Everlost by Neal Shusterman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
**3.5-stars rounded up**
Everlost, the first book in Neal Shusterman’s Skinjacker Trilogy was originally published in 2006. I was in grad school at that time and wasn’t doing much free reading, so missed it.
In 2020, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers re-released the entire trilogy with beautifully-redesigned covers. Like the publisher’s dream that I generally am, I promptly bought them all and they’ve been sitting on my shelves ever since. Staring at me, begging to be loved.
On a recent whim, I decided to finally dive in. In this story we follow Nick and Allie, who right at the beginning of our story die in tragic car accident. Unfortunately, their souls don’t get where they need to go and now they are stuck in a limbo land known as Everlost.
Everlost is like an eerie, distorted image of our own world. It’s filled with things, including places, that no longer exist in our world. There’s also a lot of other souls trapped there.
At the beginning, navigating their dangerous new circumstances, Nick and Allie meet a lot of people who help to teach them about the functioning of Everlost.
There’s bands of roaming kids and a girl named Mary, the self-proclaimed queen of lost souls. Nick is taken by her, but Allie refuses to believe in the fate that Mary is trying to sell her. Refusing to live for the rest of time trapped between two worlds, Allie begins investigating ways to make a change.
This was a solid start to a trilogy and actually, the more I have thought about it since I have finished, the more I have come to appreciate the depth of the story.
I feel like if I would have read this years ago, when it was released, I would have been crazy, mad, nuts about it, but it did feel a little dated in some sections, as far as the writing style is concerned.
However, with this being said, I still really enjoyed the world-building and will be continuing with the second book in the series next month. I’m very interested in digging further into some of the concepts Shusterman explored.
I was impressed with how quickly this kicked off. We’re immediately dropped off where we should be, there’s no time wasted digging into character’s lives prior to Everlost. Perhaps that will come into play later in the series, but as far as this first book, I feel like that was a great choice.
I also enjoyed the atmosphere and eerie nature successfully carried throughout. It made me think of many darker fairy tale elements; like the kids as Lost Boys, the Peter Pan ones, not the vampire ones, as they have a bit of a feral nature. Also, Mary as a bit Queen of Hearts. Then I also picked up low-key Wizard of Oz sort of vibes.
Overall, I found this premise intriguing, the plot fast-paced and I think it’s a great base to continuing building out this world. I’m really looking forward to continuing on with the characters and seeing where it goes from here!
