Everneath
After a six-month absence, teenager Nikki Beckett has returned home, although no one could possibly understand under what circumstances. She has spent the past 100 years in the Everneath, a world where immortals, called the Everliving, go to replenish their strength by feeding on the energy of humans. Nikki, anchored by the memory of her boyfriend Jack, miraculously survived the feed. Now she has six final months at home to say her good-byes before returning to the Tunnels, a hellish extension of the Everneath. Combining elements of the Persephone myth and the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice, the story alternates between the events that led Nikki to agree to the feed and her return. As the only person ever to survive, she is urged by Cole, the Everliving who initially took her away, to seize control of the Everneath (with him, of course). Will she? This first volume of a planned trilogy covers familiar territory (angsty heroine, adoring boyfriend, delicious bad boy) yet offers a promising start. Grades 9-12. --Kara Dean