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45 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An enjoyable genre-bender, July 4, 2008
This review is from: Evernight (Evernight Novels) (Hardcover)
My previous forays into teen and vampire books have always left me feeling cheated. It's too easy to fall into the sap trap with the former, and devolve into effete and self-conscious inanity with the latter. Not so with Evernight. It is a perfect story for the adolescent set, or anyone else willing to suspend disbelief and enjoy a good tale for a few hours read. Evernight is a refreshingly entertaining and interesting take on some tried and true themes - coming of age, not fitting in, dealing with the undead. Obviously, there's a lot of flight of fancy here given the premise, and Ms. Gray does a superb job of taking us right into the story of Bianca. She does not get distracted with superfluous back stories, ponderous musings on why things are the way things are, or pointless expositions of how cool her characters are. She jumps into the world as her engaging and wholly likable protagonist sees it, complete with uncertainties and a decidedly modern perspective, and just runs from there. Ms. Gray is adept at dropping little morsels of conflict here and there, whetting our appetite for the inevitable showdown. She does this without being overtly manipulative - the suspense builds very gradually and organically. In fact, I was content just to read about how Bianca interacted with the odd and rarefied world of Evernight - no conflict necessary. Of course, there is conflict - plenty of it. You get the sense that no one is quite what (or who) they seem, and their agendas are likewise masked. The twists are welcome and make the ride all the more enjoyable, although one or two were a little abrupt and hard to swallow given the way the story played out, but our heroine is so likably normal that these were minor disturbances in an otherwise completely enjoyable experience. Evernight is a great story, and there are plenty of tantalizing loose ends and "what ifs" that leave me anticipating the next book. Get it and enjoy!
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41 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Who are these strange people at evernight academy? So beautiful, so rich, so...different., July 23, 2008
This review is from: Evernight (Evernight Novels) (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
EVERNIGHT starts out as a fish-out-of-water story. Bianca's parents have sent her, for her own good, to Evernight Academy - an elite New England boarding school complete with an imposing faux-Gothic campus and privileged student body. Her parents think Bianca is too shy, too withdrawn, and they hope the competitive and glamorous world of Evernight will shake things up and force Bianca out of her cocoon. Her parents are right, at least to a point. The other students are world-travelers, sophisticated, used to incredible luxury. Bianca is a small-town girl, inexperienced and naive, and it's a challenge for her to adapt to all this change, let alone fit in. She finds allies among the other mifits, the assorted students who don't quite fit the Evernight "type", especially a handsome, angry young man named Lucas. Pretty soon, there are two big questions in the novel: One, does Bianca really want to fit in at Evernight - even if she could? And two, what's behind Lucas' strange behavior - why is he so aggressive and overprotective? I really liked EVERNIGHT, but I had a couple of pretty serious problems with it. One is that the author saves a big revelation for halfway through the book, when she should have let the cat out of the bag in the beginning - because it's Bianca, the first person narrator, who's been keeping secrets. After the reveal, all of Bianca's narration includes constant reference to the knowledge she's had all along, which makes her previous silence feel especially false. My other problem was with Lucas. Bianca falls hard and fast for him, thinks it's true love, yada yada. But Lucas picks fights, he tries to isolate Bianca socially and to monitor her physically, and he follows her around - one of Bianca's best friends even warns her that he's an abusive boyfriend waiting to happen. I would have been more willing to buy into their volatile, on-again-off-again relationship if it hadn't been for Boy Number Two: Balthazar, who's thoughtful and courteous and, yeah, super handsome. I never understood why Bianca stuck with angry Lucas when someone so much better was waiting in line. That being said, I'll definitely pick up the sequel when it appears. The revelations about what life at Evernight is really like - and I'll give you a hint, vampires are involved - and Bianca's very unique place there are interesting, and as much as I dislike Lucas I do love a tortured love triangle. Bianca's close relationship with her parents is one of the strongest parts of the novel and I look forward to seeing how they grow and change as a family. I'd recommend EVERNIGHT to readers who like Stephanie Meyer, P.C. Cast, or Richelle Mead.
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining, But Not a Standout in the Genre, August 14, 2008
This review is from: Evernight (Evernight Novels) (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
I haven't been a teenager for quite a few years now, but I do love a good vampire story. That's the reason I selected Evernight as one of my Amazon Vine picks. I wasn't disappointed, but I wasn't blown away by this tale of a teenage girl who is dragged to Evernight Academy, a gothic boarding school, by her parents when they take positions as teachers there. Bianca, the main character and narrator of the book, wasn't a particular deep, insightful, or unique character. It is pity that the book is from her point-of-view. The author tries to pull off a surprise twist in the middle of novel, but instead of being a shocking revelation my reaction was more "uh, okay, that really doesn't work with what's happened already in the novel." It was not a good reaction. I believe this is the author's first novel, and I do see promise in the setting, supporting characters, and the writing style. I will likely read future books by her to see if some of the issues with this novel can be avoided in those.
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