Everlost

Author: Neal Shusterman
Genre: fiction, young adult, sf (?)
Publication info: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2006
Pages: 313

This book is brilliant. It had me hooked very quickly, so much so that as I read I became pretty oblivious to my surroundings. Shusterman here has expertly created a new world, one that is totally foreign to ours, but one that soon became very real to me as I got lost in this story.

It's the story about two kids, Allie and Nick, who get killed in a car crash. But instead of "getting to where they were going," they wind up in Everlost, a kind of in-between place inhabited only by kids. They get to know the quirks of this world before long. If you stay in one place to long (unless it's a dead-spot), you begin sinking to the center of the Earth. You never know whom to trust. And beware, of course, the lurking threat of the monster known as the McGill.

Everlost is, simply put, a very engaging story. It convinced me that there are things far worse than death. I also applaud the character development. At first Allie bothered me a little, but I figured she had room to grow, and indeed she did. Both she and Nick had the chance to become heroes in their own way, in ways I didn't expect at first. And it is interesting who ends up being the "villains."

If you're looking for a book that's fun to read, that's not challenging but still makes you think, I highly recommend this one. Let Everlost become your world for a while. And then be grateful you're still alive.