Neverworld Wake is the best sheet (of paper) I read last year! I’m not going to bit around the bush with this one. I thought it was average, surprised me in the end, changed my whole perspective of the book. And that’s it! And that’s why I loved it so much. Still not convinced? Then, let me try to change your mind.

Author: Marisha Pessl Pages: 324 Genre: YA, Mystery, Fantasy

---

Synopsis:

Five friends – the beautiful elite at their exclusive prep school – reunite a year after graduation. After a night out, they narrowly avoid a collision with a car on a deserted road. Back at the mansion belonging to one of the girls, a storm rages and a mysterious man knocks on the door, announcing something world-shattering. The friends must make a choice: one of them will live, and the rest will die. And the decision must be unanimous. So begins the Neverworld Wake. The nightmare. The nothingness. Time backbends and they are fated to repeat that day, but fears are now physical and memories come alive in horrifying ways. How will they vote? And will they be able to escape the Neverworld?

---

Review:

As I said in my introduction, I didn’t enjoy everything about this book. In fact, for most of the book, I thought it was going to be average. I wasn’t hatting the story, but it has some little “thingies” here and there kind of cliché/kind of predictable. No, no one let out a breath they didn’t know they were holding. It was “things” more plot-related than that. From the first few chapters, I could predict the plot twist that was coming. I just didn’t know exactly how it was. Yet, I still wanted to keep on reading to discover what was being hidden from me. And when the truth was revealed, it was a big meh moment. I’ve seen this plot twist happen so many times in movies and books that I could spot it miles away. And I get it’s pretty hard to surprise a reader when it comes to mysteries because, after watching/reading it once or twice, it becomes predictable. Although my relationship with this book doesn’t end here. Once I reached the last chapters, it changed my perception of the entire story.

I don’t want to say that, in the end, there is another plot twist because actually nothing happens. But from how I perceived the story, there is a second plot twist that I was not expecting. Just when I thought that this book couldn’t surprise me, it delivered the best ending. And that semi plot twist – I’ll call it that – was what changed my opinion on this book and made it a hundred times better.

Bee is the typical YA protagonist written a million times. She’s sweet, shy, friendly, innocent, pure, made to be loveable and to make the reader care for her. Maybe because she was so “vulgar”, I didn’t connect with her. I was only rooting for her to survive the Neverworld because of her parents. The close and friendly relationship Bee has with them is what made me hope she wouldn’t die. I couldn’t stand the idea of them burying their daughter. But apart from that, I didn’t care about any character. For all I care, the entire group of friends could all die. I wouldn’t mind.

Being detached from the characters and adding some dragging chapters was the right blend to DNF city. Although that thought never crossed my mind. Understanding what was the Neverworld, why the group slipt up, and how the sixth friend and Bee’s boyfriend died was mysterious enough to keep me interested. I wanted to keep on reading.

One of the beauties of the Neverworld is that it’s made up. There aren’t any rules. There aren’t any references. So it can be anything. And the author took great advantage of that. I started reading about the Neverworld in one way and ended with a different version of it. It can get confusing, but at the same time, it’s not meant to make sense. It’s limbo. It’s an in-between place. Logic doesn’t apply. So instead of trying to find any rules, I just went with it. You fly? Nice. Breath underwater? Great. And so, I stopped questioning it.

The Neverworld was actually something that didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would. After all, it’s a fantasy place, and I keep a strict distinction between sci-fi and fantasy because I usually enjoy one more than the other. I prefer to get an explanation and logical sense added to something made up, and the Neverworld completely rejects that. Although having that semi plot twist allowed me to create a logic for myself and find the Neverworld logical in all its unlogical.

The end of Neverworld Wake has a similar structure to We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. It has a proper ending, it’s not left open or in a cliffhanger, but it’s fluid enough to have different interpretations. In We Were Liars – spoiler heads up! – it’s never clear if Cadence is hallucinating her friends or if they are ghosts so, each reader chooses the option they prefer the most. The ending is still the same, the entire story is still the same, but what the reader reads between the lines can be different. And that changes everything. I’m glad I had the opportunity again to read the story in my own way. I wasn’t tied down to facts and events that took the story only in one direction – I’ve always been more of the Jonas Brothers kind of gal anyway. I could change the story to fit what I prefer to read.

Neverworld Wake was kind of a gem I stumble upon. It had a blend of moments that took away my enjoyment of the story, the predictable plot, the characters, the fantastical elements. But then, I was so surprised with the end that made me look at everything left behind that I didn’t like, that I found boring, and changed it for the better.

Have you Neverworld Wake by Merissa Pesslr? Did you enjoy it? Did you also found it predictable?