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{{infoboxinfobox2
|title=Everwild
|author=Neal Shusterman
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=432
|publisher=Simon & Schuster
|date=February 2010
|isbn=1847387322
|amazonukaznuk=<amazonuk>1847387322</amazonuk>|amazonusaznus=<amazonus>1416958630<|cover=1847387322|website=http://www.storyman.com/amazonus>
}}
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.
And I loved it! The overlying narrative is pacy and tense, but the tension is punctuated by some wonderful slapstick humour, superb satire and umpteen clever pop-culture references.
[[The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman]] takes an equally stunning look at the afterlife. They might also like [[Gone by Michael Grant]], which also features a society of children - alive but with special powers - left to cope alone.
{{amazontext|amazon=1847387322}} {{waterstonestextamazonUStext|waterstonesamazon=68616591416958630}}
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[[Category:Teens]]