Everwild [Skinjacker Series #2] by Neal Shusterman
448 pages
published by Simon & Schuster, 2010
Goodreads Synopsis:
“Everlost, the limbo land of dead children, is at war. Nick the “Chocolate Ogre” wants to help the children of Everlost reach the light at the end of the tunnel. Mary Hightower, self-proclaimed queen of lost children and dangerous fanatic, is determined to keep Everlost’s children trapped within its limbo for all eternity. Traveling in the memory of the Hindenburg, Mary is spreading her propaganda and attracting Afterlights to her cause at a frightening speed.
Meanwhile, Allie the Outcast travels home to seek out her parents, along with Mikey, who was once the terrifying monster the McGill. Allie is tempted by the seductive thrill of skinjacking the living, until she discovers the shocking truth about skinjackers.”
My Review:
The second installment of Shusterman’s series is a thrill. His regular frights become more frightening, more disturbing, more chilling. The agonizingly slow, yet strange and unpredictable plights of Nick to the deeply (very deeply) disturbing practices of Mary the Sky Witch make this book a welcome challenge to the reader. I’m 22 years old and this book disturbed me in ways I didn’t expect. Shusterman doesn’t adhere to the idea of innocence, he exposes something that might make the reader squirm, but its a thought that’s certain to stick with your memory. If you’re up to the challenge – read this book.
The characters become more rounded and complicated in this book, even some of the secondary characters such as Speedo have inner conflicts in Shusterman’s sequel. The character development is quite impressive. However, I was less impressed with some of Shusterman’s new characters. Squirrel and Moose, other skinjackers, seem to fit the static henchman stereotype and were entirely uninteresting. And as for Milos, he’s a boy with too many problems; during my reading I got the impression Shusterman changed his mind on Milos’s character and shifted his personality just slightly too much for me to enjoy him as a character. Zinnia was an enjoyable character, but her naivety after all her years in Everlost were a bit of a let down to her character. While I enjoyed the additional characters to Everwild, they seemed poorly developed in comparison to Mary, Nick, Allie, and Mikey. Speaking of Mikey, the emotional roller-coaster in just this little boy made me topsy turvey. I do think it was done artistically . Mikey reminded me that Everlost is a place of children, and children can be incredibly emotional and upredictable. I’m excited to see what happens to Mikey in the last installment of the Skinjacker series, Everfound.
Also, as much as I enjoyed this novel, there is one major plot hole in Shusterman’s story. Shusterman seems too eager to find a solution to why only some children can skinjack. Allie’s revelation is unrealistic and uncharacteristic of Shusterman’s otherwise tight plot.
The plot of the novel was relatively slow paced. A lot of action takes place between the sequences of Mary and Nick’s plotting, but with as many story lines woven throughout the story, the final confrontation scene was a bit of a letdown. Shusterman continues to be incredibly creative in his plot, his action scenes are always a delight to read. However, the end left more loose ends than completed ones. I’m looking forward to the last novel of the series. I believe Everfound will be the profound ending to a good series or a letdown of Shusterman’s genius creativity.
I give Everwild a three out of five stars.
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