"Everlost" by Neal Shusterman (Book 1 of the Skinjacker Trilogy)

Everlost by Neal Shusterman is the entertaining first book of the Skinjacker trilogy. Nick and Allie both die in a head on collision and wind up in Everlost, a limbo between the real world and the final afterlife destination where they become ghosts called “afterlights.” They first wake up 9 months after the crash and see a kid who doesn’t know his name and is also an afterlife living in a forest. Nick and Allie name him Lief. Allie is determined to get back home and soon take the lead. Nick is just baffled and follows Allie. Lief feels protective of them and so follows after them even though he is content to stay living in the forest. He tried talking them into staying with him, but they didn’t want to. Everlost is a weird place—Afterlights who live there do not need to sleep, can’t feel pain, and are invisible to those in the real world. There are “dead spots” that are safe for them to sit or stand still on but if they get off, the must keep moving or they will sink into the ground towards the center of the earth! There is much to learn about Everlost!

Teaser from page 18:  Nick kept rubbing his face.  "This chocolate--I can't get it off my face.  It's kind of tattooed there."  "It is," Lief said.  "It's how you died."

This got my attention right from the start and kept my interest with lots of surprises along the way. The world building is very well done. This was a very unique read for me, haven’t read anything like this before so I enjoyed it very much. I couldn’t wait to find out what would happen next! I liked the action, adventure, humor and learning about the world of Everlost. I liked how the relationship between Mary, the Queen of Snots, and Nick developed into something unexpected. This has lots of interesting characters: the McGill, the Haunted, the bullies, Vari, and Pinhead. There actually were four main characters in this book: Allie, Nick, Mary and The McGill. This is a good read for fantasy lovers!
(Karen’s review, 5 stars)

Gerard's review, 4 stars:
Nick and Allie are in a limbo land called Everlost in this Neal Shusterman YA fantasy.  Their souls are there but with bodies of a sort too.  Everlost is run by a woman named Mary who takes care of children who wind up at her home.  There is a monster called "the McGill" who you do not want to mess with!  Allie wants no part of this and comes up with a plan to get out, but can she?  

This book was pretty good.  It started off slow for me, but I enjoyed the last part of the book much better.  Book 2 should be good!


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