I've been waiting to read the Evernight series for years and years and years. And the time is finally now.



Bianca wants to escape.

She's been uprooted from her small hometown and enrolled at Evernight Academy, an eerie Gothic boarding school where the students are somehow too perfect: smart, sleek, and almost predatory. Bianca knows she doesn't fit in.

Then she meets Lucas. He's not the "Evernight type" either, and he likes it that way. Lucas ignores the rules, stands up to the snobs, and warns Bianca to be careful—even when it comes to caring about him.

"I couldn't stand it if they took it out on you," he tells Bianca, "and eventually they would."

But the connection between Bianca and Lucas can't be denied. Bianca will risk anything to be with Lucas, but dark secrets are fated to tear them apart . . . and to make Bianca question everything she's ever believed.




When I was younger, when these books were first published, I wanted to read them so badly. It had all the right calling cards for my personal preference. Boarding school? CHECK. Paranormal plotlines and creatures? Check! Indulgent, Gothic tropes and all the potential that comes with it? Check, check, check. Alas, up until last year, I never had the chance to buy or read them--until I spotted the entire series whilst thrifting.

Naturally, my nostalgic self came home, relaxed and tucked myself into a corner with coffee and a warm, fuzzy blanket. I was completely reading to dive into the world of Evernight and become acquainted with the halls of Evernight Academy.

It became apparent straight away that I just couldn't get into Evernight as a whole. Claudia Gray's writing is lovely and indulgent, atmospheric in all the right ways, but still I felt like the story was just slipping through me. The literary equivalent of in one ear and out the other. Maybe it was because my reading this novel was after a reread of Vampire Academy and the House of Night series, and I burned myself out on similarly written tales. Maybe I've merely grown out of the genre. Or maybe it simply wasn't my cup of tea.

I'm thinking it's more the 'I've grown out of this' variety, because I could feel that tiny buzz of nostalgia for my teenage reading habits. Many times, I found myself thinking, "If only I'd read this growing up." A lot of my connectivity issues were conflicting between being uninterested and being a little annoyed with the characters. And then being annoyed with myself for not having adored Evernight.

At the end of the day, Evernight was definitely a product of its YA era. Which is a hit or miss experience for me.

Still, there's a chance that I'll give the second installment another go. If not because I already own all of the books, but because I'm deathly curious and want to see if it was just a mood read that I was incapable of getting into only in the moment.