Jan 25, 2009 This book was imaginative and fun to read. Neal Shusterman has created an interesting world between life and death where only children can go, called Everlost. In this world there are gangs of ‘ghost kids’, strange creatures, and a spongy earth that you sink into if you stand in one place too long. This book was highly recommended by Rick Riordan, author of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. That was enough for me! At our house, we love all the Percy Jackson books. As a matter of fact, we are reading the entire series again right now. But back to the Everlost book. It had some interesting twists and turns. I am really hoping that the author will write a sequel. I expect someday this book will be made into a movie. It is great to find a new author who writes such ‘easy to read’ stories that you can’t put down. There wasn’t anything in the book that would be too scary for kids. There is a mention of the World Trade Center in the book, but the author doesn’t go into detail about September 11. This book is excellent Middle-Grade fiction! I am looking forward to reading more from this author.

 Nick and Allie don’t survive the car accident…

…but their souls don’t exactly get where they’re supposed to get either. Instead, they’re caught halfway between life and death, in a sort of limbo known as Everlost: a shadow of the living world, filled with all the things and places that no onger exist. It’s a magical, yet dangerous place where bands of lost children run wild and anyone who stands in the same place too long sinks to the center of the Earth.

When they find Mary, the self-proclaimed queen of lost kids, Nick feels like he he’s found a home, but allie isn’t satisfied spending eternity between worlds. Against all warnings, Allie begins learning the “Criminal Art” of haunting, and ventures into dangerous territory, where a monster called the McGill threatens all the souls of Everlost.

In this imaginative novel, Neal Shusterman explores questions of life, death, and what just might lie in between.