Review: EVERMORE by Alyson Noel

If I were an agent I would have wanted to represent this book after reading the first fifty pages. But, if I were an agent, and completed reading the book, there would be no way in this world I could be convinced of representing this script.

EVERMORE is a NYT #1 bestseller. Number one! First place!! Do any of us understand the gravity of that spot? I expected wonder. I expected a great ride. But for me, this book was absolutely thrilling only to go downhill midway, then drop off completely by the end.

The author, Alyson Noel, is mightily talented. I loved her voice, her pacing, the introduction of her premise: a psychic girl who's still striving to understand her own powers falls for a boy she's convinced is something much more than the other boys at school. Well... actually, at first, I wasn't all that crazy about the premise (I'm not all that into psychics), but by about fifty pages, I was completely sold.

But then weird things started to happen; I began to get frustrated with the protagonist. She's always on the defensive. Her "romance" scenes consist of chewing out her love interest only to kiss him only to chew him out some more. Over, and over, and over again.

Her friends are memorable--different from the friends I've seen in other paranormal books. But the love interest in the story? I still have no idea what his personality is. I kept thinking about Patch in hush, hush and how I clearly understood his personality. But Damen in this story? He's six hundred years old, obsessed with this girl, but I have no idea if he's passive or aggressive, outgoing or a recluse, and my biggest question: why in the world he's fallen for the girl (Ever... that's her name).

The names were unique. I liked that. But then I got more and more impatient with the MC. Will she always complain about everything exciting that happens to her? What are her redeeming qualities? I honestly feel like she behaved like she was thirteen. And then she took up drinking--quite a bit. I understood why, but really? It made it hard for me to cheer on a protagonist with such little direction 5/6ths of the way through the book.

I couldn't get emotionally invested in the characters. By the end, I was rolling my eyes at the romance, and not even remotely impressed by the antagonist's rantings. I like a sympathetic antagonist (or at least one with a bit of flair). But the bad guy (er, girl) was just ridiculous to me; not even one I could hate just because I thought she was dumb.

Yet it read quickly, and I loved how the protagonist had a gift--not just the guy, like so many paranormal books.

But I started out with five stars, then came down to two. Anyone else have a completely polarized view? There must be; NYT first place and all.