Nevermore by Kelly Creagh (4.5 Stars)

Cheerleader Isobel Lanley is horrified when she is paired with Varen Nethers for an English project, which is due—so unfair—on the day of the rival game. Cold and aloof, sardonic and sharp-tongued, Varen makes it clear he’d rather not have anything to do with her either. But when Isobel discovers strange writing in his journal, she can’t help but give this enigmatic boy with the piercing eyes another look.

Soon, Isobel finds herself making excuses to be with Varen. Steadily pulled away from her friends and her possessive boyfriend, Isobel ventures deeper and deeper into the dream world Varen has created through the pages of his notebook, a realm where the terrifying stories of Edgar Allan Poe come to life.

As her world begins to unravel around her, Isobel discovers that dreams, like words, hold more power than she ever imagined, and that the most frightening realities are those of the mind. Now she must find a way to reach Varen before he is consumed by the shadows of his own nightmares.

His life depends on it.

(for the record, this is not the summary for the hardcover)

Yo! What's up, everyone? So I'm finally reviewing this absolutely amazing book by the incredible, the astonishing, the fantabulous, the wondrous Kelly Creagh—her masterpiece of young adult literature, her love-letter to Edgar Allen Poe, Nevermore.

So I have to say, I'm a big fan of Poe, which is why back in 2011, I saw Nevermore on the shelf at the library and grabbed it. The summary wasn't exactly the most informative about the plot—it was all cool and mysterious, though, which I liked—but what I saw, on top of the title, tagline, and cover was enough that I checked it out and started reading it on the way home.

I didn’t put it down until 4AM the next morning, when I finished all 543 pages. Actually, I didn’t put it down at all. I closed it after finishing, hyperventilated for about ten minutes, and then opened it up again to reread it…but my husband woke up, grabbed it out of my hands, and tossed it on the floor, telling me to please, for the love of chocolate lasagna, go to bed (or words to that effect). I reread it about ten times while I had it checked out, then had to turn it in.

After turning it in, I scrabbled for an internet connection so I could madly fan-stalk Kelly Creagh's website for the sequel (because of course there was a sequel) and find out how much it would cost to order Nevermore on Amazon. Almost three years later, I am the proud owner of both Nevermore and its sequel, Enshadowed, and am currently dying a slow and brutal, agonizing death waiting for the final book, Oblivion.

Suffice to say, Kelly Creagh is awesome!

Nevermore tells one of the most intriguing love stories for teens I've ever read, and does it the best I've ever seen—the story of Varen Nethers, local Goth king and rumored vampire-or-other-undead-type, and Isobel Lanley, the Trenton Hawks' top flyer on the varsity cheer-squad.

Paired up by their apparently oblivious English teacher for a project on Poe, their contact with each other should be school-related and easy…except that everyone freaks out about it: Isobel's possessive and manipulative boyfriend, Brad; her dad, for crying out loud (even though it's for school—I'll address that later); Varen's sort-of-not-really girlfriend Lacey; Isobel's group of friends; most of the cheerleading squad.

* And what's funny about that is, if everyone had just stopped hassling them about how the two of them working on the project meant they were dating, they probably would've never gotten together. In your face, rumor mill!

Because of the outside pressure from friends and family, Varen and Isobel have to get the project done outside of school in some pretty weird places—like Nobit's Nook, a bookstore owned by an elderly friend of Varen's with a glass eye (hello, creepy old guy from "The Tell-Tale Heart!"), and Varen's epic tower-esque bedroom, occupied by a fuzzy, pampered gargoyle—I mean, Siamese cat—named Slipper. Everything would be pretty straightforward except that Varen isn't all he appears to be.

Varen possesses a unique gift to access the strange, otherworldly realm of Weir, a place filled with the demons and imps that inspired Poe's best works. At first he thinks he's in control, but as his attention begins shifting from Weir to Isobel, the mysterious queen of Weir starts taking notice…and she doesn't like to share.

Enter Reynolds, a denizen of Weir (inspired by the real-life Poe Toaster, whose identity remains a mystery, since their wish for anonymity is respected by the masses), who claims to be on Isobel's side and wants to help her sever the connection between Varen and Weir. Enter also the intriguing, scary-as-heck, and dualistic Pinfeathers, captain of the raven-like nightmare creatures known as Nocs—monsters spawned from Varen's darkest imagination, and bound by his desires and feelings.

Kelly Creagh spins an original story (with a few hints of Hades and Persephone for kicks) set in a fresh, imaginative, and kind of scary world inspired by Poe's works, with a bazillion twists I could never have predicted. Monsters like the Nocs, the descriptions of the otherworldly Weir, and the slow immersion of the real world into the creepy are expertly done. What's even better is the type of scary we're dealing with: the slow, creeping, eerie scary that characterized Poe's works.

And she balances everything with fantastic humor. We have Isobel's typical funny, Varen's dry and often sarcastic wit, and then we have Gwen, Isobel's new best friend when her old friends ditch her for being with Varen. Gwen is that one friend everyone has who's a little out-there, but will always stick by you, and she's hilarious ("Why the snap-crackle-pop didn't you call me back!?"). I love Gwen.

The characterization for all the characters is pretty spot-on, too (except one, but we'll get to that). And while Isobel's initial "OMG who is that fuh-reak?" attitude about Varen is pretty harsh and a little ditzy, it's not unrelatable. Varen's a little scary at the beginning. He does that on purpose.

One of the best things about this book is not just that the characters' perceptions of other people are challenged, but they are also forced to analyze whether people perceive them a certain way because they want them to. Varen disdains the people in Isobel's social sphere because they treat him like he's dangerous, but he acts dangerous on purpose so they'll leave him alone. Isobel doesn't like people treating her like the stereotypical cheerleader with the perfect life, but she refuses to let other people see it when her life begins to fall apart. And I think that's interesting and well done.

Another thing I absolutely love about Nevermore is Isobel's relationship with Brad. Brad's a douche canoe. I'm sorry, he sucks. And that's what I love about their relationship—while it takes her awhile to realize that Brad is manipulative and vicious to people, she does figure it out, and she makes the difficult but necessary decision to leave the guy she's been dating for more than a year when he starts showing that side of himself. Even though she gets no support for this decision (I'll explain why later) she sticks with it, and that impresses me a lot.

What impresses me even more is that when Brad's life is in danger, even though Isobel is still angry with him and never wants to see him again, she risks her life to save his because it's the right thing to do.

In fact, I really only have one problem with this entire book, and that is—Isobel's dad. It's not even an issue with the book; it's an issue with the character. Every issue Isobel has with her dad in this book spawns from one thing: she doesn't trust him about Brad. Not that she doesn't trust him at all, but she doesn’t trust him specifically about Brad. Isobel's dad thinks Brad is the greatest thing since sliced bread, so when Isobel dumps Brad for trashing the ice cream shop where Varen works, she doesn't feel she can tell him about it, or explain why she didn’t get home until midnight that night (she was helping Varen clean up the store). And because she can't explain that, her dad has a bias against Varen from the beginning, and it just causes more and more problems.

Now, a lot of otherwise great parents do things like this, so it's not a characterization flaw so much as I just don't like it because I hate parents who don't listen to their children. Ugh, it bothers me. Because you see in book two, her dad's not a bad guy! And that makes me sad because until the day her project is due, Isobel's dad is basically on my "You Suck" list.

But what I do like about this is that Kelly Creagh makes the distinction here that just because a parent doesn’t do anything overtly bad (sexual or physical abuse, verbal abuse, etc.) and just because a child isn't a delinquent, doesn't mean the parent and child are going to communicate openly or trust each other—which is a misconception a lot of people have, in my experience.

And I do have to give Isobel's dad props—he did shell out like, $100 at the last minute and take Isobel to Wal-Mart and then take off from work to go to her school to pose as Edgar Allan Poe for the presentation aspect of her project. That was pretty cool, and I liked him a lot for that. My estimation of him went up by a lot after that.

All in all, this book is one of my rare 5 stars out of 5. I adore it utterly, and I can't wait the eight months for the final book in the trilogy. I think I'll probably expire by then. Die horribly in a hole waiting for it. Although I have to finish rereading Nevermore and then read Enshadowed to my roommate, so maybe not. But anywho, this book is one of my all-time favorites, and it sits on my "I LOVE YOU SO MUCH" shelf along with Lia Habel's post-apocalyptic zombie romance novel, Dearly, Departed.

And! And, and, and! The one and only problem Dearly, Departed had (a disappointingly-written first kiss), Nevermore certainly does NOT have that problem! Well done, Kelly Creagh!

— LA Knight

What I Meant About the First Kiss!

"He leaned down, far enough that the dark ends of his hair brushed feather-light against her face, caught in her lashes. She had just enough time to take in a breath, to blink, to part her lips before he took them with his own.

"Time froze. Her heart ceased to beat. Her eyes fluttered shut. The cool slip of the small metal loop pressed into her skin as he kissed her. Urgent. Gentle. So slow.

"Sweet, soft demolition…

"His breath washed warm against her, and it made her want to surrender to him again, to feel his touch, to hold his kiss, at once petal soft and incinerating. She'd never been kissed like that before—like the shell of her soul had evaporated.”