Evernight; Claudia Gray

I saw this somewhere on my feed reader & borrowed it from the library. Evernight was published by Harper Teen in 2008. The newest one is Stargazer, released in March of this year. Evernight is a young adult vampire-coming of age-adventure book. This is projected to be a four book series, a la Harry Potter, one book per school year. I lost my notes, so the little details have vanished out of my head like morning mist, but I remember most of it.

Bianca Olivier & her parents have moved to Evernight Academy from a tiny town. Her parents will be teaching and Bianca will live in the dorms (it's a boarding school) with Patrice. From the beginning it's clear that Bianca won't easily fit in here. She makes friends with Lucas Ross after he chases her through the woods and she tries to muddle through her first year. The reader only finds some things out as Bianca does, which adds to the suspense & the feeling of dread that slowly seeps into the book. Bianca's first "feed" is Lucas, and she doesn't cope all that well with the resulting feelings and consequences. When the truth behind Lucas' presence in the school is revealed in a violent and devestating scene involving her parents Bianca reacts in a totally understandable way. She runs away with him.

I really really struggled to finish this one. Bianca swung between TSTL, hormone addled, angst ridden to insightful, thoughtful and protective. It drove me batshit crazy. I read quite a bit of young adult lit, I expect and understand that teens naturally swing from one emotional and behavioral extreme to another. I get that. Really I do. I have three of them. Teens that is. But somehow Bianca drove me over the edge. Which made me wonder just how much do I really have to like a protagonist to keep reading their story?

There is nothing resolved in this episode. Both Bianca and Lucas survive their stupidity. There is quite a lot of implied behind the scenes goings on with the adults. This reader wonders if the Headmistress Mrs. Bethany is really the archenemy. How much does Bianca, and by extension, the reader not know? I am very glad I borrowed this book from our local library, I think I'd've been furious if I'd actually bought it. They have the second one, but I'm unsure if I'll continue with them. If I do it'll be because a) I want to prove to myself I can finish a series when I despise the protagonist b) I want to know who & what the motivating factors behind the scenes are and c) I like Balthazar More much more than I like Lucas and I hope to see more of him in future books.