Book Review of Nevermore by Kelly Creagh

Title: Nevermore

Author: Kelly Creagh

Release Date: August 31, 2010

Cheerleader Isobel Lanley is horrified when she is paired with Varen Nethers for an English project, which is due—so unfair—on the day of the rival game. Cold and aloof, sardonic and sharp-tongued, Varen makes it clear he’d rather not have anything to do with her either. But when Isobel discovers strange writing in his journal, she can’t help but give this enigmatic boy with the piercing eyes another look.

Soon, Isobel finds herself making excuses to be with Varen. Steadily pulled away from her friends and her possessive boyfriend, Isobel ventures deeper and deeper into the dream world Varen has created through the pages of his notebook, a realm where the terrifying stories of Edgar Allan Poe come to life.

As her world begins to unravel around her, Isobel discovers that dreams, like words, hold more power than she ever imagined, and that the most frightening realities are those of the mind. Now she must find a way to reach Varen before he is consumed by the shadows of his own nightmares.

His life depends on it.

Summary from Goodreads.com

My Review: I have a friend who has been talking about this book for a while now, so I wanted to check it out myself.  Now that I have read the book, I am sitting here typing this review and I think my mind is still racing from everything that transpired.  It was amazing!  My copy of this book now looks like I have been editing it rather than reading it.  I have underlined passages, written notes and scribbled everywhere.  I am sorry Kelly, there was just so much going on and I had to try and keep track of it all.  You know what?  I actually think I am going to go back and re-read this book to try and catch some of the things I might have missed. There were events that just happened too fast for me to catch it all.  As a result, I left some things underlined to go back and look at later.

Since finishing the book, I have also been looking up various Poe stories and references from the book.  But I definitely want to re-read, and that is the highest compliment I can give a book, because I am not a re-reader.  Once I am done with a book that is usually it for me, I put it down, write the review and walk away.  I do go back sometimes and re-read passages, which means I am very interested, but wanting to read the whole book again is rare for me.  I am seriously fighting the urge right now to pick it up and read it again.  Kelly, you have done your job because your book is running though my mind and I cannot get it out!!

What is the book about you might wonder…well besides that summary up top I am not going to be much help to you.  Your probably saying, “why can’t you tell me more?” Well, I will tell you why, because I am done with the book and I am still a little fuzzy about what went down.  Here is a line from the book that I think sums up my feelings on this very well:

He was always talking in circles like this, always leaving her with more questions than answers.  It made her want to scream at him, to demand one single cut-and-dry, yes-or-no-reply.

Seriously, that is how I feel.  Just when you thought you could maybe figure out what was  going on something else would happen or an explanation would get cut off mid-sentence and then you were left hanging, again.  It left me with a weird mix of frustration and intrigue churning in my head that would not let me put the book down!  Even though the book is 500 pages, I still devoured it in one day.  The story had a firm grip on me and I was not able to walk away until I knew where it was going to take me next.

Nevermore will take you on a twisted, dark, haunting, tale of mystery that is impossible to walk away from not changed.  I cannot say enough good things about this book, I will warn you though that you should keep a pen handy to make notes or a computer nearby to look up references because you will go crazy if those resources are not close by for you to use.  I read on Kelly’s site (which is sweet and you should check it out here)  that there is a sequel in the works!  So exciting!  I will be eagerly awaiting it so I can be swept away again by this world.

Language Love:

All she could do was stare, reaching toward him with her gaze alone, pulling him to drown in the sorrow of the depthless black pools.

I like this line for two reasons

1.  I love the haunting description of this character and

2.  I think much of the book feels like this, a little sad, and mysterious, yet you are dying to know what is going on

FTC:  I received this ARC from the publisher