TITLE: Evermore
AUTHOR: Sara Holland
RELEASE DATE: December 31st, 2018
READ DATE: October 5th, 2018
PUBLISHING HOUSE: HarperTeen
RATING: ★★★☆☆
ARC provided from the publisher via Edelweiss+ in exchange for an honest review (thank you HarperCollins & HarperTeen!!)
first of all i’d like to say that this book was infinitely better than Everless, but it also wasn’t. i’m not gonna delve too deeply, because spoilers, however i still think there were a few issues with the world building and the general plot development, but at LEAST you can see Sara Holland physically trying to put back together this world that, in my opinion, was a little bit of a hot mess in the first book.
the problem with this series, though, is that the first book focused way too much on world building and not nearly enough on character development, whereas Evermore was just one 350+ page character development essay, and didn’t center on any actual world building aspects until the very, very end of the book—if at all. much of the essence of the first book was lost here. i don’t think we ever saw a single character consume a blood iron in this book. this obviously sucks, because the plot of this series is SO unique. there isn’t anything like it in YA right now, but like i mentioned in my review for the first book, most of that potential was wasted in Everless for the sake of poor characterization and the use miscommunication as a plot device. i think this duology would’ve been better off as either one VERY long stand alone, or a trilogy.
basically, i had pretty much the same issues with this one that i had with the first book. the general “blood as time/time as currency” and the mythology and backstory for this world (Sorceress vs. Alchemist) feel like two entirely different books and don’t really match up with each other at all. the latter doesn’t explain the existence of the former. i insist on this series having been better off as either a standalone or a trilogy because, as a standalone, many of the plot holes could’ve been glossed over by necessity of character development —while a trilogy would’ve allowed Sara Holland to delve MUCH deeper into her universe and her characters.
don’t get me wrong though!! this was still a very enjoyable read!! the romance especially was delicious and i’m SUCH a sucker for a good slow burn. it unfortunately wasn’t a huge aspect of the book since the romance was mostly pushed aside to center on the age-old battle between the Sorceress and the Alchemist, but it was still there and i still enjoyed it thoroughly. not all was for naught, my friends!!
there’s definitely an open ending here so i’m hoping this series will eventually be picked up again and have a sequel (the concept is SO GOOD), but for the time being i’m somewhat satisfied with how it was wrapped up. thanks again to Edelweiss+, HarperCollins & HarperTeen!!
