Nevermore (Nevermore #1)

It's great! What I love the most is how dark and gritty the world felt. It was so cool because most of this book takes place in our world and yet it still feels darker. The author does a great job at world building. One of the best examples of world building that I've ever seen.

The characters are all great. I do think a few fell just a little into the "I'm just here for plot reasons", but only a few. Most of the side characters were actually very flushed out in my opinion. Our main character Isobel is very well rounded and I loved her. I also like that it showed that not all cheerleaders are bitchy. One of my best friends was a cheerleader and she was so sweet and awesome (most of her friends were your typical cheerleader type but she wasn't.) I like that Isobel wasn't scared to stand up for herself. She did what she thought was right, even if it meant losing her friends. I love people like that.

Varen... I have a soft spot for any alternative person. I usually fall for them in any book they are in. Varen was no different. I fell for him right along with Isobel. He's so perfectly dark and such a lonely soul. I can see why he did the things he did and I can't fault him. I understand him.

The plot is top notch, it does take a while to get started but I'm glad for that, it gives you time to get the characters set up and the feelings between the two to start. I can't wait to dive into the next one which I recently got.

At first glance (and for the first ~100 pages) this seems to be your typical “popular girl is forced to work with unpopular boy, they surprisingly fall for each other and, against all odds, manage to overcome adversity (social standings, football playing boyfriend, etc.) to get together” type of story. However, Nevermore is so much more than a tale of star-crossed lovers – there are much darker paranormal forces at work, inspired by Poe’s works and his tortured life, which is when things start to get very interesting.

While the promise of Edgar Allan Poe initially piqued my interest, it was the characters that caused me to fall in love with this book in the way that I did. Isobel is so much more than your typical blond cheerleader – she is smart, strong, passionate and close with her family, who play an important role in the book. Varen is wonderfully sarcastic, intelligent, and a bit of a mystery. I’ll admit that I added him to my list of book boyfriends as soon as he referred to Poe as a “literary god” and my love for him continued to grow as the book progressed and his vulnerable side was brought to light. Their relationship was believable, sweet, complicated – and it wasn’t the main focus of the book, which made me like it even more.

Kelly Creagh’s writing style is beautiful. The descriptions are so detailed that you can visualize everything perfectly. You can certainly tell that Creagh did her homework – the portions involving Poe’s life are meticulously researched and interesting, and will inspire you to pick up a copy of The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe. As some mysteries are solved, many other questions will arise, resulting in a fast paced read that seems much shorter than its ~543 pages and will leaving you wanting to read Enshadowed straight away.

Since Nevermore first came out, I have seen tons and tons of reviews doting all over this book. I ignored it and found other great books, and some not so great, to read. I kept putting off buying it, because it just seemed like every other book with the similar plot that surrounds Nevermore.
Boy, was I wrong.

Sure, without the paranormal aspect, Nevermore is almost exactly like Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles. (And as I’m sitting here now, I can’t decide who I like better. Varen or Alex. It’s a tie.)

But it is the writing that flies off the pages of Nevermore and haunts my dreams. I seriously dreamt about this book. At night, asleep in my bed, I dreamed of running through the colorful rooms of Varen’s mind. And also, while I was driving a time or two, I daydreamed about getting home and finishing this book! That’s a very dangerous thing to do! I blame the intensity of this book. (The awesomely, sexy intensity that is Varen Nethers and his insane notebook.)

It is beautifully written and exquisitely thought through. Like seriously, this story is awesome. POE! Oh, Edgar. You’re one twistedly awesome dude. Your name being anywhere near this book is the one reason I eventually picked it up.

But Isobel.
And Varen.
And Gwen.
And uh, did I mention Varen?
They absolutely make this book 100% worth reading. Gwen had me laughing out loud half of the time, and Varen had me swooning the other half.

So, I am now kicking myself for not picking this up sooner. And also, praying that Enshadowed goes on clearance soon so I can get it! (Cause I'm cheap.)

Can I just start by asking how in the world everyone who read this when it came out has managed to wait so long for a sequel?! Seriously, that is one killer ending an I’m really not sure how everyone managed to keep it together for this long :P

I never really had want to read Nevermore since I shy away from paranormal and I’d heard some mixed reviews, but now I just kind of want to be like “be gone, naysayers!” The beginning 100ish pages were a little wordy for me with descriptions galore, but it seemed to die down after that and focus more on the story itself. Honestly, that’s my only complaint. I know with a book so large (540some pages) you may worry that it’s going to have a slow start or lag in the middle, but that’s really not the case with Nevermore. Creagh does a fantastic job of keeping you entertained and giving you just enough information at a time that you don’t get annoyed, and instead, stay interested.

Let’s talk about Isobel. When the story started, I thought I was going to end up hating her the entire time. She’s a cheerleader who is a little stuck-up and more than a little rude at times. But then she actually grows and changes throughout the course of the story becoming someone who can stand up for herself as well as others. Heck, by the end, she was making choices and doing stuff I’m not positive I’d do in her situation.
Can we just talk about Varen for a minute? He’s basically High School Jasmine’s perfect guy. He’s got the bad boy/goth look going for him, he likes to read (mostly Poe, it seems, but still :P), he writes poetry, has a lip ring (!), and is, you know, swoon-worthy ;] Yeah, it’s safe to say Varen is one of my favorite YA guys.

Shall we talk about the paranormal aspect? Instead of being all BAM paranormaly stuff is going down, the supernatural elements slowly weave their way into the story. I really liked that. It seems a lot of times you’re just moseying along and then Hey, the main character’s an angel and they spend the rest of the book being attacked by Bad Forces, making bad decisions, and learning all about angel stuff. Probably a good 3/4s of Nevermore the paranormal aspects are only sprinkled in instead of thrust upon you. Furthermore, the paranormal elements are unlike anything I’ve ever read before which kept me wanting to know more.
The Nutshell: Despite the size, Nevermore is likely to keep you enthralled the entire time. The paranormal aspect can’t be pigeonholed into the typical paranormal stuff like angels or ghosts. Creagh’s created a paranormal world that’s like nothing else I’ve read. On top of the great paranormal world, the characters are great. Isobel turns out to be more than your typical cheerleader and Varen isn’t just some mopey goth guy. Even if paranormal isn’t your thing, you should still try giving Nevermore a chance. What could a chance hurt, anyway? ;]

I found Nevermore in the library about a year and a half ago, but occasionally took it out to read again and again, because it was just so good. If I could describe this in three words, I'd say sweet, dark, and plain creepy. (Well, that wasn't really three words, so scratch that.)


Generally with fiction, when an author writes about a character studying, reading, liking etc. a writer's works, they tend to stick to stuff like Shakespeare, Brontë, and other classics writers who wouldn't write so morbidly, but Kelly Creagh used instead Edgar Allen Poe, whose works I love, and incorporated it into the story-line in a really neat and cool way.


Isobel is a very cute character. Although she's supposed to be a stuck-up cheerleader, she's a genuinely good person (hint: ice cream shop scene), and not without her own baggage. She begins to defy the status quo after meeting Varen and becomes more independent somehow.


On the other hand, Varen is a quiet Goth guy in the back of Isobel's English class. (Oh, why is it always English, science, socials etc. class? Why not . . . PE class? They could save each other from basketballs or something.) Right now, you might think, hey, he's probably some outcast badboy, but nuh-uh, he's not. Varen is very, very real in the sense that he isn't like Daemon from Obsidian or Noah from The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer. (Although I have to give it to them; they're smoking HAWT.) The preppy kids don't whisper behind Varen's back about how they secretly think he's cute despite his social standing. They genuinely despise him and have him completely alienated, for no apparent reason other than he doesn't fit in. But despite his somewhat intimidating image, he's actually a sweet guy who isn't all that freakish.


Lastly, I must applaud Kelly Creagh's deathly terrifying imagination. Edgar Allen Poe's world was written in exquisite detail and seemed absolutely perfect. I can't wait for Enshadowed to be released!

Upon reading the prologue I wasn't sure if i wanted to read this book. The first chapter left me not liking vapid Isobel, but somehow, slowly, she transforms into a great character. Varen enters the book cold and void of emotion but an odd relationship forms between him and Isobel. The Poe world leaks subtly into the story leading up to an imaginative problem. Each line flowed like poetry and in the end i was breathless.