Evermore

Short and Sweet: [b:Evermore 3975774 Evermore (The Immortals, #1) Alyson Noel https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1362336360s/3975774.jpg 4021549], despite boasting a compelling idea, suffers from textbook tropes and choppy, emotionless storytelling that breaks up any investment in characters and their experiences. Characters turn into caricatures, and any questions the story may legitimately create are quashed, unexplained, or answered lamely.I... Don't really know what to say, so I'll just type out the notes I wrote as I read.1. Casual storytelling.2. Tropes. Tropes everywhere. 3. Sooooo.... what is WITH the random tulips?4. Touchy touchy ***** 5. “Its not what you think”6. Haaaaay backpack full of tulips NBD7. STOP. WITH THE TULIPS.8. When did he transition to BF status?9. You're just now discovering the power of alcohol?10. What the fuck 1: You can see here I initially tried to be serious. The storytelling method is very casual, as if the protagonist (Ever. Ever) is speaking with you directly. It was interesting, but a method that may not be for everyone.2: Here's an idea. Take a shot every time you stumble across a cheap trope. Haha just kidding no seriously don't.You imagine it, its in this book - anguished protagonist/mysterious love interest/airheaded BFF/gay BFF/mean girls/”I'm a freak!“/tragic backstory/overwhelming guilt/insta-love.3: The tulip thing got weird.4: The main love interest kept touching Ever from the very beginning, when it was not appropriate. Strange, intimate touching that aggravated me by-proxy. They'd barely spoken five words together when he was already whispering in Ever's ear, brushing his fingers along her jawline, pulling her close, etc. I tried to keep track with every scene this happened in with asterisks, but I lost count.5: Always the cry of a long misunderstood hero, masquerading under mystery, caught red-handed under sketchy circumstances. Please. Please.6: Yes, this happened. I kinda hoped she would start eating them, but no dice.7: Fun fact - it took her until the last few pages to google the historical meaning of tulips and their “flower language”. 8: He appears. He disappears. He's cryptic. He's manipulative. He disappears. Through several kisses and date-esque truancy, Ever suddenly labels him a boyfriend. Oh, don't mind his flakiness, he's handsome and his touch is silencing9: Ever suddenly realizes that alcohol dulls her senses and becomes a raging alcoholic (sniff sniff... can you smell the tropes in the air?) You cannot tell me this is the first time she's discovered that alcohol has this power. 10: I kept reading for the wrap-up. I got fuckery instead.I wanted to like this story. Damen's ~mystery~ was compelling (in which he-is-but-not-really-a-vampire, is no trope sacred?!) but I desperately wanted to reach through the pages, grab Ever's backbone, shake it upright and make her figure it out. I literally have a list of questions even after I turned the final page. Summerland? Transcendental Meditation? Chakras? The conclusion was, if possible, as muddied and confusing as the story itself, and closed on a minor note. Overall - I should have listened, I should have heeded other reader's reviews. But I was foolish. Optimistic. Naive. Yea, I have walked in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and in it I found... tulips.