Everfound (3) by Neal Shusterman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
**4.5-stars rounded up**
Everfound is the final book of Neal Shusterman’s backlist series, Skinjacker. I started this trilogy last Fall, Buddy Reading it with a friend, and we both fell in love with it.
Admittedly, this final book did take me three months to finish, but at no point was that a reflection on my enjoyment level. I was loving it, I just didn’t have the time to pick it up as often as I would have hoped.
However, even though I was distracted by 1,000,001-new releases, it’s a testament to this book that no matter how much time I took away from it, whether it was 5-days, or 2-weeks, I never had a difficult time remembering who the characters were, or what was happening.
I found this entire series so unique and memorable. If you aren’t aware, this story follows souls, more specifically the souls of young people, who don’t get where they need to go and are stuck in a limbo land known as Everlost.
Everlost is like an eerie, distorted version of our own world and there’s a lot of souls trapped there. I loved learning about this place and feel like Shusterman was able to create a complicated and detailed world in a fully accessible way. It’s easy to understand and engaging.
As this is the third book, a lot has happened by the time we get to this point. Even from the start of this you can feel the tension continuing to build. It feels like a major showdown is on the horizon; between good and evil forces.
The various characters were like pieces in a chess game. There’s a lot of moves made in this story, lining up the pieces where they need to be for the finale to occur.
There’s a lot of action in these books, but the characters are also extremely well done. You get attached to them and my emotions were all over the place. It’s intense and at times sad, while definitely providing a lot of food for thought.
Overall, I feel like this is a fantastic series that has stood the test of time. While it’s over a decade old, it didn’t feel dated to me at all. Additionally, I feel like the philosophical nature of this can provide enjoyment to Readers of all ages.
I would absolutely recommend this series. It has an interesting full cast of characters, strong action and is extremely well plotted.
I’m so very glad that I made the time for it!!