Everwild is the second book in the Skinjacker Trilogy by Neal Shusterman, following Everlost, which I reviewed in November of 2012. It continues the story of the children who, when they die, are diverted from moving to whatever may come, and are stuck in the purgatory of Everlost.
In Everwild, the battle with the McGill is over, and Mary Hightower has lost her flock. But she is determined to rebuild it, and to get revenge on Nick, the Chocolate Ogre, for causing her downfall. Allie the Outcast finds out why skinjacking is such a rare talent in the Everlost, and Mikey McGill must figure out how to control the uncontrollable—his anger.
As sequels go, Everwild is pretty darn good. The scope of the story grows. The characters are so very identifiable through their unique traits… my wife and I actually discussed that there may be no other book (short of Harry Potter), where the characters are so marked by distinguishing characteristics. Writers really learn to appreciate when another author accomplishes this feat with such a large cast of characters—it’s one of the hardest things to do in writing.
The problems I had with the copy edit of Everlost where non-existent in Everwild. I don’t think I found any glaring errors in this one. Hopefully someone will go back and fix the Kindle version of Everlost.
I still have limits I’ve imposed upon my reading time daily—no more than half an hour at a time, just to allow my eyes to rest as I recover from GBS. But I read the last quarter of this book in a single sitting. I shouldn’t have… I paid the price for it the next day. But at the time, I couldn’t put the book down. So I guess that’s a pretty good sign for the book.
If you’re into YA books, and liked Everlost, you’ll love Everwild. If you were on the fence about getting into this trilogy, I can confirm that it holds up beyond the first book, and I can’t wait to get into the next one.
