Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2379 in Books
• Published on: 2009-02-03
• Released on: 2009-02-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780312532758
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Booklist
This opening book in a new series, The Immortals, will thrill many teen fantasy-suspense readers, especially fans of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series. Seventeen-year-old Ever survived the car crash that killed her parents, younger sister, and their dog. Now she lives with an aunt in Southern California, plagued not only by survivor guilt but also by a new ability to hear the thoughts of all around her. She tries to tune out all these distractions by keeping her hoodie up and her iPod cranked loud, until Damen, the cute new boy at school, convinces her to come out of her shell. Damen, however, is frighteningly clever—and has the strange ability to produce tulips from nowhere and disappear himself at critical moments. Noël (Saving Zoë, 2007) creates a cast of recognizably diverse teens in a realistic high-school setting, along with just the right tension to make Ever’s discovery of her own immortality—should she choose it—exciting and credible. Grades 8-10. --Francisca Goldsmith

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I've already read this book!
A young girl moves halfway across the country to live with a well-meaning but somewhat distant relative. She's forced to go to school (even though she already knows everything) and to sit next to a mysterious, physically perfect boy who is the object of everyone's attention. Of course, he has eyes only for her. The girl eventually learns that this boy is more than what he seems: he's incredibly fast, he can read minds, and he's lived for a long, long time. This boy is not like other boys, and the girl knows it. She doesn't think she's worthy of his perfection, even though he doesn't seem to be bothered by her normalness. Eventually, one of the boy's own kind shows up to threaten the heroine, who somehow manages to survive, even though, logically, she shouldn't.

Sound familiar? It should. Evermore is basically Twilight, only much more poorly written, with a dash of "quantum physics", a pinch of a glossed-over theory of reincarnation, and a dollop of The Secret for good measure. When I saw that this book was recommended for fans of Stephenie Meyer, I assumed that it would be similar to Twilight. But I didn't think it would be an outright rip-off.

The stories are structured the same, so you can pretty much guess what's around every turn. There are no surprises. And the only time when some real suspense was attempted, it quickly became tiresome. Ever blames herself for the accident. Then she blames herself again... and again... and again. And we don't find out why until almost the very end. I found this tedious and frustrating. It really only needed to be mentioned once, especially if it was going to be dragged out for so long. Show, don't tell... Isn't that the rule?

The writing was also atrocious. The author actually used "envelopes" when she meant "envelops". Once again, we have a young adult novel without an editor. There were run-on sentences galore. Then there was the annoying first-person, present-tense point of view that occasionally lapsed into a first-person, past-tense point of view... when it really shouldn't have. Evermore was difficult to read, and it didn't need to be.

If you know how Twilight ends, you can guess how Evermore ends. Instead of a ballet studio, it's a kitchen. Instead of people getting thrown against mirrors, they're thrown through French doors. And there's a wonderful failure of logic when Ever defeats the villain by throwing a fatal, revenge-fuelled punch at her heart chakra, only to be told moments later by Damen that revenge makes you weaker while love makes you stronger. Wait... what?

When I saw the last couple of pages and took note of the title of the sequel to Evermore, I became further convinced that this series is some sort of satire intended to mock the awfulness of the Twilight "saga". Twilight's sequel was New Moon. Evermore's sequel is... Blue Moon.

The pattern is clear. I'll save you some time and fill you in on the rest of the series:

Blue Moon: Damen decides he's ruined Ever's life enough for one lifetime, so he disappears into Summerland on an extended vacation. Meanwhile, Ever discovers that her friend Miles is also an immortal, who has just landed his dream gig starring in an all-gay revue sponsored by VitaminWater.

Ellipse: An evil immortal from Damen's past comes out of the woodwork and creates a whole bunch of new immortals who do nothing but drive around in Ferraris and act like spoiled brats. But they're a threat, you know? Ever must use her newly acquired skills in "quantum physics" and Transcendental Meditation to make the immortals not so immortal, thus saving Orange County from vapid materialism on a grand scale.

Breaking Wind: Ever finally has sex with Damen, which results in a baby. Unbeknownst to Ever, this baby houses the reincarnated soul of Drina, who wants nothing more than to kill Ever and to marry Damen... who's now her father.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

Brainless Protagonists Are Rolemodels, Too, You Know
If you are a fan of vapid love stories with impossible standards, or a fan of Twilight, you'll probably squeal after reading Evermore. I am a fan of neither, and I"m finding this sudden glut of empty-headed, powerless female protagonists in YA pretty disturbing.
While Noel's writing style flows, it's about the only thing to be commended. One would think the death of an entire family would make a teenager prioritize beyond the shallow culture of high school, but I sure as heck can't name a single hobby or aspiration in Ever's head. She never asks where any of the tulips come from, and while she doesn't like Damen's behavior, she never once reacts to him in a strong, assertive way. Apparently being immortal means you can be a larger jerk than usual. I was utterly miffed as to how Damen's yanking of Ever's emotional chains, "just to make sure she really cared" can be construed as anything but annoying at best and abusive at worst.
Damen commits numerous sins of omission, and Ever somehow never decides she needs to pin him down. It's enough that he's mysterious, gorgeous, and into her. Except when he's not, and Ever BECOMES AN ALCOHOLIC. Don't worry though; it's just for over-the-top dramatic effect. She's promptly able to drop the bottle and leap back into his arms when he returns, without a backward glance at her addiction. Because real teenagers getting smashed on a regular basis are able to do that, right? Right.
The explanations of the fantastical elements veer into the bizarre-leaps-of-logic territory pretty quick. I personally would have had more questions about the afterlife, but Ever simply nods her head like a good little girl. It would also be too much to ask that a devestating loss (such as that suffered by Ever) would make one more spiritual, or even more humanitarian. Heck, I would have even settled for a ethical dilemma on the nature of immortality, which this sort of series would lend itself to nicely. But instead, we're somehow supposed to believe that a 17-year-old making this badly informed of a decision is going to be happy with it at 30. (Or 300.) Good thing she didn't decide to get pregnant.
This kind of reading, in which a female defers to the inordinately immature wisdom of a supernatural male, really shouldn't be so popular. I hope I'm the only one treating this kind of stuff with any seriousness, because I'd hate to think of anyone else taking relationship cues from voyueristic candy.
That the author thinks this is how teenage girls behave in relationships, and that any of this is desirable: it gives the underlying message as You Suck. Because if you're relating to Ever, and cheering her on, you must be just like her. Vapid, shallow, and waiting to be told what to do by the nearest hot guy.
It's a real shame that this is the next YA cash cow.

Deja Vu
I just got off reading Twilight and was hoping to find a similar story in Evermore. This book is very similar, but was not what I was hoping. The protagonist is a teenage girl that's basically a social outcast and doesn't know her own beauty even though everyone around her does. There is also the mysterious, dark too good to be true "boyfriend" with special abilities. I really wanted to like this book, but I found lots of major problems I had with it. I became more and more agitated as I read the book with Damen's antics - jerking Ever along and conveniently disappearing throughout the book. I felt like he was Edward's dark, indecisive sometimes jerky twin brother. I can't believe she put up with his crap through the entire book! What is an immortal anyway? It seems like a vampire to me without the sparkly skin and red kool aid was substituted for blood. Also, I couldn't identify with Ever at all in this book. Her decisions just didn't ever make sense. It seemed as if she wasn't a real character - just on autopilot throughout the book. I felt like this book was a jumbled spin off of Twilight. It's almost as if the author threw in too many quirks to make it interesting (or to copy Twilight) but ended up messing it up. Examples - Damen never eating, his "immortal juice" as a spin off of animal blood, Drina ( Victoria), the huge, furniture-less house, the room with the paintings from centuries ago (Carlile's Study) - Damen being strong, fast, beautiful, rich, telepathic - Ever being helpless until the very end when she kills Drina - etc. Did anyone actually understand the canyon part where Drina tried to kill Ever then suddenly Ever was in Summerland with Damen? Weird! I could go on with the jumble of strange, unexplainable events and the obvious copying of Twilight but I think you get the point! This book is the same story line as Twilight, but not as well written or interesting, just with different characters. I gave it a three because it was an ok read and it's given me something to do for the past week of nothing but rain, but I wouldn't continue with the series.