Okay, I struggled with writing this review... Was it bad? No. Was the story boring? Also no. Did I struggle to finish the book? Yess, I did.
Listen, I truely believe that you either love or hate this book. When I saw the tropes and the plot, I was immediately sold. I was amazed and so excited because I never read a storyline like this. Dead people competing in trails to go back to the world of the living... sign me up! And yet, there was something, something I can not really point out, that made it very hard for me to read on. The writing was not bad, neither was the story. But there was something that made it very hard for me to keep reading and I don't really know why. That's why I am saying that you either love it or hate it... I can see why people are super excited about it, but I can also see why others say that it's not their cup of tea.
Anyways... The idea for this book was so, so cool! I applauded Jill for her creativity because this is by far the most innovative storyline I read this year! And that is why I am upset: I wanted to like this soooooo badly and I could not get through it.
Het writing style is super easy and it helps to get into the story. Also her world building gave her some bonus points. Yet, there are some small remarks that were responsible for the slow reading.
First of all: I missed some context. Things happened and it wasn't always that clear what exactly happened, which made it very confusing. I did not really catch the relationships between the charachters and because I was so confused, some things really did not make sense. So many things happen in this book, but it just goes a bit to fast to understand. I get why people don't want to write extremely thick books, but don't cut pages when you sacrifice the reader's understanding of the book. I saw someone saying that this book feels like entering a series halfway and I relate to that.
Does this mean I will never pick up everything from this author? No, definitely not. Overall, Everdying is a strong debut from an aspiring young woman and the passion and love for writing stories is noticeable. I just hope she will take the time to explain things a bit more in het upcoming books, because she has the potential to became a great and famous writer.
Thank you, to the author and publisher, for sending me a copy of the book 🎀