Review: Nevermore by Kelly Creagh

Nevermore by Kelly Creagh
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Goodreads summary:


Cheerleader Isobel Lanley is horrified when she is paired with Varen Nethers for an English project, which is due—so unfair—on the day of the rival game. Cold and aloof, sardonic and sharp-tongued, Varen makes it clear he’d rather not have anything to do with her either. But when Isobel discovers strange writing in his journal, she can’t help but give this enigmatic boy with the piercing eyes another look. 

Soon, Isobel finds herself making excuses to be with Varen. Steadily pulled away from her friends and her possessive boyfriend, Isobel ventures deeper and deeper into the dream world Varen has created through the pages of his notebook, a realm where the terrifying stories of Edgar Allan Poe come to life. 

As her world begins to unravel around her, Isobel discovers that dreams, like words, hold more power than she ever imagined, and that the most frightening realities are those of the mind. Now she must find a way to reach Varen before he is consumed by the shadows of his own nightmares.


My review:

A little change of pace. My reviews are going to be here and here only from now on. I'm not deleting the blog, just abandoning it as a failed experiment.

Hell with it. I'm game if you are.

The reason this one lands at 3 stars instead of 4 comes from the genius of the movie/stage play Amadeus. At one point, the Emperor declares that Mozart's opera has "too many notes." That's how this book felt to me - too many words.

Stephen King is a self-proclaimed sufferer of "diarrhea of the word processor" but with his stories, the words provide detailed histories, backstories. In this book, it was more like...endless description about things that really didn't matter. The whole scene with the report that went on....forever. I'd have more examples but, to be dead honest, I started skimming a lot of it.

I liked the characters fine but it was hard to form strong attachments around the endless scenes of Peril followed by expostion followed by lies/misdrection followed by More Peril followed by...you get the idea.

Still. The ending intrigued me enough to want to finish the series out. But for right now I'm planning on holding off until the third book is out, or close to being out.