Everfound

Perhaps the best of the three, which means the author did his job well, increasing the tension as the overall story progressed, making this a trilogy worth finishing. He’ll (eagerly?) throw characters into the worst scenarios, perhaps situations that mean the end of them, often just when you love them the most. This shouldn’t put anyone off, though, as it adds tension and drama. I also liked that the author showed that even unpleasant characters have layers and motivation for what they do, something sometimes not highly dealt with in books for younger audiences. I grieved for those I earlier thought deserved their bad ends, which takes some doing no matter the age of the reader. As for the age of that audience, I find it difficult show more to judge, being as I read books like Oliver Twist when I was 7 or 8 years old. A satisfying series. show less

Let me start this review with a confession: I freaking love Neal Shusterman. Absolutely everything of his that I have read I have freaking loved. Not just loved -freaking loved. That's a whole lot of love right there. Even some of the authors that I've been reading for a long time don't have the kind of love. Ever since I read Unwind a few years ago, Neal Schusterman has had a special place in my heart as the king of awesomely haunting, meaningful YA novels that are always worth reading -and the Skinjacker trilogy is no exception.

Everfound picks up right where Everwild picks up. Mary Hightower has managed to come back to Everlost, but is stuck in the usual hibernation period (called being an Interlight) before awakening as a show more full-fledged Afterlight. As her minions wait for her to awaken, Allie and others head west. Meanwhile, Jackin' Jill's path crosses with Jix, a strange Afterlight who has the ability to furjack -or take over the bodies of animals. Jix takes orders from a Mayan king who enjoys collecting the coins of Everlost. As the many characters and plot lines converge, the wild twistiness and epic awesome of Everfound explodes.

Completely and absolutely satisfying, Everfound delivers an epic thrill-ride from start to finish. From the very first word until the last, I couldn't put this book down. I kept flipping pages, desperately wanting to know what would happen next. It was amazing to see the intricate and unexpected twists and turns, even when it got close to end. Even now, Shusterman revealed things about his characters that readers would never expect.

Everfound is an excellent conclusion to a great series. Taking the stakes higher and the plot further, Shusterman continues to develop his world up until the very end, crafting a fascinating and engaging world that never ceases to amaze. I'm really sorry to see this series end. It was a fantastic world with incredibly unique characters, and I would recommend to anyone -Shusterman knows how to do it right. show less

Leans more into epic battle in Everlost at this point, with great villains and great heroes. I found it a bit of a slog, with the world building artificial and haphazard feeling, the interludes valueless, and most of the characters unsympathetic. There's a lot of growth and change and the ending was satisfying, though.

When I started this trilogy I wasn't sure if I liked it. It had an interesting premise but it took me a while to get into the characters and the story, but by this third book I was hooked! The story seemed to get darker and darker as Mary's quest to save the children grew more and more fanatical and her battle with Nick and his allies to thwart her plans seemed to push her past the edge of sanity. The books ended up having much more depth than I had expected when I began book 1. It touched on so many different things that left me thinking about it long after I had put the book down and turned off the light to sleep.

This final book really pulled all three books together and it ended up being one of the best stories (the three books show more combined) that I've read. Highly recommended! show less

Shusterman does it again with a strong plot and ending that makes you think about life and death for many days afterwards. The final book in the trilogy was difficult to put down, becoming darker as it went, but tying everything together nicely at the end. Enjoyable read!

This is the third and final book in The Skinjacker Trilogy. It ends the series well and continues to be an extremely creative series that delves into interesting questions surrounding life and death. I listened to this on audio book and it was very well done.

Mary Hightower has been sent back to sleep as an Interlight, Allie is strapped to the front of Mary's train, Mikey is on his way down to the center of the earth, and Nick (the chocolate ogre) has been blasted to pieces. This book starts out a little time after the second book ended. Things are falling apart; Allie wants to defeat Mary's army of Afterlights in hopes of stopping Mary's plan to destroy the living world but she is trapped on the train carrying Mary's sleeping body. Some show more new characters are added to the fray; enter Jix an Afterlight sent to retrieve Mary by the King of the City of Souls and Clarence a skin-wraith that can extinguish Afterlights with just a touch.

There is a lot that happens in this book. The characters are all acting how they think is best, but they don't know what the other characters are doing so there are a lot of twists and turns as their story threads come together. There are a number of things in this story that happen and you think, huh...what did that have to do with anything? In the end though everything in this story had a purpose to serve. Shusterman does an excellent job of creating a complicated story with numerous story threads that all come together nicely to create a well-thought out book.

The characters continue to be a mix of good and bad and are very human. Mary has decided that to save everyone she needs to destroy the living world; she is evil in her intent but her reasoning makes sense to her and this makes her surprisingly human. The same can be said of many of the characters. Ally is trying to save the living world, but in doing so ends up being just as ruthless as Mary in some cases. Mikey has tried to leave the monster part of himself behind, but can't quite stop playing the monster. All of these characters are shades of grey and they are all doing what they think is best for humanity.

Jackin Jill plays a large role in this story, as does Jix an Afterlight that has taken on decidedly Jaguar features and is present at the request of the king of The City of Souls.

Shusterman pays a lot of attention to detail so all of the mechanics behind Afterlights and inanimate objects going over to Everlost are well explained and interesting to read about. This is a well thought out and very creative book. The book is tied up nicely and the epilogue ties up all of the characters loose threads.

At times it did seem like too much is happening, so it took the story a long time to spin itself out. Everything did happen for a reason, but some of the diversions the characters took (for example the whole Wurlitzer part) got a bit lengthy.

Overall fans of this series should find this book to be a very satisfying conclusion to the series. The plot is well done, the characters very life-like, and the world incredibly creative. There were a couple times that I thought side stories were drawn out too long; the characters all take very twisty paths to the final battle. I am in awe of Shusterman's ability to think through the complexities of this world and in awe with his creativity. I will definitely be picking up some of Shusterman's other books to read. show less

2.5 stars.

I don't know how this book managed to be both imaginative and kind of predictable. It has a really well-crafted setting which obviously required a lot of thought and planning, and yet for all that, the narrative really felt cluttered to me, like the story was observing the rules of the world created in it, and yet there were so many rules that somehow everything seemed possible to the point that I found it all rather ridiculous.... I just lost patience at some point, and skimmed the last few hundred pages (yes, it felt way too long). To be fair, though, it did continue in the vein of the two installments preceding it, and it was a rather good conclusion to the trilogy in that sense. Maybe it was just that it took me so long to show more get to third book, or just that it kinda felt like it was directed at a much younger audience than me, but in any case I couldn't really enjoy it. show less