Tatiana's Reviews > Everlost

Everlost reminded me of several books I felt rather lukewarm about - Elsewhere, Lord of the Flies and Gone. It deals with afterlife (specifically, the limbo between life and death) and kids behaving badly when left on their own.

I can see why fans of Unwind would be underwhelmed by Everlost. I was too, a little. It is a good book, but it is clearly a children's book. There are no adults in it, the characters are all under 15. Even when the story handles very serious matters (that scared and creeped me out BTW), it does so in a manner suitable for children - the villains, the torture devices (a pickle barrel?) and violence are of a milder type.

Even though I knew from the get-go Everlost would never be one of my favorite books, once I made a decision to stick with the story anyway, I came to like it a lot and even developed a good amount of affection for its characters. Shusterman's vision of mid-existence struck my imagination. The boredom, uneventfulness, the obliteration of one's identity - DEPRESSING! If this is what being stuck in a limbo would be, I don't see how it is better than hell.

For those who dropped the book early on asked me if it gets better, here is my answer - it doesn't really. But I eventually got interested enough in the story to want to read the sequels and to see how it all ends. I just wish this series was written with an older set of characters and gorier details to go along with already sufficiently disturbing and mature concept.