The last in the series is released on paperback, and we may have found our successor to the Twilight saga.
Alyson Noel, lives in California, and in that temporally fluxed state she has created a world of immortals. A love story between two of them. Ever is the young teenager who has loved and lost Damen over hundreds of years. They have faced deadly enemies, harboured dark secrets and a powerful curse meaning one may have to part from the other forever.
Over five books previously, the journey has become progressively darker in context, beginning with the third novel Shadowland where the secret and the curse meet, to the fourth Dark Star`where Ever must cope with the darkness inside her (a mention of puberty and adolescence perhaps).
The characters have progressed and thanks to the success of the first three novels, Noel has been able to develop these characters effectively and productively. Pleasingly, and most tellingly, she dedicates this novel - the sixth and final - to her readers.
I freely admit, that I am not a fan of Twilight, I have never read a Harry Potter book although I have seen more than 50% of the feature films. But in this world, the world needs a new saga to love and cherish. Twilight seemingly came out of nowhere and with the right marketing and strategy this adaptation (which must be coming in the next few years) may be global.
The novel is a mixture of a lot of influences - teenagers who speak like Dawson's Creek, very aware of their place, but knowing that due to the things they have seen in earlier lives they can talk with unabashed experience.
At the start of the novel, a mystical woman appears calling Damen, 'Damen. Augustus. Notte. Esposito' The Notte is the key, as the name no-one has heard mentioned before, but the hagrid ageing decrepit who reminded me of some spirit from the house of Miyazki and Spirited Away.
All these influences and the sheer effortness of Noel's writing whisk you along on a journey along with the characters towards the crescendo that ultimately ends memorably.
Worth a read, even if like me you would be a little sceptical of something that cradles between teen fiction and mainstream fantasy smash.
Everlasting is published from PanMacmillan Books for £6.99 in paperback.
My thanks to ThinkJam for the chance to read the novel.
http://www.alysonnoel.co.uk/
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