Everlost

Oooooo, this was one of those really good, but weird, books—kinda like that strange friend that we all have: different than anything else, but your life would be so boring without it. It was kinda along the lines of Storm Thief and Unwind in the terms of crazy scenarios, loads of imagination, and phenomenal storytelling. (Incidentally, all three of these books were recommended by my ever-wise best friend. She may or may not be the strange friend I was referring to up there). Okay, I'll stop filling your ears— erm, eyes, I guess—with random chatter. Let's go straight to the review of Everlost by Neal Shusterman.
Nick and Allie, fourteen, both happened to be sitting in cars that got into a head-on collision—sending Allie and Nick through their separate windshields and traveling toward a light (y'know, the tunnel theory?). Only, something goes wrong: they get off course and crash through the side of the tunnel. When they wake up, they're most definitely not in heaven (or hell). Thanks to information given by a boy they meet, they learn that they're in Everlost. It's an in-between world, a shadow of the living world but filled with people and things who, for lack of a better phrase, didn't get where they were supposed to be going. These "afterlights" can see the living world but not interact with it- even the ground. If they stay still too long, they'll sink down through it. Here, where no one is over sixteen, a girl called Mary has proclaimed herself to be the queen of lost kids, taking in anyone she can find. Nick takes instantly to her, while Allie has a lot of reservations. She isn't content to just make a home in Everlost; she wants to find a way either onward or back to the living world. This sets her on a mission to dangerous territory of Everlost, learning the "criminal art" of haunting and encountering the dangerous and legendary McGill—the monster who threatens every soul in Everlost. Soon Nick gets dragged into it as he tries to help her, and things escalate from there. When it's all over, shocking things will be revealed about Mary, the McGill, Nick and Allie themselves, and Everlost itself. Things will never be the same.
Really amazing book. I loved that in the end it didn't tie everything up with a nice little bow; it was perfectly imperfect. Everlost explores the questions that we all have: about life and death and what just might be in between. The author made every detail and nuance count, using surprisingly twisty plotlines and haunting imagery. Anyone would enjoy it. It's at Blatchley or Mt. Edgecumbe (and there's two more books in the series—guess what I'm reading next!).