EVERMORE by Alyson Noel

Evermore
Alyson Noel

Grade: D


Description from goodreads.com:
After a horrible accident claims the lives of her family, sixteen-year-old Ever Bloom can see people's auras, hear their thoughts, and know someone's entire life story by touching them. Going out of her way to avoid human contact and suppress her abilities, she has been branded a freak at her new high school-but everything changes when she meets Damen Auguste. 
Damen is gorgeous, exotic, and wealthy. He's the only one who can silence the noise and random energy in her head-wielding a magic so intense, it's as though he can peer into her soul. As Ever is drawn deeper into his enticing world of secrets and mystery, she's left with more questions than answers. And she has no idea who he really is-or what he is. The only thing she knows to be true is that she's falling deeply and helplessly in love with him.


My thoughts on the book:
So I finally broke down and checked this book out from my library, and I'm so glad I didn't buy it. It was pretty terrible. All of the names of the characters are ridiculous, and Ever is a whiny, emo, selfish brat. The idea of immortals instead of vampires intrigued me a bit, but over all, this book was a waste of time. The main reason I finished it was to find out why Damen was such a weirdo. Unfortunately, I'm still not sure why. 


I'm glad I read this book simply because now I'm not curious anymore. I won't be continuing the series, though. That's for sure. It falls in the ranks of other YA disasters, such as Fallen, in my book. The characters are all flat, Ever is one of the most boring characters I've ever had the displeasure of reading. She's also depressing. I finished this book feeling all gloomy because her emo personality apparently rubbed off on me. Nothing was explained nearly enough, either. Her friends were cliches, and her aunt was, of course, MIA. 


The romance in this book isn't believable. Maybe it would have been more believable if the characters had been a little bit likable, but as it stands, I just couldn't believe it. Damen did crack me up with his tulips, though. That was about the only redeeming factor of the book. However, he's not the best influence for Ever, that's for sure. Thanks to him she skips a ton of classes, then turns into an alcoholic after they break up. Unhealthy relationship much? I mean obviously he didn't turn her into an alcoholic since he was gone, but still, she's just too weak to even be considered a heroine. 


The one thing that kept me reading was trying to figure Damen out, which like I said, I didn't actually do. His actions were strange, and I wasn't quite sure what to make of them. I know that I wouldn't want a boyfriend like that, but I'm not a whiny emo child, that could be why. The action scenes weren't that intense, and random people kept showing up and disappearing, even though they played no real part in the story. Drina was the typical villain, down to telling Ever all of her nefarious plans and actions during the supposed "climax" of the story... which was rather anti-climactic, if I do say so myself. It would have been comical if it hadn't been so terrible. 


Ever's insistance of punishing herself and making sure she was never happy was another thing that really bothered me. It's one thing to have survivor's guilt, but it's another thing to make yourself suffer for eternity for "penance." Talk about living in the Dark Ages. It wouldn't have surprised me if she'd started wearing hair shirts in an effort to cleanse her body of her sins. Seriously, she was that dramatic about it. It was ridiculous. Actually, the hair shirt would have added a little depth to her character. I think she should have done that. And because she was soooooooooo miserable and didn't deserve to be happy, she made everyone around her miserable as well. She was so self-absorbed, she didn't know or care what was going on with anyone. All she cared about was her own suffering. Yea, real great heroine we have here, huh? Seriously, she couldn't have saved herself from a freaking paper bag, she was so pathetic. 


The story didn't make a whole lot of sense. I guess the pacing was quick, but the plot itself was lacking. I'm still not sure how anything really connected. It's one of those books you finish reading, and then you're like, "so what?" I mean I obviously didn't expect it to be loaded with inspiration, but a little positive thinking never hurt anyone.


Over all, I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. I mean sure if you want to waste a few hours of your life and some brain cells, then I guess have at it. Otherwise, I'd say skip this series. There are plenty of better series/authors out there to read. Don't be like Ever, don't punish yourself for nothing. Trust me, it's not worth it.