Enshadowed (Nevermore #2)

First off... that freaking cliffhanger!? I can't even... I could not imagine having read this the year it came out and then waiting for the third to come out. That is full on torture! That is why I dock this half a star.

Now moving on, most of this novel is spent with Isobel trying to find a way to get to the Poe Toaster. She is also coming to terms with everything that had happened in the first book. She's dealing with the loss of Varen. She's dealing with this new strained relationship with her parents. She also gets closer to her best friend. Whom I adore by the way.

Through all this Lilith is poisoning Varen's mind, making him think that Isobel lied to him, that she is never coming back for him. That she isn't who Varen thought.

She never gives up though, working through ways to get back into the world where Varen is, she will stop at nothing to get him back. She loves him so much. So when she finally gets back into the world, it's not what she expected to find...

I love this series so much. What I love more than anything about it, is the tone. It's dark and inviting and sometimes a little creepy. It's prefect! I've never read a book that has this kind of atmosphere and I wish more books did! It's simply glorious. There is also the way that the author took Poe's works and made them fit into this world so seamlessly. It's truly flawless.

I could go on praising this book and this series forever but I will end this by saying, this is worth your time and money. Go out and get it now if you haven't. You don't know what you are missing!

Okay, I am being super picky.

Yes, the book was good. (Kinda slow. Lots of time in Isobel's head).

Yes, just as creepy as the first.

Yes, I still want the last one.

Yes, Pinfeathers is a very dear character and I'm glad I got to see more.

No, there was not enough Varen and that's why I give 3 stars to this sequel.

A year and two months of waiting. That's nothing compared to the full two years other fans have been waiting, but it was painful. Then my mail room held Enshadowed hostage for an entire week and my grin was as wide as the state of Florida is long once I got it. It's a bit weaker than the first book of the series, but Enshadowed was just as difficult to put down and managed to improve itself in a few areas. But that cliffhanger makes me want to toss a chair out the window.

Isobel is forced to carry much of the book on her shoulders, and at times, she isn't strong enough to carry all that weight. Still, Enshadowed fleshes out her relationships with other characters, especially her family. The family is often forgotten and I'm glad she at least considers how her actions have hurt/will hurt them. Personally, I really like Isobel.

The rumors are true: Varen is barely in this book. He is sorely missed, as are the scenes between him and Isobel that made Nevermore so much fun to read, but the presence of Pinfeathers (a character I already liked and now love after reading this book) made his absence more bearable. Still, there's so much about this novel that still clicks with me. Creagh's prose is perfect for the story she's telling and the strange happenings in Isobel's life (like, say, a lullaby following her everywhere and seeing Varen in reflective surfaces on occasion) increase to give the book better pacing overall.

A point many of my friends made about Nevermore was that Isobel could be really, really thick sometimes, though I never noticed. I was too enveloped in the story to care. This time around, I see exactly what those friends of mine mean. One of the messages Pinfeathers gives her is fairly clear, but his pronoun use goes right over her head and it's a bit frustrating. Her original lack of planning/research for how she'd get into the cemetery on Poe's birthday grated on me too.

I really, really hope book three in Creagh's series doesn't get delayed a year the way Enshadowed did. I don't think I could take it. Just--just--I can't even--! Augh! Cliffhangers like that are evil.

While I understand the need to build drama and show how utterly lost Isobel has become, all the drama being at the end of the book made it a difficult read. Isobel has barely any time in the dream world and it was a slow read. I can only hope the next book will be as awesome as the first now that all the boring stuff is over.

I fell in love with Nevermore, and for two whole years I waited for the release of Enshadowed so I can continue on from the terrifying cliffhanger that Nevermore left off on. Sad to say, I was very much disappointed by the second installment in the Nevermore trilogy. I was hoping for a lot of things, and this definitely wasn't it.

The story began with an amazing narrative of Edgar Allen Poe's death that immediately had me sold. I loved every moment of the prologue. Unfortunately, the story continued on with a good half of it centered around Isobel moping about her loss of Varen. So basically, a good 200 of its 429 pages had Isobel in her room, feeling empty and sad and getting absolutely nothing done. Yes, I understand that Varen's gone and you're devastated. I feel absolutely broken up because he's gone, too, but you can at least do something to try getting him back. When things started picking up, things went from a turtle pace to something the speed of a zipping bullet. At first I was like, Yay, something's actually happening, but then I felt all like, Wait, what happened just then? Simply, it went too fast for me to actually catch on to the big events.

The setting was similar. I loved the general creepiness of it, but sometimes I couldn't catch where on Earth Isobel was, and a bit more of a description would've made it much easier for me to see the scene and get immersed into the storyline. Nevertheless, even though the description of the physical setting I found sorely lacking, the general atmosphere was amazing, and let shivers creep up my arm.

Isobel, like I said earlier, pretty much spent the majority of the book being mopey. 'Nuff said. Reading about Isobel was like watching the same thing over and over again, waiting for the progress that never came. She was a bit too attached to Gwen, like she'd lose her purpose in life if she ceased communicating with her.

Gwen, the ever-so-supportive BFF was a much better character than Isobel. Yes, she's a bit eccentric, but she's bold and pushed Isobel along. But what happened to her in the end? She's just like, POOF! Brad, ex-boyfriend to Isobel made a brief reappearance. Although I'm generally not a huge fan of ex's, but I'd like to know more what happened to him while he was gone. Pinfeathers was a bit like Warner in Shatter Me. In case you have no idea who on Earth Warner is, in Shatter Me he's the antagonist, but he has this entire backstory to him that makes you just sympathize with him. Pinfeathers, to me, is just like that. He's supposed to be a bad-guy, I guess, but then again I really don't know. I couldn't tell what his motive was, nor what the heck he is. He was possibly my favourite character in the whole story because of his nature. He's in that grey spot between good and bad.

Overall, I have to say I am sorely disappointed in the outcome of Enshadowed as a whole. If you just want to read the book and see what happens, beware, there's a crazy huge cliffhanger in the end. Generally, I'd not recommend it, but if you want to end off the Nevermore trilogy, I'd say read it, get over it, and go focus on something else.