Everneath Series Review

Everneath Series Review

RATING

7.5/10

SYNOPSIS

Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath. Now she’s returned—to her old life, her family, her boyfriend—before she’s banished back to the underworld . . . this time forever. She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can’t find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists.

Nikki longs to spend these precious months forgetting the Everneath and trying to reconnect with her boyfriend, Jack, the person most devastated by her disappearance—and the one person she loves more than anything. But there’s just one problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who enticed her to the Everneath in the first place, has followed Nikki home. Cole wants to take over the throne in the underworld and is convinced Nikki is the key to making it happen. And he’ll do whatever it takes to bring her back, this time as his queen.

As Nikki’s time on the Surface draws to a close and her relationships begin slipping from her grasp, she is forced to make the hardest decision of her life: find a way to cheat fate and remain on the Surface with Jack or return to the Everneath and become Cole’s queen.

PLOT

If I’m being honest, the only reason I picked up Everneath was because I knew that the second book in Sarah J. Maas’ A Court of Thorns and Roses trilogy was also a Hades and Persephone retelling. I’ve never read any books based around greek mythology—yes, I know, I haven’t read the Percy Jackson books, kill me. But, I was pleasantly surprised by this trilogy for the most part. Personally, I think Everbound, the second book in this trilogy, had the best plot. I mean, I would separately give that book a 9 out of 10. But the rest of the series really brings this book down. I specifically mean the last book (I’ll get more into that in the PROBLEMS section) and the characters. The one thing that stood out to me though, was Ashton’s writing. I would compare her writing to Marie Lu’s. Both of their writing styles keep me reading. Like, I could NOT stop reading any of these books in this series even if I wanted to. It’s been a long time since I’ve read a book in one sitting (Mockingjay) but I actually read Evertrue, the last book, in one sitting. I may not have enjoyed it, but I was hooked.

CHARACTERS

Our main character is Nikki Beckett, a girl who should be much more complex than she actually is. I mean seriously, this girl has zero personality, zero charisma, and is a TERRIBLE decision maker! I mean I get that her emotions were basically sucked out of her in the first book, but she gets them back! It doesn’t make any sense that Nikki with no emotions is the same as Nikki with emotions! And don’t even get me started on Jack. He is literally the Princess Leia of this series (No, I have not watched the Star Wars movies, but I know what type of character she is). He has NO personality beyond being in love with Nikki and it’s sickening. This feels like the same situation I had with A Court of Thorns and Roses, where I found the two main characters to be a bore-fest. Luckily, we have Cole. I hear A LOT of people comparing Cole to Warner and honestly, it’s making me want to re-read Shatter Me. He was by far the most complex character in this trilogy and there was WAY more chemistry between Cole and Nikki than Jack and Nikki. I really wish that the other characters were as complex as Cole, because that would’ve boosted my rating by A LOT.

MAIN PROBLEM(S)

Other than Nikki and Cole, the biggest problem I had with this series was the last book, Evertrue. While I was reading it, I was really enjoying it. But, after I thought about it, I realized how problematic this ending was. I CANNOT get over how upset I am at this ending.

SPOILERS FOR EVERTRUE

Okay, I couldn’t discuss my problems without getting into spoilers. So we know that Nikki doesn’t want to become an everling, but is destroying the Everneath really the only option she had? Really? I’m not buying it. The fact that she doesn’t feel anything while she kills all those people kills me. That was what I was thinking about the whole time. Also, there’s the whole Cole losing his memory thing which I personally didn’t mind. But that ending! Oh my god it killed me! Plus we never really got an explanation for Jack. Is he back to normal now that the Everneath is gone? Is Jack still gonna have anger issues? I guess we’ll never know.

OVERALL

Overall, the Everneath trilogy is a Very entertaining read. I was hooked when I started reading them, the writing’s enjoyable and some of the characters are interesting. Everbound, the second book, is definitely my favourite. I wouldn’t go into these books with much more than hoping to be entertained, though. There are quite a few plot holes. I still highly enjoyed this series. I would recommend it if you’re into Greek mythology.