Review: Enshadowed (Nevermore 02) by Kelly Creagh

Book info:

Form: pdf file
Genre Poe-related fantasy romance
Target audience: YA

Synopsis:

It is the sequel of Nevermore, reviewed by me not so long ago. If you haven’t read the first part and you are spoiler-sensitive, please omit this section.

Isobel returned home from ‘Poeland’ and had to destroy Varen’s notebook in order to break the link between that place and her reality. However she was tricked by Reynolds to believe Varen returned as well when in fact he got stuck there as a slave of Lilith, an ancient demoness. Now Isobel wants to do everything in her power to find her way back and help Varen return. Still, is she really up to the task?

Juggling cheerleader duties, the final year of her high school and her family, more and more worried, Isobel finds it hard to have one calm day or night. She is tortured by visions of Varen, she still meets Pinfeathers, one of the dreadful Nocs from Poeland, and her former boyfriend, Brad, is now just a life-weary cripple. A trip to a Baltimore’s cemetery where Poe was buried, seems to be her only chance. There, in the early morning hours of Poe's birthday, a mysterious stranger known only as the "Poe Toaster" will make his annual homage at the legendary poet's grave. Only the Poe Toaster holds the key to the way between worlds. Will she make it on time? Will she know how to fight the demonic Lilith? Will Varen be the same person she fell in love with?

What I liked:

You know the curse of the sequels? It is very difficult to write the second part of a series as good as the first one. Ms Creagh took a risk and wrote it differently. I admit it was brave of her.

The Poe-themed world building was still one of the highlights here, along with the further information about Lilith, provided by Isobel's best friend, Gwen. I also enjoyed a truly original take on the Nocs, demonic ghouls which can disperse into a mist but are quite fragile otherwise. The narrative reveals  many wonderful details about Varen and his dream world. And I was perfectly happy with the fact that Isobel’s family was still there, trying to understand and help her as much as they could and/or were allowed by Isobel herself.

What I didn’t like:

Unfortunately I must say a book almost without Varen was 100% worse than the first novel with him playing an active part. Also the fact that the story is still narrated by Isobel herself started to grate on my nerves as that girl too often had nothing interesting to say. Small wonder – you see, she doesn’t like reading.

And here I hit my main grievance: Isobel. Or rather her attitude towards life, Varen, her family, books and finding info therein. Overall her attitude, full stop.

Ok, she is depressed, she can’t confide in anybody apart from Gwen and even Gwen is not to be trusted with everything. However let me ask a simple question: why? Would it be such a big mistake to tell your family what you feel and why? Would it hurt to mention some alternate reality and the fact that your boyfriend might be imprisoned and tortured there? By the way Isobel’s obstinacy to see that her beloved might be at least partially guilty of anything was surprising. Let’s face it,  Varen failed to connect appropriately with humanity at large and hence  he actively sought the understanding companionship of a soul-sucking demoness, go figure! The problem here is not that he's being made to face the consequences of his actions, but rather that Isobel seems utterly blind to his being at fault at all. She wants to stop Lilith from ever hurting anyone ever again, but what if they, like Varen, want her to be summoned? What then!?

Now a bit about reading. Imagine that your boyfriend is imprisoned in a kind of alternate universe which is somehow connected to the works of a particular author. You love your boyfriend dearly and you would do anything to set him free; wouldn’t reading a bio of that author along with the majority (if not all) of his collected works be your absolute priority? Meanwhile Isobel never takes a book into her hand. Most of important information she gets because a) she was told b) somebody has read it to her (often Gwen) c) she overheard it, accidentally or not d) she dreamt about it. Really, is reading so difficult to swallow?

My last carping and a warning: this novel ends with a big cliffie: (a spoiler, highlight to read or skip) Isobel wakes up in an ICU and she observes her own failed resuscitation. Still the reader, like her, is not sure whether she really dies. Varen seems to be responsible for her fatal injuries – he was acting under Lilith’s compulsion. I hate clffies.

Final verdict:

I am a bit torn: on the one hand I would like to know how this story ends and whether there has been a method in this madness. On the other hand I’m afraid the third book might be a waste of time because nothing, literally NOT ONE SINGLE THING prepared Iso to deal with Lilith and her realm, the biggest obstacle being Isobel herself. I am not sure the author can come up with a trick good enough to sound believable or real.

"A word to the wise… cover your mirrors. 
That’s how they find you."

Review: Nevermore by Kelly Creagh

Book info:
Form: pdf file, e-book
Genre: Poe-inspired fantasy/romance
Target audience: YA

Synopsis: 


What can a blonde cheerleader extraordinaire and a Goth oddball wearing eyeliner have in common? They attend the same school and they’ve just paired for an English literature project by a mean professor. Neither Isobel Lanley nor Varen Nethers are exactly thrilled – he perceives her as a pink Barbie doll without brains, she thinks he drinks blood and sleeps in a coffin just to shock people and prove he can. Still both of them need a good grade and so they decide to work on that project and it starts their big adventure with Edgar Alan Poe and the world of dark fantasy resembling a bit the court of Unseelie, dark faeries from Irish mythology of the Daoine Sidhe.

Yes, they fall in love in-between – Isobel finds herself making excuses and lying just to be with Varen a little bit longer (unfortunately we don’t know what Varen thinks because the novel is narrated from Isobel’s POV). Steadily pulled away from her old circle of friends and a possessive football player of a boyfriend she ventures deeper and deeper into the dream world, seeing and talking to strange creature nobody can see or hear. She meets a man called Reynolds but is he real? Why does he look as if he jumped straight from another era? Will he help her to explore the mystery around Varen and his black notebook he carries whenever he goes?

What I liked:

Firstly let me say that the blurb didn’t make me warm up to this novel. Nevermore had the potential to be incredible, but also incredibly bad. First of all it is the first part of another YA series grrrr. Unfinished series to add (double grrrr but don’t let your dog hear you). Secondly a cheerleader girl is more often than not somebody I wouldn’t like to meet or read about – for plethora of reasons. Yes, plethora – one of these words your ordinary cheerleader from different YA stories would  confuse with a fancy, old musical instrument from France.  Still I, like most people in their right mind, love and appreciate poems and stories of Edgar Allan Poe and I have been informed that the male hero is a Goth kid who loves Poe to no end. What’s more I’ve been assured by my dear Heidenking in her great review that this book doesn’t feature any vampires, werewolves or angels, fallen or otherwise,  so I decided to give this one a chance.

Cover of Edgar Allan Poe
yeah, chicks dig moustache

I have to admit I didn’t expect to be caught in the story as much as I did. I ended up reading the book in two sittings without noticing the passing hours. Why? Oh it is such a page-turner for YA and adult readers because the author cleverly and skillfully weaves many known facts about Poe’s life and mysterious death into the plot. She relates Poe’s works with the mysteries of a haunted ‘dreamland’ similar to the domain of elves from Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Suzanna Clarke (if you read and liked the magical aspect of that one you will enjoy Nevermore as well – different epoch, similar athmosphere) AND then she adds a well-know high school plot to it.

I’d also add the character setting to the number of advantages. Isobel is at first just your ordinary empty-headed cheerleader but then she shows her mettle confronting all the stereotypes and tropes – she starts reading Poe (ok, skimming more like, not being an avid reader and Poe not being a very easy author to read), she dares dump her boyfriend, she almost turns her entire life inside out just to find out more about Varen. 

I loved especially one short, funny scene when Isobel, visiting Varen’s house and looking at his childhood photo, discovers something truly shocking about him:

“You're really a blond," she said, her tone just short of accusatory.

"And if you tell anyone, I will come to you in the night and smote your everlasting soul.” 

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 – a very ambitious task for a cheerleader or a teenage girl I suppose.

The best part is that neither Isobel nor Varen are perfect creatures, both are textured and layered. Ms. Creagh takes her time building these characters, starting with initial mutual dislike, and slowly peeling back the layers of their personalities. Varen is a classic young Severus Snape (a character from Harry Potter series) – a gifted boy, alienated at school and with an abusive parent to boot. He is also much more: he works in an ice-ream parlour, (yeah, actually selling ice-cream; can you imagine Snape doing that?) he dyes his hair and drives along in a vintage Jaguar (very cool!). Still, compared to intrepid Isobel, he seems too preoccupied with his reading, writing and Goth persona to be a truly active character; finally he falls into a not very manly category of damsel in distress (but I told you the author is playing with tropes and stereotypes, right?)

 What I didn’t like:

 Even though I'd looked forward to Isobel's exploration through the Poeland (I really couldn't restrain myself, 'Poeland' is so...right), but it turns out the progress of Isobel's learning more about Poe  is a rather rushy one, Isobel's own opinion on neither the author nor his works, is largely missing. We only got to see her read through The Masque of the Red Death then commented on it and there's no more mention of her opinion on Poe's works. I understand that she is not a reading type but I suppose if your fate and the fate of your beloved depends on information from books you should be far more committed to reading and finding stuff; still dear Isobel always acts as if she expected somebody to explain her everything (a fairy theory for dummies on Youtube,  not longer than 3 minutes, would definitely fit her better) and when nobody wants to do it she sulks. As a result she lands in that alternate reality, chased by ghouls and nocs (a kind of demons), completely unprepared and the fact that she actually manages to pull through comes as a major miracle.

Let me also carp about the role of adults. Unfortunately here the author decided to stick to the well-known patters. Although parents exist in this one, they are either too busy or completely out of touch with their kids and the reality for different reasons. As a result when the main lead has a problem she can talk to a friend or to her reflection in the mirror. I wish I read a book which author dared change that, showing a parent who not only cares but also knows how to show it and can actually impress their progeny with his/her knowledge.

My wishes for next parts.

I found Varen too vague a character to dominate the book (and I wish he DID dominate), there are so many things about him we don't know, e.g. his family's background, the reason why he had such a bad relationship with his dad, how he discovered Poe and became the way he was now, how he found a job in that bookstore and ice-cream parlour etc. After finishing Nevermore I'd very much love to learn more about him. Also some questions about Poeland simply beg for a creative answer – e.g why some people get trapped there and some can return to the land of living?

Final verdict:

Kelly Creagh's Nevermore is a very ambitious and interesting Young Adult novel which manages to bring  mystery and dark fantasy to life. Overall it is a worthy read not only for teen Poe's and/or Goth's fans. I'm looking forward to the sequel although, being spoiled and all, I know it is not as good as the first part. Maybe the third book will straighten things up nicely? I am definitely willing to give the author the benefit of the doubt.

Also check out the fantastic review wrote by Heidenkind.

A good idea for an alternative cover version