She could save the world—or destroy it.
Sixteen year old Evangeline “Evie” Greene leads a charmed life, until she begins experiencing horrifying hallucinations. When an apocalyptic event decimates her Louisiana hometown, Evie realizes her hallucinations were actually visions of the future—and they’re still happening. Fighting for her life and desperate for answers, she must turn to her wrong-side-of-the-bayou classmate: Jack Deveaux.
But she can’t do either alone.
With his mile-long rap sheet, wicked grin, and bad attitude, Jack is like no boy Evie has ever known. Even though he once scorned her and everything she represented, he agrees to protect Evie on her quest. She knows she can’t totally depend on Jack. If he ever cast that wicked grin her way, could she possibly resist him?
Who can Evie trust?
As Jack and Evie race to find the source of her visions, they meet others who have gotten the same call. An ancient prophesy is being played out, and Evie is not the only one with special powers. A group of twenty-two teens has been chosen to reenact the ultimate battle between good and evil. But it’s not always clear who is on which side…
My review:
Okay, based on the title of the book, I thought this was going to be a terrible, cliche, YA failure. Now, this is going to be one of the very few times I will ever admit it, but I was completely wrong.
I just blew off everything I had to do after returning from school so I could devour this book and I was completely blown away. I thought it was a truly amazing piece of work, for many reasons.
1) Evie. She is a very complex and interesting character. She is not perfect, in the beginning she seems to be pretty shallow, but that just makes her seem even more real. She is a heroine without always having been a heroine, and those are the kind that I like the most. At first, she did seem pretty useless, but she truly showed to everyone how she is strong and powerful. It was great character development.
2) Jack. Okay, okay, the girls always need that foxy male character to swoon over, and Jack definitely takes that role. He is the best kind of bad boy. Yeah, he kicks ass, has a great body, a signature smirk, the best comments, and all that other bad-boy-esque-stuff. However, there is a lot more to him. His story, his feelings, the way that he speaks. Wonderful. Not to mention, I really enjoyed the relationship between Evie and him. They didn't just completely fall for each other all at once. The love/hate relationship at first made it even more interesting to read. (I know that a lot of readers were pissed off because he was a bit of a jerk sometimes? I see where you are coming from, but it didn't really bother me.
3) The plot: maybe I am mistaken, but I don't recall reading a story like this one before. Sure, sure, post-apocalyptic trends are there, but hey - the baseline to many stories are the same. This story is clever, and new, and interesting, and that is so refreshing. (Even if it isn't completely original, at least it has enough parts that seem original. After all, what plot really hasn't been seen before in some way?)
4) The writing: it was written well. That was a very pleasant surprise. I never got bored, and was interested the entire time I read. Even when I probably should have started on my AP Chemistry homework, or practice the songs I'm working on, I couldn't put it down! The pacing was great, and it had a good amount of action.
As far as I can see, the biggest problem is I will probably have to wait a very long time for the sequel. The bane to a reader's existence...
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