read complete reviw here: http://notjustnonsense.blogspot.com/2012/01/review-everneath-everneath-1-by-brodi.html
Nikki Beckett has lost her mother to a car accident caused by a drunk driver. Her father hardly speaks to her, he's so busy with his political campaign. Her best friend, Jack Caputo, finally became her boyfriend, and everything was peachy... until she caught a half-dressed girl coming out of his room at camp. Many sad and stressful events started to pile up until she couldn't take it anymore. She wanted the pain to stop, or, even better, to stop feeling. And Cole Stockton was the guy to help her.
Cole is an Everliving. He's been alive for many, many years, but every 100 years he needs to Feed, or he'll die. He feeds on human emotions and energy. Nikki has fed him for a whole century at the Everneath, but after she woke up still remembering her past life, she decided to Return to the surface, where only 6 months had passed since she 'disappeared'. Nikki feels completely empty of feelings, but still she wants to fix things with her family and loved ones, who assumed she got involved with drugs and all kinds of bad things when she went missing so suddenly. All she wants is to say good-bye properly, and use those last six months she has to make amends. But she isn't ready to feel again. And that's what happens when she sees Jack after so long.
Jack slowly starts to approach her, to try and understand what caused her strange behavior of 6 months ago and to know what exactly happened to her during the time she went missing. Nikki tries to push him away, but she can't. She still loves him. And he, her. But Nikki only has 6 months on Earth. After this time is over, she'll have to go to the Tunnels, where she'll end stuck in a nightmare, paying back her 'debt'. However, Cole offers her another option. He was so surprised when she woke up from the Feed still looking like herself and with most of her memories intact, that he asks her to become an Everliving like him. He tries to convince her to become his queen. The Queen of the Everneath. But Nikki wants nothign from him. She con't stand the thought of Feeding on innocents to survive like she's been Fed on. She plans to use her time to the fullest and then go to the Tunnels like she has to.
I wasn't sure what to say about Everneath. It gave me very mixed feelings. I didn't care for lots of things about it, but I was really interested in others.
It took me a while to get into the book, but eventually I got used to it, especially the confusing alternating timelines (the narrative kept count of the time the main character still had on Earth/The Surface, and kept going back and forth to past events in order to explain things). I did like the story, with all the mythological mentions and touches to it, but I just couldn't feel the heroine. Sure, I understood her thoughts and actions, but she always came around a bit empty to me. Unfeeling. And I don't mean literally, like in the book, but as a human. Just didn't really leave a mark at all. I guess what I mean to say is that she didn't feel like a heroine to me. Maybe more like a secondary character? >.
