evermore

in a sentence or so: Ever is a psychic. she wasn't always a psychic though - not until after the death of her entire family and her own near-death-experience. just as she's learning to cope with the weirdness of knowing someones entire life story by touch, hearing their thoughts, and seeing their aura, in comes super hottie Damen - who lacks readable thoughts AND an aura AND seems to have quite an interest in Ever.

Ever, a junior and recent transfer student from the rainy northwest to the permanent sunshine of Orange County, is not the girl she once was. before the car accident that killed her mother, father, sister, and golden lab, Ever was the stereotypical blond, popular, cheerleader. since her time CA living with her aunt, she's committed do dressing in jeans, hoodies, and hanging with the less-than-cool kids. her two best friends, Haven and Miles, are what you might call socially awkward. Haven is currently cycling through a serious goth phase (although she's nowhere near legit goth) and Miles is absorbed with his Sidekick, trying out for local plays, and talking about his latest boyfriend. i guess you could also count her sister Riley as a friend...as she's been visiting her from beyond the grave ever since the accident.

Ever is getting used to this routine when the aura-less Damen strolls into her life. the more she gets to 'know' Damen, the more mysterious he becomes. no aura, has lived everywhere by the age of 17, and is emancipated from his parents. his mystery only increases when he plays hot and cold with Ever - delivering smoldering looks one minute and giving rosebuds to other girls the next. and THEN there's his mysterious acquaintance of Drina who is also aura-less, drop dead gorgeous, and clearly not a fan of Ever.

a good bulk of the plot is figuring out just who Damen and Drina are, and why they're focused on Ever. another chunk of the plot is Ever wrestling with knowing too much about people and their lives from her psychic ability and spending time with Riley (dead little sister). i felt like the plot moved along nicely, spending equal time on both segments of discovery and awareness. especially how Noel was able to portray how Ever tried to keep it all together, but eventually Ever realizes that her life is a precarious balancing act she isn't able to maintain.

Evermore has elements of healing, forgiveness, acceptance, trust, guilt, addiction, and need. i really liked Ever's battle between inward emotions and how she chose to express those outwardly. so real. i also felt like her friends were lighthearted, funny, and authentic which helped to ground this book and kept it feeling real.

fave quote: "I turn my head and look away. Knowing I do, knowing I love him with every strand of hair, with every skin cell, with every drop of blood, that I'm bursting with love, boiling over, but I just can't bring myself to say it." (262)

fix er up: Damen felt two dimensional for about 80% of the book. i think part of that is because he was intentionally mysterious, but it was still weird to have Ever so entranced by him and not really know what he was about (other than smoldering). also, i felt like this was wrapped up so well that i'm not really sure i'm interested in reading the other books in The Immortals series.

title: Evermore (The Immortals Series)

author: Alyson Noel

genre: Fantasy (Supernatural), Mystery, Romance

image from Wordle.net

fire

in a sentence or so: Fire is the last of the human monsters, which means her beauty and her mind can take over and manipulate the minds of others. after growing up in relative isolation and seclusion, Fire knows it's only a matter of time before those who have been trying to kill her, use her, control her, and love her will close in.

the novel is broken into three parts, the first of which is Monsters. we discover that Fire has the power to manipulate, both with her mind and her beauty, but that she knows (based on the awful example of her father) she will not live her life serving others by manipulating those around her. a good chunk of this first part is discovering who she is, what her purpose is, and how she fits in a world that simultaneously adores and hates her.

part two, spies, develops as a result of a life-changing decision by Fire. she begins to grow confident in herself and recognizes her independence, albeit in a non-traditional way. she begins to serve the royal family by trying to get information from spies regarding the uprising in the corners of the kingdom. during her time in the court, she becomes increasingly aware of the multi-dimensional characters that surround her...for better or for worse.

part three, dells, is a fitting conclusion. as with Graceling, Cashore doesn't insult the reader or the characters by wrapping everything up in the best possible way. there isn't 100% happiness with everyone, death does happen, people let Fire down, and there is much suffering. however, that doesn't mean that the conclusion to this war-heavy story is bleak - rather it is heartwarming, purposeful, and satisfying.

Cashore seems to have a thing for non-traditional gender roles and relationships, and i dig that. for Fire, one of her biggest frustrations is that people are always amazed at her outward beauty and aren't even aware of her inward emotions and scars. the characters in the book are often in relationships that are far from cookie-cutter; children from affair, children from rape, partner's with children, etc... and going along with the non-traditional relationships are the explorations of tough decision making that many characters have to make where there is no easy or clear answer. there are many 'right' and 'wrong' choices, and Fire continually struggles with what to do, when, how, and why.

overall, i wasn't totally head-over-heels with the war heavy aspects of this book. but what i did love was Fire as a main character, and Cashore's (seemingly) signature quirky take on relationships (including relationship to self) and purposeful resolutions.

fave quotes: "It did not surprise Fire that the man in the forest shot her. What surprised her was that he shot her by accident" (19)

"'I think', she said, 'that sometimes we don't feel the things that we are. But others can feel them...'" (434)

fix er up: with so much of this book being focused on war, i didn't feel the urgency and the reality of the impending showdown. granted, a lot of that was because it was all shrouded in mystery for so long...but i did find myself a little annoyed at the pace of plot revelations.

title: Fire

author: Kristin Cashore

genre: Adventure, Fantasy

image by Wordle: