Everlost Update

I am still reading Everlost right now, but I'm practically done with it. Here is a quick summary of what happened since my last post: (this summary contains tons of spoilers. You have been warned!) Nick and Leif were taken from the Haunter's factory and onto the McGill's ship, so Allie tried to rescue them by taking the living world ferry. Of course, since Afterlights sink through living world objects, Allie almost sank right through the ferry. Her only chance at staying on the boat was to take over the ferry captain's body. It worked, and she managed to change the course of the ship just enough to reach the McGill's ghost ship. Once on board, the McGill learned that Allie had the ability to skinjack, so he kept her around, and realized, to his horror, that he was falling for Allie. He told her that he had sunk to the center of the earth but managed to claw his way back up, reappearing as a grotesque monster. Allie used a typewriter to write a fake fortune (which in Everlost are always true) which instructed him to go to the peirs of defeat: the old Steeplechase and steel peirs in Atlantic City. He went there only to discover Mary Hightower, who was really Meghan McGill in her life. It turns out that the McGill was Mary's brother who was mentioned earlier in the story. I was shocked that the two turned out to be related, since the McGill had a stash of her books which he read more out of annoyence than anything. I can't believe Mary, with her insane amounts of patience, kindness and generosity, could be related to a cruel monster who hoarded everything he could find. Also, Vari snuck onto the McGill's old ship after he turned back into a fourteen year old boy, and became the new McGill. I was surprized by a lot of things, like how Speedo's "sweet ride" mentioned early on in the book turned out to be the Hindenberg. This book has been very suspenseful and satisfying. The begining is a little slow, but if you keep reading, you'll find that it's worth it.

Yet another Post

For the past week or so, I have been reading Everlost. A lot of people say it's a bad book, but I disagree with them. I personally love books that deal with the supernatural or what I call "non-alien" science fiction. Anyways, I don't think Everlost is a bad book, I just find it a bit odd and rather confusing. For example, it took me a while to figure out what it meant when Leif said that everyone on that highway either passed by or got where they were going (It means they died and got to the light at the end of the tunnel). Only children that get lost on their way to the light and objects that were loved during their time in the living world are supposed to cross over, but unloved objects can be pulled in by vortexes caused by sunspot activity. Afterlights (what the spirits that wander Everlost for all eternity are called) aren't supposed to be able to interact with the living world, but certain afterlights, like Allie, one of the two main characters that the book follows, can pull objects out of the living world and into Everlost. As you can see, the book contradicts itself fairly often.

Another thing that the point of view changes. (Well, technically, it's always written in the third person, but the character who it follows changes.) The point of view changes in every chapter in Unwind, which made it a little confusing in the same way, but in Everlost, there isn't anything announcing it. This was especially confusing during Nick and Allie's time in the twin towers because they had very different views of Mary Hightower and the "routines" that many of their fellow Afterlights fell into, doing the exact same thing day after day until the end of time. Still, if you get over the confusing writing style, Everlost is a very cool and interesting book. I would recommend it to "non-alien" sci-fi fans and other people who like their fiction anything but realistic like me.

Another Post

So last week, we finally started our class novels. I am reading so yesterday. It is about Hunter, who looks for new fashions that could be marketed to the general public, which he calls cool hunting, as a job. At the very beginning of the book, hunter met Jen, who was an Inovater, the person who starts the trend instead of following it. Jen brought some new ideas to a focus group for a shoe commercial (the missing black woman formation), which caught the attention of Hunter's boss, Mandy. They were supposed to meet in Chinatown, but Mandy didn't turn up. After a bit of investagation, Hunter and Jen found Mandy's cell phone in an abandoned building, as well as a mysterious shipment of the coolest shoes they had ever seen. I forgot to mention that there is a bald guy who also seems to be involved, though I haven't read enough to know how. This book was written by Scott Westerfield, the author of the Uglies series. I am starting to notice a few simalarities. In chapter 0, one of the previews was about the jammers, who are trying to take down the system. Hunter said that he thought he was on their side. This reminds me of the uglies, because at the beginning of every book, Tally starts out with her full alegence to the city government, and stays that way until she is reminded that (SPOILER ALERT) the surgery to become a pretty/special changes the way your brain works, making you less able to rebel, but also to think for yourself.

Book update

The book I read this week is The Seems: The Glitch in Sleep. It is about a boy named Becker Drane, who is a Fixer in a place called The Seems, which is home to various departments that each run one aspect of the World, from Time to Sleep to Weather. In this book, a Glitch (which is a tiny three-armed monster that destroys everything in its path, rather than a random programing abnormality) attacks the department of Sleep, preventing it from being able to ship out sleep or dreams, which are vital for chains of events (These are pretty much the same as in the real world, except that they are planned. If a chain of events were to become unraveled, something known as a ripple affect would happen, and the very fabric of reality would pretty much be toast.) Becker has to take on this glitch as his first mission. I found this book very interesting. I find it rather similar to Heck: Where the bad kids go Because both have a supernatural idea that is very organized and rather bureaucratic.