Review Detail

I battled ninjas to get the ARC of this book!

So worth it. This book was heartbreaking from page one. It begins with a simple but evocative description of the Everneath: it is an underworld where immortals Feed on the emotions of despairing humans.

Nikki Beckett chose to go to the Everneath. She’s been gone for a century — though on the surface, it’s only been six months. She Returns for another six months, this time to say good-bye to her family and friends before she’s banished back to the Everneath forever. But this time offers her a choice, too: either the Tunnels will come for her and devour the last of her emotions, or she can go back and try to be a queen — but she will have to consume the emotions of others.

EVERNEATH is very myth-inspired: Hades/Persephone, Orpheus/Eurydice, even Osiris/Isis. Brodi weaves all these myths together seamlessly, creating a new and frightening underworld filled with immortals, mysterious High Court, and terrifying Tunnels and Shades.

There were so many things I loved about EVERNEATH: Nikki’s voice when she Returns; her determination to learn more about Cole, the immortal who lured her to the Feed; and her relationship with her boyfriend Jack. I loved so much that Nikki and Jack had a foundation to their relationship, that they were friends first and knew each other before they became soulmates. I loved the slow way they came to know each other again after Nikki’s Return, and how they both had to fight for the chance to be together again.

I loved the mystery. What happened that drove Nikki to the Everneath? Why was she willing to let Cole Feed on her emotions for a century? These answers unfolded at just the right moments. Every time I thought I figured something out before the characters, they were on it a couple paragraphs later.

I loved way we saw Nikki’s life before and after the Feed. It was easy to see why she felt overwhelmed with the need to lose herself to the Everneath. And easy to see why, after her Return, she would fight so hard to stay. Even though the Tunnels are coming for her no matter what.

And oh, the end. Powerful. Heartbreaking. Totally the only way this could have ended.

I can’t way to see where book two takes us.