From Goodreads: Nick and Allie don’t survive the car accident…but their souls don’t exactly get where they’re supposed to get either. Instead, they’re caught halfway between life and death, in a sort of limbo known as Everlost: a shadow of the living world, filled with all the things and places that no longer exist. It’s a magical yet dangerous place where bands of lost children run wild and anyone who stands in the same place too long sinks to the center of the Earth.

When they find Mary, the self-proclaimed queen of lost kids, Nick feels like he’s found a home. But Allie isn’t satisfied spending eternity between worlds. Against all warnings, Allie begins learning the “Criminal Art” of haunting and ventures into dangerous territory, where a monster called the McGill threatens all the souls of Everlost.

___________________________________

I have read a lot of Shusterman’s novels, such as Unwind and Downsiders, but this is the first novel of his that I really struggled to get through.  I don’t know what it is about Everlost, but I never got into the story.  I began reading it back in October of 2010 and it’s taken me eight months to finish the novel.  I was surprised it took me so long, especially since I really like Shusterman’s writing style , and I tend to start and finish books in the same day.  It’s very rare that I put one aside for any length of time, but that’s what happened with this novel.  Perhaps this novel is too MG for me, or maybe the characters didn’t sit just right; I don’t know, but this story, overall, just isn’t for me.

While the synopsis drew me in, causing me to pick up the novel in the first place, the characters weren’t memorable, and while I thought the idea of Everlost, a world in between, was a great idea, I found my attention wandering as I read—I had a difficult time staying focused and, honestly, I can’t pinpoint why.  However, this just goes to show that not all stories interest people in the same way—it doesn’t mean the author did a bad job by any means because, as I already stated, Shusterman has written some great novels that I really like.  That being said, I can only give this novel, personally, one star.