The first reaction I had when I finished this book was, wow, I'm glad it's over. Don't get me wrong: there are some good parts to this book. I really liked the concept of a boarding school for vampires. The idea that Gray presents readers of a world where immortal vampires are constantly struggling to fit in, and need to be taught technology, was intriguing, although not as well developed as it could've been.
I really liked the tension between vampires and the human vampire hunters, even though the motivations for the vampire hunters' actions were not well explained. And finally, I was a fan of the huge twist halfway through the book that everyone likes to talk about. Books with unreliable narrators are difficult to pull off, and Bianca's revelation to us was shocking, yet satisfying at the same time.
However, EVERNIGHT fell flat in all other aspects. Bianca was difficult to like: she constantly feels the need to tell readers things about herself and the world around her, things that we didn't need to know or could have inferred in the hands of a more skilled writer. Similarly, none of the other characters were interesting, least of all Luke. I rolled my eyes at the stilted dialogue and forced attraction between the two, felt my eyelids start to slide shut at the unbearably slow pace of the novel.
I read EVERNIGHT for the express purpose of finding out what that plot twist was, but it wasn't worth it. Lovers of vampire lit might be interested in the world that Gray has tried to spin, but newcomers to the genre would be better off with other vampire series, such as Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy.
I really liked the tension between vampires and the human vampire hunters, even though the motivations for the vampire hunters' actions were not well explained. And finally, I was a fan of the huge twist halfway through the book that everyone likes to talk about. Books with unreliable narrators are difficult to pull off, and Bianca's revelation to us was shocking, yet satisfying at the same time.
However, EVERNIGHT fell flat in all other aspects. Bianca was difficult to like: she constantly feels the need to tell readers things about herself and the world around her, things that we didn't need to know or could have inferred in the hands of a more skilled writer. Similarly, none of the other characters were interesting, least of all Luke. I rolled my eyes at the stilted dialogue and forced attraction between the two, felt my eyelids start to slide shut at the unbearably slow pace of the novel.
I read EVERNIGHT for the express purpose of finding out what that plot twist was, but it wasn't worth it. Lovers of vampire lit might be interested in the world that Gray has tried to spin, but newcomers to the genre would be better off with other vampire series, such as Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy.
