**Spoilage**
*One Star*
I know. One star? Yeah....I was disappointed, too. Mostly because I really wanted to love this story. Conceptually, I was in love. I read a few shining - spoiler free - reviews and I was amped to read this because, come on. Persephone and Eurydice. Who doesn't love a good retelling of a 'classic' with a modern twist?
Well, emphasis on the word good. And sadly, this was not.
Aside from the very start of the book, we never 'see' the Everneath again. Nikki speaks of it again, but we never get to witness what the NEverneath is actually like for ourselves. Instead, we get high school drama. And....nope. All we get is high school drama. And I was so not expecting the high school drama nor did I want it. I was expecting grit and heartbreak and - things that didn't make me roll my eyes.
Like I said before, conceptually - the whole Nikki-gets-sucked-into-the-Everneath-for-what-she-feels-is-hundreds-of-years-but-is-only-six-months-on-the-surface thing and the fact that she only has six months to say goodbye to the people she left behind before the Everneath comes to collect their debt, which is her - is really fluffin' killer. BUT - yes, there's a but - BUT, it loses all the things that make it interesting something in the execution.
Just going to throw a few things out there. Excuse the randomness of it all.
Nikki's father is a mayor...or something political...in their town. His sixteen year old daughter disappears for six months, comes back looking like hammered shit and no one so much as blinks. There are no reporters following her around town, no one banging down their door looking for an exclusive with the Mayor's - or Governor's - wayward minor daughter suspected of drug abuse. There are no police-type of people looking for this child who just poofed six months ago. There was no investigation or Have-You-Seen-This-Child's going around. BUT HE WINS THE NEXT ELECTION HE WAS IN. While all this was going on.
I'm sorry, but what the actual fuck? Not in this world we live in. Hell, Olivia Pope couldn't spin that shit to work in his favor. But whatevs.
Jack Caputo. Nikki's boyfriend. He was the reason she decided leaving with Cole to the Everneath was okay in the first place. I'll paraphrase. Jack was THAT guy in their school. Dudes want to be him and girls want to do him. Blah, blah, yadda yadda. You get it. He dated THAT girl before Nikki....along with half the school, so I don't see why Nikki thought she could keep his eye from wandering, but okay. "Men can change." Or whatever. They do the gross teenage love thing, he lurves her, she lurves him - they're happy. He goes to football camp and THAT GIRL is, of course a cheerleader and you know that football players cannot go to camp and sharpen their skills without the accompaniment of their cheerleaders....who do not do anything to help hone said skills. But...like I said. High school drama. Nikki sneaks up to camp, thinks she sees him cheating, doesn't give him a chance to explain - why would she? HIGH. SCHOOL. DRAMA - and decides that the guy who's been whispering in her ear while Jack was away for a week has a good idea.
Long story not-so-short, she agrees to go with Cole to the NEverneath because she doesn't want to feel anymore. If there's a girl more emo than that, I haven't met her.
Cole is an older guitarist in a very special band who finds Plain Jane Nikki interesting - of course he does! High School Drama! - and beautiful and all those things.
Snooze.
After Nikki's little stint in the Everneath, to which she should have forgotten all she was because she was a Forfeit and Cole was feeding off her soul, she - of course! - doesn't forget everything because she was holding onto Jack. The dude she thought cheated on her. Yeah. That's what I said, too. Whatver. She Returns - that is capitalized in the book, I shit you not - but doesn't even bother to try and rebuild any relationships, apologize or do anything even vaguely reminiscent of living. She goes back to school like nothing happened, ignores the everliving shit out of Jack, even though he was the only reason she'd Returned and farts around for 3/4 of her six month Return. What the fuck was it for, then? Why bother to Return - and make the going back to the Everneath all the much worse - if you're not going to comminicate with the mofos you Returned for?!
I was basically done at this point. But I really wanted to see if Ashton could try and revive this book....she didn't, if you want to stop reading here. That's fine.
Skip ahead a dozen chapters and she finally tells Jack she's leaving again. A week or so before she has to leave. And she's surprised he's mad. I'm just not even going to snark that bit. I think you guys get the jist. Skip ahead a few pages and "it's always been you...It'll only ever be you...It's all you" & equally barf-enducing sentiments are spoken about seven times in the span of two pages.
Yeah, I'm just going to end it here and just basically say I sincerely disliked this book. So hard. But I think you could deduce that without me having to say so in as many words.
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