Evernight ~ Claudia Gray

…A Young Adult Challenge Selection

“Bianca wants to escape.

She’s been uprooted from her small hometown and enrolled at Evernight Academy, an eerie Gothic boarding school where the students are somehow too perfect: smart, sleek, and almost predatory. Bianca knows she doesn’t fit in.

Then she meets Lucas. He’s not the “Evernight type” either, and he likes it that way. Lucas ignores the rules, stands up to the snobs, and warns Bianca to be careful—even when it comes to caring about him.

“I couldn’t stand it if they took it out on you,” he tells Bianca, “and eventually they would.”

But the connection between Bianca and Lucas can’t be denied. Bianca will risk anything to be with Lucas, but dark secrets are fated to tear them apart . . . and to make Bianca question everything she’s ever believed.”

In less then a day I began and finished Evernight. It took me triple that time, at least, to finish the last book I read. It’s not to say one was better than the other, but more that this one grabbed me, that it wouldn’t let go until it was done. And so, yes, I enjoyed it a lot, and for the most part have nothing bad to say about the book. Except, that is, for one thing. That’s where I’ll start.

There’s a twist in Evernight. If you read other reviews you’ll see it mentioned for sure. I’m not going to say what it is because that would be a huge spoiler, but my problem lies in that when the twist was introduced it suddenly felt like I was reading another story, a separate book entirely from the one I began. I was going with the flow and then was harshly thrust into the position of having to accept a whole different scenario. The disjointed nature of the twist, however, wasn’t enough to shift my opinion of the book, and so I’ll leave it at that.

It was apparent early on that Claudia Gray got teenagers, especially ones who had been like me: quiet, painfully shy, unsure of their place. This quality endeared me to her main character, Bianca, from the start.

There are people who enjoy meeting strangers, who can strike up conversations and make friends quickly, but I’d never been one of those people. Anything but.

It’s funny – when people call you “shy,” they usually smile. Like it’s cute, some funny little habit you’ll grow out of when you’re older, like the gaps in your grin when your baby teeth fall out. If they knew how it felt – really being shy, not just unsure at first – they wouldn’t smile. Not if they knew how the feeling knots up your stomach or makes your palms sweat or robs you of the ability to say anything that makes sense. It’s not cute at all.

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The other characters were interesting, as well, and I think this first book scratched the surface on a few of them. {I’d love to see more of Balthazar.} And the romantic interest, Lucas, I enjoyed him, too. There was nice chemistry between Lucas and Bianca, and you can even forgive how quickly things seemed to progress between them. In fact, you even kind of cheer them on. While I hesitate to include this snippet from the Romantic Times Bookclub review, I have to because it draws an interesting and pretty accurate comparison that gives a better sense of the relationship in the book: “Teenage love, ancient hatred and a Romeo and Juliet-style feud fuel the fires in this compelling first-person drama.”

What more could you ask for, right?

The ending isn’t an ending at all and a quick stop at Claudia Gray’s website reveals four books planned in this series. I’ll most definitely be reading Stargazer; in fact, I really would like it to come out a lot sooner then March ’09.

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