Evermore

Since a horrible accident claimed the lives of her family, sixteen-year-old Ever can see auras, hear people’s thoughts, and know a person’s life story by touch. Going out of her way to shield herself from human contact to suppress her abilities has branded her as a freak at her new high school—but everything changes when she meets Damen Auguste…

Ever sees Damen and feels an instant recognition. He is gorgeous, exotic and wealthy, and he holds many secrets. Damen is able to make things appear and disappear, he always seems to know what she’s thinking—and he’s the only one who can silence the noise and the random energy in her head. She doesn’t know who he really is—or what he is. Damen equal parts light and darkness, and he belongs to an enchanted new world where no one ever dies.

Alright, let's be done with this. Female protagonist meets newly-arrived in town Greek God. He is beautiful. Sexy. Charming. Everyone falls for him. Even men. He is rich. She falls for him too! Oh, wait. Mister beautiful is so mysterious and secretive. Why does she feel so drawn to him?

Rings a bell?

This was a challenge between me and Aithen to pick an already mildly-appreciated book and see if we survive. Uh, I barely made it alive. My hopes rose as I started reading Evermore by Alyson Noel. They seriously did. It's just a shame they were drowned in a pile of flat characters and mediocre writing. By page 50, I had enough. By page 100, I wanted to skim through the book and be done with it. Only I bared 50 more pages until I decided my sanity was at stake and quickly browsed through the rest of the book to meet a predictable and quickly wrapped-up ending.

I liked Ever. At first. Really, I did (except for her name. What parent calls his child Ever, just so the full name can be Ever Bloom? I mean, it isn't even 'cool' or 'neat' or 'witty' or whatever the author was trying to make it look like. It is what we call clichiness, my friends). She was a distant and silent teen who tried to drown her powers in heavy music and under a hoodie, waiting till the chaotic mind-swirling buzz quietened down. She reminded me of Melissa from Midnighters. She was a very promising character, who didn't care about people's opinions and had a very collected attitude toward things.

Haven (again, what's with the name?); an attention-wanter-cupcake-lover-emo-pretender, and Miles; a homosexual teen (I liked this trait about him), both of Ever's friend were, on the other hand, just ridiculous. Their good intentions and background stories didn't make up for the fact that they didn't act like real friends at all, had a very flat and undeveloped personality and acted more like children than 16-year old teens. I couldn't stand Haven's whining and Miles unconcerned attitude toward anything that happened. They were easy to bear while Ever was around, but when she started falling for Damen and the loves-me-loves-me-not petal plucking game began, she, too, was overwhelmed by stupidity. (I tell you, sparkly males are a threat to health!) Did you also know that Ever can't read Damen's mind! I think Cullen shares the same frustration.

And Damen, now.

What is it with today's literature where males in a couple must be sexy, beautiful, charming, hot, have smoldering eyes, shiny and soft skin, warm touch, brilliant smiles? Why is it that those males need to be supernatural beings, and have super powers, and have a whole school fall for them and create hysteria all around? Damen was just your Mexican version of Edward, with a far too big ego disguised as mysteriousness and just the same stalk-ish and moody attitude. Evermore is not the only book that falls in step with Twilight (that is not a praise) and makes a mess out of romance.

Because this time the romance was really a mess. There is absolutely nothing to Ever's and Damen's relationship. The only reason Ever 'loves' Damen is because, well, he's omigod so hot, he has smoldering eyes and deliciously tanned skin. Oh and yes, his touch makes her feel so warm and happy. It seems the only way Damen can be described is with his appealing body, and that's why his personality is so... amiss. I don't even know how to describe it. It was just out of place and a poor replica of Edward Cullen (Still not a praise).

The relationship also started way to quickly, there was no development, no depth, the romance was all cheesy and just about kissing and giving tulips. (Because Damen was capable of plucking a hundred tulips from behind Ever's ear just-like-that.)

Well, there's not much to say about the plot. Abnormal boy likes human girl. Too many things were left unexplained at the predictable end. Bad mix of alchemy and karma. Love at first sigh. The supposed twists are not worth being twists. The writing was also, like, omigod so unprofessional. The expression "she put her lips together" pops out about fifty times in the first 150 pages of the book. Almost nothing interesting happens and there's only action at the very end of the book, which is equal to dull candy for readers like me. Dull candy is not sweet. It makes you want to spit it out.

I've tried to find something positive about the book. I feel like I'm failing myself when I bash a book, but Evermore was just really, really, really bad. Worse than Twilight. Bad attempt at being like Twilight. I've almost never grown tired of a book after the 50th page, and this read was a challenge that I'm not redoing. My sanity is at stake, as I already said.

This book will be adored by some teens. It will be hated by the rest.

If you are to read a flat-characterized romance book where nothing happens in 1/4 of it, you might as well go read Twilight.

I won't be reading the sequel to this, and sorry if I offended anyone, but ranting feels so good.

-Beryl

Evermore by Alyson Noel
Rating: 5/10