Evermore - Alyson Noel

Evermore is the first book in the Immortals series by Alyson Noel. It was released in the UK in September 2009 by Macmillan Children's Books and it is 384 pages long.

Plot

Ever used to be everything that a teenage girl could possibly want to be, beautiful, popular and with a gorgeous boyfriend. That was until her family was in a horrific car accident and everyone died but her. Being the only one who survived had a strange effect on her though and now she can hear everything that people think and can see their auras. Now, living in Southern California, she is the complete opposite of what she used to be. Yes, she's still beautiful but hides under a hood all of the time so that she can go unnoticed and is pretty much never without her I-pod in so she can drown out other people's thoughts. Not only that, the ghost of her dead little sister stuck around.

When new boy Damen Auguste arrives at school, Ever's life totally changes. Everyone else is completely infatuated with him but Ever is determined to stay under the radar, considering that everyone apart from her two best friends thinks she's a freak. There is something about Damen that Ever can't quite figure out. He's able to make flowers appear out of no where and every time they sit together in English class, her mind goes blank. He seems to be the only thing, apart from loud music, that can silence the noise in her head. Something is drawing her to Damon and she doesn't know whether to run or to stay and see what happens.

What I thought
This was a book that was recommended by a friend but she didn't really tell me a whole lot about it. Luckily, she knows what kind of books that I like so I trusted her when she said this one was good.

Evermore is written in the first person and normally, I find these kind of hard to read at times but as soon as I started, I couldn't put this book down. Everything about the story had me hooked, from the funny and interesting characters to the mysterious plot. I started reading this at work one night (My night time job is pretty good to me) and managed to get half way through it and I couldn't wait to get home so I could read the rest. I ended up being awake until 2am just so I could find out what happened. Unlike a lot of books where you know what is going to happen quite early on, I didn't know what was going on until quite near the end which was a welcome change. There are little mysteries throughout the story which all link together in the end but you never see it coming until it actually happens.

In the introduction, we are lead through Ever's past and what makes her the way she is now. I really enjoyed this part of the book as it gave Ever a nice depth to her and instantly made me want to know more about her. I love knowing the background of a character so that I can grow to love them throughout the story. Ever was a very realistic heroine. Noel managed to bring her problems through really well and I could totally relate to her. If I had gone through something as bad as Ever did then I would probably act the same way. She feels responsible for the death of her family and that if she had been a different, less selfish person then it wouldn't have happened. I could really sympathise with Ever, especially because of her gift. Although it sounds pretty cool, I don't think that I could deal with hearing everyone's thoughts. It would drive me insane.

Damen is everything that I could want in a hero. He is dark, mysterious and extremely good looking. He seems like the bad guy for a while because no one really knows anything about him. When he and Ever start seeing each other, he disappears all the time and never lets her know what he was actually doing or where he went. It takes Ever a long time to trust him and when she discovers his secret, she isn't sure whether to stop seeing him or not. Unlike Twilight, where Bella instantly accepted Edward for what he is, Ever was the opposite. She doesn't know how to deal with this new information and decides that because of this, she can't deal with Damen either. I loved the idea that Damen was a bit magical and we get to see this from the start. It was interesting to find out about the different flowers and why he gave different people certain ones but again, you don't find this out until way into the book.

The secondary characters were just as good as the main characters. Ever's best friends, Miles and Haven were hilarious and extremely real. Miles is gay and brings some fantastic humour and campness at certain times. He also likes to make fun of Ever's name. Haven is a bit of an outsider, like Ever but the two are different. They are outsiders for different reasons and all Haven really wants is attention, unlike Ever. These two characters made the story a bit lighter at times and took the seriousness away from Ever and Damen's part of the story.

Riley, Ever's 12 year old dead sister was also a great character. Riley doesn't want to cross over to the other side because she wants to look after her big sister, who she knows is having problems. Riley doesn't always appear at good times and gets on Ever's nerves. I loved how, after the Halloween party, Riley always turns up in a different costumes, truly acting like a 12 year old would. Riley is also pretty jealous of Ever because she is a teenager, something that she will never be able to be. Although she seems like a pain a lot of the time, Riley is really there to help her sister.

In the twists and turns of the main story are also some pretty important issues. Ever turns to drinking A LOT when she realises that it can drown out her gift but the story also shows how teen drinking can destroy a lot of the good things in life. Friendship is also a big theme throughout as Ever, Haven and Miles all need to rely on each other to get through their problems.

I really enjoyed this book and was glad I listened to my friend. I will definitely be wanting to read the next book in the series.