Everlost :: Education by Design Store

Customer Reviews

From J. Kaye's Book Blog

2008-08-23
Everlost is a place where you're not quite dead, yet not alive either. That's what Nick and Allie discover after they died from a car accident. Later when they reached into the dead forest they meet a fellow afterlight (a person who lives in everlost) who Allie suggested they called him Lief (because Lief forgot his real name).

When Allie and Nick tried to go home they meet a gang of bullies, the Queen of Snots, a neagrathal called Haunter, and a monster named McGill.

This is required reading????

2008-08-04
This book was required reading for my son this summer.
It amazes me that such a poorly written book had ever gotten any awards for anything. The characters are underdeveloped, the plot is inconsistent (my son pointed that out midway thru) and it has terrible loopholes throughout the entire book.
If you can avoid this book do so, if I could have gotten my son out of reading this garbage I would have. Unfortunately the author is visiting the school in the fall. Really too bad tripe like this is still in the reading chain, it certainly has been a waste of the summer.

A lot of food for thought!

2008-06-12
I just finished reading this and I have called up some middle school students and their parents so they can all read this book for summer reading! Very interesting premise and some unique characters. In America, we don't talk about dying or our reactions to death so this book would be good to bring to the dicussion. Allie and Nick were victims of a car accident and now they are in flux. They meet many others on their journeys and find that even in flux between life and death, the one thing that will numb one's brain is repetitive routines that are done without thinking and without wanting change. How many of us don't want change or look at change as a terrible thing....almost worse than death. Some characters are absorbed by the numbing routine and no longer have memories of their own names. Other characters seek to appear to be kind, generous, and loving but really want characters to need them because that need generates power. Everlost is a terrible place for bullies...they can't physically injure anyone and they can't kill anyone. However, one monster of a character does exist and how our interpid Allie and Nick each deal with him depends on their goals/missions. The notion that there are dead buildings and dead roads, and dead spots where people died, and dead train tracks made me look around my town when driving home from work. When giving directions, we often tell people that the police station is across the street from the Federal Building. Well, the Federal Building has been gone for some 15 years! Was interesting to see how the Twin Towers, post 911, figured into one of the settings. Later middle schoolers and early high school students should enjoy this book. I read that it is coming out as a movie in 2009. I will definitely want to see it. I would teach this book with: Gods of Manhattan, The Afterlife, Elsewhere

Awesome-Limbo World

2008-04-11
The amazing world of everlost is filled with afterlights,greensouls, and one monster named McGill. McGill travels in a ship looking for trapped greensouls. The book starts out with Allie and Nick getting in a car accident and landing in Everlost. They soon meet Lief and they travel to New York. They meet Mary Hightower and Nick grows very fondly of Mary. But Aliie still doesn't trust her and soon leaves. O.k I won't tell you the whole story but I highly recommend this book!!!5 STARS!!!!

My Review for Everlost

2008-03-14
Will Allie, Nick, and Leif ever get out of Everlost? Everlost tells the story of the three children; Allie, Nick, and Leif adventuring through Everlost. Nick and Allie died of a head on collision on the way to a wedding. They did not even know each other. They woke up in a forest and saw this kid. They asked him what his name was and he did not remember his name because he had been by his self for so many years. So Nick and Allie named him Leif because he lived in a lush green forest. Leif explains that people in the living world have no effect on us Afterlights, and we are ghosts. Nick Allie and Leif adventure through Everlost to find out more about this second world. They go through Manhattan, New York and see the Twin Towers that had crossed into Everlost when they were attacked. They meet Mary a leader of a group of Afterlights. They get caught by the McGill, a monster that captures children to try to get his life in the living world back. They escape from the McGill and defeat him with Mary and the kids that she keeps track of. The McGill was defeated and there were no more threats in Everlost. Although Nick, Leif, and Allie could never get out of Everlost, They were happy.

There's Life and Death ... and Now There's Everlost

2007-08-22
IT BEGINS WITH AN ACCIDENT.

Nick and Allie don't survive the crash, and now their souls are stuck halfway between life and death in a sort of limbo called Everlost. It's a magical yet dangerous place, where bands of lost souls run wild andanyone who stands in the same spot too long sinks to the center of the Earth.

Frightened and determined, Nick and Allie aren't ready to rest in peace just yet. They want their lives back, and their search for a way homewill take them deep into the uncharted areas of Everlost. But the longer they stay, the more they forget about their pasts. And if all memory of home is lost, they may never escape this strange, terrible world.

Wholly original and thought-provoking 2007-08-07
This book left me intrigued about the afterlife, and caring greatly about the fate of the characters--well, one in particular. Talk about a heroic journey! I truly hope Shusterman feels like visiting this world again and continues Nick's saga. Fascinating read.

A World Between Worlds 2007-06-14
At sometime or another all people get to where they are going, right? Well in Everlost it doesn't seem that way... There is a fatal car crash. Two teens, Nick and Allie, do not survive, but they don't die. They go to Everlost, a world between worlds. They aren't dead but they aren't alive. Nick and Allie awake confused. They remember the crash but where are they? They just want to go home to their families. But they can't. Allie and Nick are stuck in Everlost among many other children. Everlost is filled with tricks and traps that will send misled children into the unknown. Allie and Nick are determined to find a way out, but after battles of character and bravery to find a way to the place they should be, they begin to wonder if there is a way out at all... Do they ever get to where they're going?- that's a good question. You'll just have to read the book : )

An exciting page turner!!!ô 2007-02-16
The main characters are Allie and Nick who get into a car crash except they don't survive.They don't go to heaven or hell, but they go to Everlost. On their journey to uncover the mysteries of Everlost they meet an afterlight (what people are called in Everlost) that died in a flood. Then they meet Mary the protector of all the afterlights and her kids (about 200) Nick feels at home, but Allie wants to be alive again so she seeks to learn the criminal arts (which is like taking over peoples bodies, haunting people and stuff like that's). She starts to steal people's bodies, then she one day she meets the McGill a monster afterlight. He makes her teach him the skill or he'll sink her into the ground. Allie has to find a way out!!!
I like this book because the story line was interesting and the plots were terrific. I have read many books by Shusterman, but this one takes number one!!! Nick died having chocolate on his face and when you become an afterlight you look like how you died and I thought that was weird in a funny way. Allie, I think, was stuck up, insulting everybody the first time they meet. Everlost is truly a fantastic read!!!

Morgan's Book Review 2007-01-25
You could be fiddling with the radio or driving to a wedding, but suddenly your car smashes into another. You couldn't feel the impact but you know it's there. When you wake up your in a place that's unfamiliar to you with two people you don't know. Don't freak out but your dead.
That is the predicament the author Neal Shusterman puts his characters in, in his novel Everlost.
Allie and Nick are only fourteen when they die in the same car crash. They wake up in a place called Everlost where some souls end up after they die, but only the ones that get lost on the way to their real afterlife. Allie and Nick soon find out that there might be more to this place then they first thought. They both battle to keep from sinking to the center of the earth and are always trying to get to their old home.
The whole book was filled with twists and turns, but one exciting moment in the book was when Allie is getting pushed down towards the center of the earth and is trying and failing time after time to pull herself up, but just can't seem to catch a grip on anything. Those kinds of things are what made the book exciting and the fact that you couldn't tell what would happen next.
I think the most appropriate theme for the novel Everlost is friends and family. I think this because nearly the whole book was based around Nick and Allie trying to get to their families even though they were dead and no one living can see them. I thought friendship because Allie was always desperately trying to save her friends no matter what she had to do.
I thought this book was very interesting and made you want to keep on reading. What made the book great is that it had many lessons that I learned without even realizing it for example: "A brave mans life is worth more than a thousand cowardly souls" a lesson we should all learn.
If I were to recommend this novel to someone I would say that if you like science fiction, modern times, and the afterlife then you'd like this book. I would also recommend Everlost to mostly any age. So come and learn lessons, be entertained, and unlock surprising secrets.