Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Evermore and Blue Moon by Alyson Noel

Disclaimer: I get all my books from the library.

I love that I get to say exactly what I think.

Today I'm reviewing Evermore and Blue Moon, by Alyson Noel. I will review them individually but in the same post, so you can decide if it's worth reading Evermore.

First off, I enjoyed Evermore. The main character, Ever, is psychic. She can see auras. That's cool. Damen, the new kid in school, falls hard for her, even while everyone else is in love with him.

But Ever is dealing with her own problems, mainly being that her whole family died in a car accident a year ago. Emotionally, she's not stable.

Then it turns out that Damen has powers of his own. And he has a very jealous ex-wife who is out to get Ever.

I liked that Ever was a virgin. I didn't like that a central point of the book was about when she would finally lose the label.

I didn't like the weird names. What's up with that? The last book I read by Noel had names like Zoe, Echo. This one has Ever, Stacia, Hazel. Yeah, I know some people put weird names on their kids. But not everyone. And not sixteen years ago.

Ever did not seem like a girl in love to me. That was hard to get into. It's like she just kind of went with it.

And finally, the immortals seem too much like Meyers' vampires for my taste. Drive fast cars, don't eat, move very quickly. But at least the skin doesn't sparkle.

On it's own, I would give this book a B.

But here's the problem. You can't consider it on it's own, because it's a series. A trilogy, I believe. And Blue Moon totally let me down.

The action was fine. Drama was excellent. Blue Moon was as much a page turner as Evermore. I could almost ignore that the whole premise to this book was that Ever and Damen have finally decided to have sex. You know, because the world revolves around it.

But the characters were completely unbelievable. Damen, Ever's powerful love, loses his powers because someone (Ramon) takes away his 'immortal juice.' Without it, he goes back to being a normal person.

Well, his normal person was completely despicable, mean, hateful, horny, and terrible. Which begs the question. Which one is the real Damen? Is the immortal juice happy juice? Why am I interested in him as a character if his personality isn't real?

Even that I could buy into. But I couldn't buy into the ending. Ever chooses not to be with him. Again. (She did the same thing at the end of book one.) Which again leads me to feel she doesn't really love him. I know she had a hard choice in front of her, but I also know what it is to really love someone, especially someone you plan on spending forever with. You don't look back.

Anyway. The bigger issue was that, with Damen's life on the line, Ramon, the same guy who Ever knows is evil, offers save his life. A girl who has never betrayed Ever, always helped her, never lied, tells Ever not to do it. (This girl has magical powers too. Ever's seen her use them.) Ever doesn't listen to her. She listens to Ramon, the evil guy who's been taking Damen's happy juice. And of course, there are dire consequences, which leads to the third book.

Except I won't be reading it. Ever's an idiot. I don't really care anymore what happens to her. Well, I care enough to ask someone. That's why I'm giving this book a D.


A = Buy this book NOW
B = Buy this when you can
C = Check it out from the library
D = Don't bother reading it
F = Burn it

8 comments:

  1. I think the name "Ever" is awesome, but I think having 1 or 2 unique names in a book is probably enough. If everyone has an odd name, it just feels fake.

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  2. Thanks for the warning. I'll pass on this one.

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  3. I haven't read them, but I know someone who had the same feelings as you did about them. Thanks for the review.

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  4. yeah, one cool name is enough for me!

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  5. Okay, Scathing, I have to say I LOVE how you tell it like it is and have a low threshold for improbable characterization and plot. Would you be willing to do a guest Q&A at my blog sometime? I think aspiring YA writers could learn a lot from an insightful reader like you (and if you're under 21, all the better, since you are part of the target audience they all hope to effectively reach).

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  6. Hi Laurel! I'd be honored to do a guest post! In case you're not still around, I'll drop by your blog.

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  7. I'm reading it now and I totally agree. I kind of want to change the names in my head when I see all the crazy ones. I mean, Ever, Haven, Drina, Stacia, Honor? Come on! The author could have put at least one 'Jessica' or something in there.
    Does anyone else thinks it's a little similar to Twilight? The way that she can't see is aura, like Edward can't read Bella's thoughts? The way that Damen has moved there like Bella had? The way that mortal and immortal fall in love? Maybe it's just me..

    woah, long comment!!

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  8. Anon, I found it totally similar to Twilight! Hello,"New Moon" or "Blue Moon"? Yeah.

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