Evernight

Holy. Freakin'. COW.

I've been enjoying the reading I'm doing as research for the agents I'd like to query about my own novel. I liked this book more than most from the beginning. It hooked me right in. But it was just a pleasant read, one I was going to give a resounding thumbs-up on Goodreads and then get on with my life.

And then I got about halfway through.

I've read good YA novels. I've read fun paranormal works. And I've read some great surprise endings (the twist in the last Hunger Games novel blew me right out of the water).

What I haven't encountered in as long as I can remember is a stunning surprise MIDDLE.

I literally jaw-dropped. Had to run down the hall and tell my husband (since I knew he wouldn't be reading it, so it's not show more like I was ruining it for him) what this writer had pulled off.

I'm not telling you any more. I stayed up late to finish this book and then checked my library's online catalogue to make sure that there were sequels. (There are three -- woohoo!) So I'm tired.

Just read it. I don't care how old you are, or if you're a boy or a girl. Read it and see if the middle trips you the way it did me.

Claudia Gray is so good, I'm almost not even jealous. show less

It is probably inevitable that any teen vampire romance published at this particular moment will invite comparisons (favorable or otherwise) to the wildly popular Twilight saga. I think however, that Claudia Gray's Evernight owes more to L.J. Smith's Nightworld series (one of my guilty pleasures), than to Meyer's work. Smith's endorsement, moreover, can be found on the back cover, and convinced me to give this a try.

The story of Bianca, a shy young woman who finds herself a student at the sinister Evernight Academy, where her parents have been hired as teachers, Evernight utilizes all the stereotypical indicators of "danger!" to set up a very conventional plot-line. It is most unfortunate that I read one of the "spoiler reviews" shortly show more before reaching the point at which Gray overturns her carefully orchestrated narrative crescendo, but I can honestly say that her "shocker" would otherwise have come as a complete surprise.

It's quite well done, and will have the reader looking back over the first half of the novel, recasting everything in light of new information. I know that some readers found Gray's inversion unconvincing, but I thought that all of Bianca's feelings and reactions could just as easily be set at the door of some garden-variety teen angst, and therefore had no trouble making the mental leap.

I WAS able to anticipate the second major revelation, partly owing to a newfound caution in reading Gray's text, and partly to my familiarity with the aforementioned L.J. Smith, whose work also features supernatural "Romeo and Juliet" type stories. Despite that fact, I found Evernight quite suspenseful, and very satisfying.

Star-crossed lovers? Check! Supernatural, folkloric beings? Check! Lots of teen angst? Check! Engaging and complex characters? Check! What's not to love? I'm ready for the sequel... show less

Bianca Olivier’s parents are new teachers at the boarding school Evernight Academy, and Bianca just knows that she has to get out of Evernight. The students are distant, sophisticated, and creepy; Bianca feels like she doesn’t belong.

Then she meets Luke. He makes her feel complete, and it’s not long before they are inseparable. But Luke acts mysterious sometimes, and Bianca can’t figure him out…until disaster strikes. Suddenly, old family secrets are revealed, and the two young lovers’ lives may be in grave danger.

The first reaction I had when I finished this book was, wow, I’m glad it’s over. That doesn’t bode well for the first sentence of a review, but I’m going to try to explain why EVERNIGHT gave me a headache show more and had me rolling my eyes through every page.

Don’t get me wrong: there are some good parts to this book. I really liked the concept of a boarding school for vampires; the gothic towers and rooms of Evernight reminded me vaguely of Hogwarts, which was cool. The idea that Gray presents readers of a world where immortal vampires are constantly struggling to fit in, and need to be taught technology, was intriguing, although not as well developed as it could’ve been.

I really liked the tension between vampires and the human vampire hunters, even though the motivations for the vampire hunters’ actions were not well explained. And finally, I was a fan of the huge twist halfway through the book that everyone likes to talk about. Books with unreliable narrators are difficult to pull off, and Bianca’s revelation to us was shocking, yet satisfying at the same time.

However, EVERNIGHT fell flat in all other aspects. Bianca was difficult to like: she constantly feels the need to tell readers things about herself and the world around her, things that we didn’t need to know—like the fact that she’s supposedly shy, even though there’s no indication of shyness beyond the general awkwardness of adolescence among a new crowd—or could have inferred in the hands of a more skilled writer. Similarly, none of the other characters were interesting, least of all Luke. I rolled my eyes at the stilted dialogue and forced attraction between the two, felt my eyelids start to slide shut at the unbearably slow pace of the novel.

I read EVERNIGHT for the express purpose of finding out what that plot twist was, but it wasn’t worth it. Lovers of vampire lit might be interested in the world that Gray has tried to spin, but newcomers to the genre would be better off with other vampire series, such as Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy. show less

It’s not often that I pick up a book expecting a sappy, predictable read and wind up wowed, but this was my experience with Evernight. Let’s back up a bit, though. I tend to go a bit crazy at used bookstores. I picked up this book acknowledging that I haven’t been in the mood for vampire romances in a LONG time, but I couldn’t pass up the good deal (It was $5.40 but since I have standing credit there, I only paid $2.70 for the book). YA books tend to be on the expensive side, so when I see a popular read that other bloggers have reviewed, I pick it up.

So, six months later and stuck in bed with a sore ass, I decided to give Evernight a shot. I wanted a book that would entertain me, but I didn’t really want to read anything with show more too much substance, because I seem to be in a perpetual book slump as it is! While I wouldn’t say the book has much in the way of substance, it definitely surprised me. I certainly underestimated Claudia Gray’s talent!

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Bianca is forced to attend Evernight Academy when her parents accept teaching positions and moved her away from her small town and the only home she’s ever had. She hates everything about the Gothic boarding school and she’s pissed that her parents forced her to move, knowing how nervous she is around strangers.

Bianca meets Lucas as she’s in the process of skipping school to show her parents how wrong they were to move her to the snobby school for rich kids. *cue eye roll* After their intense and awkward meeting, the brooding blonde haired, green-eyed boy warns her to be careful and that he’s not good for him. Of course, like all teenage girls dazzled by a hunky boy, she fails to listen and they start to bond over their common disdain for being forced to attend Evernight Academy.

“I’m so sorry I hurt you.” A hot tear trickled down my cheek. Poor Lucas, always trying to protect me from danger. He’d never guessed that I was the dangerous one.”
Okay, I had my doubts that Bianca would be an enjoyable heroine. She’s naive, she doesn’t head clear and obvious warning signs about Lucas, and she acts like a spoiled kid because the world isn’t fair and why does she have to move and get to know all the snobby “kids” of Evernight Academy when she clearly doesn’t belong? Sigh. I did my fair share of eye-rolling at the beginning (and towards the middle and at the end). Okay, so I questioned a lot of Bianca’s not-so-brilliant moves, but as the book moved along and I am finally privy to one of the most WTF PLOT TWISTS I HAVE EVER RUN ACROSS (which was really just a family secret that Gray was cruel enough to hide from us), I began to understand how a 16-year-old girl could really be so clueless. It’s partly her parents fault for her being so ignorant about her own heritage, so I can get over my less than pleasant thoughts over Bianca.

He said, “I like the gargoyles, the mountains, and the fresh air. That’s it so far.”

“You like the gargoyles?”

“I like it when the monsters are smaller than me.”
Putting my issues with Bianca aside, I really didn’t have *that* many issues with Lucas, other than the fact he was clearly hiding something. View Spoiler » My true love was for Balthazar, and you won’t convince me otherwise. I really don’t see what Bianca sees in Lucas, anyways. She knows nothing about him and has waaay more in common with Balthazar. I am totally team Biancazar. 😀

While I am not generally a fan of the love triangle, I really didn’t mind it in Evernight. (Although I know I’ll start to resent it if things don’t go my way. :P) Other then my obvious issues with Bianca and her personality, I enjoyed the world that Gray created. Yes, it’s not a completely YA paranormal romance theme and I could definitely see some similarities between Evernight and the Vampire Academy and the House of Night series, this book has its place and is unique in its own way.

I was able to logically connect the dots once all the plot twists were revealed in a shocking and brutally twisted--ahem, I mean creative way. I liked the mixture of predictable and surprising plot twists (even though they were very cruel, indeed) and even the world Gray created was a fascinating mixture of new and old vampire lore. I can’t wait to see what else Gray has in store for me in the next book! I can even deal with more love triangle drama, I just hope Balthazar is awarded his own happily ever after. show less

Okay, so this was awesome. As a general rule, I avoid vampire lit like the plague. I mean, Ann Rice is pretty cool because thus far I haven't read a book of hers that has that whole human/vampire love dynamic, which I hate.

Seriously, think about it -- human and vampire fall in love, vampire bites human, and they are stuck together until the end of the earth. I'm sorry, no matter how much I love somebody I would never commit to living for several centuries with them. You know why? Because people change and grow emotionally -- as would (hypothetically) vampires. Ideals and values change, and they don't always change in tandem. And in most vampire lit there's some sort of blood bond between vampires of the same . . . bite?

Then there's the show more other scenario in human/vamp love -- the vamp loves the human so much that they don't bite them, and you end up with two ways to go. One, human and vamp live together in harmony (rare) -- how dumb is that? An eternally young being being in a physical relationship with an 80-year old? You have got to be kidding me.

Scenario two, the human and the vamp go their separate ways, filled with forever love and regret. Sorry, again dumb. Vampires can live for as long as the earth exists -- longer, if space travel becomes commonplace and we do find other planets (ooooh, spaceman vampires!). Humans live an extremely finite period of time. So maybe the human will live a life of regret for their one lost true love, but the vampire will forget in less than a century -- two centuries if the human was exceptional.

Sorry, most vampire lit is retarded.

That said, despite my high disdain of vampire lit in general, this book was incredibly well-conceived and well-executed. The author writes in a beautiful and engaging manner, the characterizations are beautiful and the relations between everyone are perfectly written. This is a gem in the offal known as vampire lit. (I'm looking at you, Twilight). show less

If I was to equate reading Evernight to anything, it would be stealing some icing from the container I found in the back of the cupboard. And eating it. I know I probably shouldn't be doing this, I'll probably regret it later, but it's sweet and addictive and... and...

Okay, so "sweet" is perhaps not the right word for Evernight. And I didn't find it at the back of the cupboard. It showed up on my LibraryThing recommendations, I looked it up on Amazon and read the first few pages, which caught my interest. So I reserved it at the library.
Bianca been uprooted from her small hometown and enrolled at Evernight Academy, where her parents are now teachers - an eerie Gothic boarding school where the students are somehow too perfect. Bianca show more knows she doesn't fit in.

Evernight does some things well. The first is create and maintain a sense of mystery, suspense and unease. It taps into some other things successfully: feeling you don't fit in, feeling you are a loser; fascination with boarding school (and eerie Gothic buildings); fascination with those who are rich and the perfect (no matter how snobbish and self-centred they are); and fascination with young men who don't play by the rules and display a protective streak (making statements such as "I couldn't stand it if they took it out on you, and eventually they would.") Some might be generally teenage-girl-only fascinations, but the story appeals to them, none the less.
There are a couple of pull-the-carpet-out-from-under-your-feet revelations. I was half-expecting them - which is to say, I was expecting there to be twists, but they were never quite what I had guessed. The main revelation didn't irritate me, although I do think the story would have been better had there not been that deception. The story lost something once the mystery after the first revelation, but from that point onwards, it was not black-and-white; it had complexities without a clear solution.

It is, obviously, a vampire novel (the title, the prologue and the mood at the beginning of the first chapter reminded me so much of Twilight I had to laugh.)
However, this is where it is worth mentioning that, I don't like vampires. Really don't like them. With good reason - I'm one of those sick-at-the-sight (or thought) of-blood types. I have read some vampire novels and liked them, (such as Robin McKinley's wonderful novel Sunshine), but it was in spite of the vampires, not because of them.

So whilst I enjoyed it - and will probably read the sequel, if only to find out what happens next - Evernight is not really my cup of tea. The, er, vampire-ness bothered me. I'm neither recommending it, nor not recommending it, because I thought it was enjoyable and silly and terrible (in a I-can't-believe-I'm-reading-this way)and found all references to drinking blood disturbing... I cannot make up my mind as to whether I liked it or not. show less

Sadly, I have a HUGE critic inside of me that adores to be a pain, but this book almost cried out for it. It had a really good story, but it wasn't told the best. I really didn't like how all of the sudden she threw the whole vampire thing at you - I mean, at least build up to it. Another complaint was how obsessed - I do mean obsessed - Bianca was with Lucas. I felt she spent way to much time worrying about him. Almost every other page she was gushing on and on and ON about Lucas, and how she couldn't live without him. Near the end of the book, all Bianca wants to do is hop into bed with him - or so Claudia Gray makes it seem.
However, with the bad comes the good, right? And this book does have some good points to it. The story was show more very original. Most books always assume that vampires keep up with the day to day life of humans, they learn everything they need to learn, and they're these really mature humans who could put even Einstein to shame. It was nice to see a vampire who was so much like a teen she painted her nails almost every day. And Randolf who kept thinking there were gods that ran cars. Other than the story, though, I found it very dull. An interesting read, but not one I would keep on my shelf. show less