Nevermore, Kelly Creagh

I broke my solemn vow to stop buying books until the new year or until I had read a significant amount of the books I have purchased this year and not read! I had a good reason though or maybe I am just a champion rationalizer.

This week has been brutal at school. I have some extremely difficult kids in my class. Nothing I have tried is making any kind of difference for these kids behavior wise. And it is exhausting.  At the same time my root canal tooth from this summer has become infected and I've been feeling sick all week.

Today I was able to get a substitute (which is a minor miracle!)  and so I have stayed in bed all day. I  finished reading Nevermore, a supernatural YA book I had been hearing about for quite awhile. I bought it earlier this week when I was in need of a prize for dealing with my life. I am definitely hopping back on the no buying books wagon again though. We'll see if I can do it!

I was so ready to love this book after reading the plot summary. I was really excited to see how the author brought Poe into her story. And I did love the first half or maybe even two thirds of the book. Isobel & Varen's relationship was interesting and compelling. Honestly it made me want to stay up late in that Twilighty kind of way. But the last part of the book felt like I was reading a totally different story. It was confusing and long and to me, it felt very disjointed.

Varen disappeared for what felt like forever. I was so mad at the ending of this book (and truly confused, I didn't get this author's mythology at all). I was mainly mad because I thought this was a stand alone novel. I want to know that Varen and Isobel end up together and happy but I don't care enought to wait and buy 2 more books. It took me one late night to read the first half of this book and a long 4 days battle to finish it. I kept putting it down and when I did read I was skimming. The fantasy elements just didn't fit for me. Which is a bummer because I loved the idea of this book.

I totally agree with this amazon reviewer, Neutron Lover:

"While the first two-thirds of the book focused on the characters' relationship with only a hint of the paranormal, the last third became solely about the supernatural. There was little transition for this shift, and I wished the two parts had been merged more seamlessly. Parts of the mythology also became confusing in this portion. Secondary characters like Gwen felt too convenient. The writing also sometimes became cumbersome with drawn-out narrative or action sequences. This made the story feel a little long, not because of actual length, but because it could have been told in fewer words with the same effect. The ending, while left at a definitive point, was a cliffhanger that will require reading the sequel to see what happens next. "

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Steph Su
Presenting Lenore
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