Review: Persephone by Kaitlin Bevis

There are worse things than death, worse people too

The “talk” was bad enough, but how many teens get told that they’re a goddess? When her mom tells her, Persephone is sure her mother has lost her mind. It isn’t until Boreas, the god of winter, tries to abduct her that she realizes her mother was telling the truth. Hades rescues her, and in order to safely bring Persephone to the Underworld he marks her as his bride. But Boreas will stop at nothing to get Persephone. Despite her growing feelings for Hades, Persephone wants to return to the living realm. Persephone must find a way to defeat Boreas and reclaim her life.

Review: Greek mythology has survived despite the years and people are as fascinated by it now as they were then. (Minus the worship part)

One of the stories that intrigues people the most is the one of Hades and Persephone, which Kaitlin Bevis rewrites in her thrilling novel Persephone.

The book starts out strong, with strange happenings around Persephone's everyday life and her conviction that she was going insane. Frost appeared out of nowhere, people acted weirdly around her, and it felt like someone was watching her. I was hooked from then.

One aspect of the novel that I didn't like very much was Persephone herself. She was a little too naive for someone her age, although it makes sense in context. She's very sheltered, as the book demonstrates in the first few pages. Another part of Persephone's personality I didn't like was her shallowness. What I do like about the main character is her stubbornness. She refuses to be cowed by little things like the god of the Underworld, or dead people, or silly little reapers. That kind of tenacity is admirable in a person, fictional or not.

Hades was a difficult character to tackle simply because of all the history that comes with his name. Persephone is a Greek goddess as well, but by making her a reincarnation with no memories, Bevis had to opportunity to create her own character. Hades the god? She had to follow a few rules.

I like and dislike how she didn't portray Hades as the bad guy. He was very kind and considerate of his subjects. Sure he had darker parts of his personality, but overall he was a reasonable guy. And I'm glad he wasn't the "bad boy" Persephone reforms as they fall in love. I like the Hades from this book a lot. But Hades the Greek god was ruthless and had the kindest heart. I was excited to see the contradiction in his character and not finding that prevented me from loving the Hades from this book.

Hades was still amazing, though. Great character.

This tends to happen a lot to me, but I just adored the setting. It would've been so easy for Bevis to create a cliche dark and gloomy underworld but she really rocked her world building. The afterlife was like life, but the jobs people had were about making themselves happy, not rich. Even Persephone opened up a little garden shop because she likes flowers. It's a very thoughtful afterlife, and remains true to mythology with Tartarus, the rivers, and the Elysian Fields. 

The plot seems flimsy in retrospect, but while reading, I couldn't put this book down. There's a sense of suspense on every single page and so many things keep happening that I refused to do anything except read this delightful book. It's a great book for summer vacation and Persephone will keep you hanging until the very last word.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Review: Everneath

Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath, where immortals Feed on the emotions of despairing humans. Now she's returned- to her old life, her family, her friends- before being banished back to the underworld... this time forever. 

She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can't find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists. 

Nikki longs to spend these months reconnecting with her boyfriend, Jack, the one person she loves more than anything. But there's a problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who first enticed her to the Everneath, has followed Nikki to the mortal world. And he'll do whatever it takes to bring her back- this time as his queen. 

As Nikki's time grows short and her relationships begin slipping from her grasp, she's forced to make the hardest decision of her life: find a way to cheat fate and remain on the Surface with Jack or return to the Everneath and become Cole's...


Summary from Goodreads


Review:


I jumped into this book with high expectations, something that's always bitten me in the butt in the past. On the blogosphere there were so many gushing reviews and praises sung that I considered buying Everneath despite my state of not having money. I didn't, though, and simply borrowed the book from the library.


Now, let me tell you, the last time I got this excited over a new release had to be The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin. Suffice to say, I didn't really like that book very much. 


Everneath really sucked me into Nikki's life and every chapter when her counter ticked down, I felt panicked. She needed more time to fix her problems. She needed more time to say goodbye to Jack and her dad. NIKKI NEEDS MORE TIME! But the story portrayed the aspect of time perfectly, and Brodi Ashton nailed how teenagers feel about time. Six months feels like forever to us but when the deadline comes around, you realize that you haven't really accomplished anything and that six months is a really short amount of time.


Nikki's lack of feelings sort of bugged me, but it was important to the story so I had to let it go. A lot of narrators in YA fiction seem sort of passive and emotionless but at least Nikki had a good reason to be that way. I thought it was really intriguing how she could feel people's emotions but it wasn't very consistent throughout the story. In most scenes, she didn't feel people's emotion unless it was relevant to the plot. 


Some people didn't like the jumping back and forth from the past to present, but after I while, I grew to enjoy it. At first, it kind of annoyed me, but then I appreciated them because I could compare Jack and Nikki's relationship then, and their relationship now. It was really heartbreaking. The hopping allowed you to see what lead up to the now, and the before could have been a book by itself. 


Another thing that I really appreciated was that there was no insta-love. The relationship with Jack and Nikki (even though we don't know all of it) seemed to have grown over a long timespan of years. They were friends before they dated and that friendship grew into love. I'm a sucker for that kind of thing, just so you know. 


The ending smashed my heart into a million pieces. I need the next book!


Everneath had a lot of problems I've seen in HarperCollins books. It needed some fleshing out. With the characters, with the explanations, and with the Everneath. The plot was fascinating, but that's usually how HarperCollins books are. They're very plot driven. The Tunnels, Everneath, and everlings could have been explained more, but the spin Brodi Ashton put on Greek mythology was new and exciting. I fell a little in love with both of the leading boys in this book, but I keep wondering why Cole claims that he loves Nikki. It'll probably be explained in the next book. But I can't wait that long


Everneath wasn't as great as I expected it to be. But I had really, really high expectations. Overall, it wasn't that disappointing, and it was an enjoyable read. It was a good book, and if I didn't have the mentioned expectations, I'd probably be more fangirly about it. Everneath has a lot of potential. Brodi Ashton did a great job, but I feel like if Everneath was fleshed out a bit more, it could go from being a good book to a "OHMYGOD THIS IS A FREAKIN' AWESOME BOOK"


Rating: 4/5 stars