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Jump to navigationJump to searchEverwild by Neal Shusterman (view source)
Revision as of 15:20, 17 January 2010
, 15:20, 17 January 2010no edit summary
Everlost is a kind of limbo and home to children - ''Afterlights'' - who have died, but somehow missed the tunnel and the light - wherever and whatever the light actually is. Adults never make it there, but significant or much-loved objects and buildings sometimes do. Mary Hightower, for instance, is so-called because she took up residence in New York in the Twin Towers. Mary thinks Everlost is a wonderful place and she "saves" the Afterlights she finds by giving them repetitive but addictive tasks to fill eternity.
Nick - the Chocolate Ogre - disagrees and he roams Everlost with a bucket containing coins that provide passage into the light. He wants all Afterlight Afterlights to find their way to their originally intended destination. Allie (the Outcast) is a skinjacker - she can possess and inhabit the bodies of the living. All Allie wants is to find her family and tell them that she's ok - after that, she thinks she'll be able to take her coin and move on.
The first book built up to and ended in the inevitable stand-off between Mary and Nick but it wasn't completely final, and several subplots remained unanswered. ''Everwild'' takes up shortly after the previous climax and it's clear from the get-go that a bigger confrontation is unavoidable. Both begin venture to the margins of Everlost - ''Everwild'' - to raise armies of Afterlights, while Allie continues the search for her family and learns a great deal more about skinjacking.
