Evermore by Alyson Noël

If you’ve read Twilight, you don’t really need to read this book. I’m going to be blunt here, and say I didn’t like it, the main reason being it’s a bad Twilight rip-off, but instead of vampires we have ‘immortals’…

Sixteen year old Ever moves to live with her rich aunt following a devastating car crash which claims the lives of her family and leaves her with tons of mysterious psychic powers – she sees dead people (the infamous line from The Sixth Sense is even featured), sees auras surrounding people and can read minds; due to these psychic powers (of which there are much more) it’s a little pointless, but she still goes to school with her two stereotypical best friends, where the dashingly handsome Damen Auguste has just enrolled, with everyone fawning all over him – yet, surprise surprise, he instantly takes a liking to Ever, even though she does her best to avoid him, mainly because she doesn’t think she’s good enough for him as he is perfect at literally everything (apparently, he taught Picasso). And that’s kinda it…oh, wait – by the end of the book Ever becomes an alcoholic who is glad to get suspended due to said alcoholism so she can spend “each long lazy day in a vodka fuelled haze” because, apparently, alcohol makes her psychic powers disappear…temporarily.  

Ever was incredibly annoying – firstly with her whole ‘woe is me, it’s my fault that my family is dead’ charade, her instant infatuation with Damen and creepy claim on him, just because he’s so gorgeous that she literally forgot to move and breathe when she first lays eyes on him. She continues to love him, even though he flirts with others, often ditches her, convinces her to skip class (just one example of her recklessness, but it’s fine with no repercussions because apparently there are very few parents in this story and her aunt is conveniently super-busy at work) and refuses to divulge his murky past. The story consists of her trying to stay with Damen, even though he does all of these things to her which she NEVER QUESTIONS, and then because this is copying the plot of Twilight, there has to be an enemy (in the form of Damen’s wife) out to destroy Ever and Damen’s happiness, but the fight occurs in a kitchen, instead of a ballet studio because that would just be too obvious.

I liked the pace and flow of Noël’s writing; though it was painfully obvious she had a thesaurus sat next to her during the entire writing process, along with a copy of Twilight. If you want to enjoy this novel, force yourself to like Ever, suspend your disbelief and forget everything you’ve ever read about Twilight, or this novel with really get on your nerves. The names in the book annoyed me a lot – Honor, Haven, Ever, Drina, I could go on…but most of all Damen. It’s not even a name for crying out loud, and whenever I read it, I was constantly reminded of Damon (spelt the actual way!) Salvatore from The Vampire Diaries, though I have since discovered it's the street on which her husband was born...

I’m really struggling of good things to say about Evermore – it’s a pretty mediocre, unoriginal piece of work but I kinda enjoyed parts of it, though that’s probably because nothing is explained until the last few pages, so you read on wanting to find explanations, of which not many are given. I did like the attempt at originality with the auras and immortal stuff, and for me this was Evermore’s saving grace but I am seriously struggling to comprehend how the story can be stretched across five more books – you just know that Ever and Damen are going to get their happy ending – and the fact that 6 books were written in the space of about three years says quite a bit to me; but I’m perfectly happy to be proven wrong, and I really hope that the series improves because I’m not blown away by Evermore, especially given that it could have been very good novel about coping with grief and discovering the world is not what you thought it was – and I was hoping it would be, though I know some people adore it – I guess it’s like Marmite. 

Evermore is getting two stars because of how nice Alyson is, the awesomeness of Riley, Ever’s dead sister, and because I feel mean giving any less.

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[SYNOPSIS: Ever Bloom is the sole survivor of a car accident that killed her family. Exiled to sunny California, Ever is haunted by her little sister and by the ability to see people's auras, hear their thoughts and know their entire life story by touching them. She wants to hide from the world, but when a stunningly handsome new guy arrives at school, she can't seem to keep away. Falling in love with Damen is dangerous - he's not what he seems. But if Damen is her destiny, how can Ever walk away? ]