the next book, they HAVE to find out what happens next. Always a good sign, in my opinion.



The love story between Lucas and Bianca is very sweet, yet very passionate. The desire between the two is handled brillantly, making it interesting and tempting, but not making it sound cheap. Sometimes a very hard thing to do, especially when writting for a YA audience, but Gray pulled it off perfectly. The kiss scenes are to die for... maybe literally? *Small joke..you know, vampires..to die for? NVM...*



I would definitely recommend this book to any fantasy/romance lover, especially if they fell in love with Bella and Edward's love story *Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that this book lives up to Twilight's amazing-ness completely, but I think it would make Twilight 'proud', if that makes sense....* Evernight is a great vampire story, filled with betrayal and love, action and mystery, and I promise, you will find yourself picking this book up again and again, waiting, anxiously, for the next book in this fantastic series.



5/5 STARS! To sum it up in one word: Perfect.

~TBQ~

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