Review: Everlost by Neal Shusterman

Everlost is a fascinating tale of what happens to children, that somehow get off-track on their journey to the afterlife.  The story begins with a fatal car accident, where Nick and Allie are thrust into the world of Everlost after bumping each other off course on the way to the "light".  They are found by a long-time  "Everlight" resident, who they nickname Leaf, because he lives alone in a forest.  Leaf is content to live in this forest forever, but Nick and Allie want to find out what happened to them, and more importantly, what happened to their families.

But when they leave Leaf's safe forest, they find out that traveling is going to be harder than they think.  Normal ground (where no one has died) is like quicksand and they must constantly keep moving or they will sink to the center of the earth.  There are rogue groups of adolescents that bully any "green soul" (newcomer) to steal his or her possessions.  But worst of all is the McGill.  The McGill hates children and will "rip out your tongue if it hears you talk" or "tear out your lungs if it hears you breath".

Luckily they soon find Mary Hightower, the self-proclaimed queen of lost kids.  Nick feels like he he's found a home here with Mary and her followers, but Allie isn't satisfied with Mary's answers, or her way of life.  Against all warnings, Allie begins her own search for answers and ends up learning the "Criminal Art" of haunting.

I thought this was a really fantastic book!  I am actually surprised that I liked it so much.  It wasn't at all what I was expecting.  The kids and I listened to this on audiobook and all of us thought it was a great story, full of very interesting characters and clever plot twists!  The reader was great!!  This was probably one of the best audiobooks that we have ever read.  And I love that my whole family loved it.  From my 7 year old son, to my 15 year old daughter....and of course me!!  In the YA world of vampires and werewolves, Everlost finds it's own unique way to immortality.  I will be picking up the new audiobook Everwild ASAP!

You may want to know:  This was a pretty clean read, but there were a couple of "minor" curse words, and a moderate amount of violence, and a couple of kisses (nothing heavy).  For the full content review, go to Everlost on Parental Book Reviews.


 *NOTE* Everlost has sold to Universal Studios, with Gary Ross's company "Larger than Life" producing, and Neal writing the script. At this stage, the first draft of the script is done, and Neal is waiting for rewrite notes from the studio. Neal is thrilled to be working with "Larger than Life", and is looking forward to getting Everlost up on the big screen. Everlost has been reoptioned in march of 2009 for an additional 2 years. While the writers going on strike slowed down the project, Universal is still committed to getting it to the big screen.