Neverworld Wake Blog Tour: Review + Giveaway

NEVERWORLD WAKE
Author: Marisha Pessl 

Release Date: June 5, 2018
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Formats: Hardcover, eBook, audiobook
Pages: 336  

Description:

Once upon a time, back at Darrow-Harker School, Beatrice Hartley and her six best friends were the cool kids, the beautiful ones. Then the shocking death of Jim—their creative genius and Beatrice's boyfriend—changed everything.

One year after graduation, Beatrice is returning to Wincroft—the seaside estate where they spent so many nights sharing secrets, crushes, plans to change the world—hoping she'll get to the bottom of the dark questions gnawing at her about Jim’s death. But as the night plays out in a haze of stilted jokes and unfathomable silence, Beatrice senses she’s never going to know what really happened.

Then a mysterious man knocks on the door. Blithely, he announces the impossible: time for them has become stuck, snagged on a splinter that can only be removed if the former friends make the harshest of decisions. Now Beatrice has one last shot at answers--and at life. 

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Audible, B&N, iBooks, TBD

Neverworld Wake is a complex and somewhat surreal young adult novel that will leave readers thinking long after they've finished the book. I've read other reviews of the book that said the story wasn't for them, and I completely agree that it won't be up everyone's alley. Personally, I loved this book and I highly recommend it. It's full of twists and turns, a deadly murder mystery, and lots of great lessons about life that readers of all ages can incorporate. I really liked pretty much every aspect of this novel and can't think of any major flaws that I came across. 

The plot is fantastic in several ways - all different but mixed together in a way that creates something wholly unique and fresh. There's a great blend of various genres in the story: science fiction, fantasy, contemporary, mystery, thriller, suspense, and even some horror and romance. There's seriously a bit of something for every kind of reader within these pages. I don't do spoilers, so it's hard for me to really get into the story line without giving anything away. I found it compelling and I was hooked almost immediately. The further into the novel I got, the more I adored the book and went deeper into the strange mystery the characters are facing. It's a really off the wall idea - the Neverworld Wake - but one that I found utterly fascinating and I loved learning all about it and the characters' experiences while trapped inside. The mystery aspect kept me on my toes and guessing about everyone's alibis and if they had any motives. In the end, the mystery is solved and the characters are released from the wake - with a lot of life lessons and wisdom left behind for the reader to ponder.

The characters were all complex and rounded - especially the main character - Beatrice or Bee. The story is told in the first person point of view from her perspective, so we get to know her on a very personal level throughout the story. I liked getting to know her and to learn her history with the other characters along with the tragedy that has ripped her from their group. The other characters - namely the others trapped in the wake with Bee - are also realistic and easy to identify with. I liked watching them interact with one another and learning how they're all connected and in what ways. There's tons of secrets that come to light - from each of them - and as we learn all about these people and their secrets, the mystery slowly unravels before our eyes. It's a wonderfully well written novel full of intrigue, deception, friendship, love, and the importance of life and how we should all appreciate what we have while we still have it. Like I mentioned, it may not be for everyone, but I personally really liked it and highly recommend it for readers of all genres and those looking for something fresh and out of the box to read.

Marisha Pessl grew up in Asheville, North Carolina, and now lives in New York City. Special Topics in Calamity Physics, her debut novel, was a bestseller in both hardcover and paperback. It won the 2006 John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize (now the Center for Fiction’s Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize), and was selected as one of the 10 Best Books of the Year by The New York Times Book Review. Her new novel, Night Film, comes out August 20, 2013. 

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(3) winners will receive a finished copy of NEVERWORLD WAKE - US Only!

 

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Tour Schedule: 

Week One: 

6/1/2018- YA Books Central- Excerpt 

Week Two: 

6/4/2018- Two Chicks on Books- Excerpt 

6/5/2018- Bookish Lifestyle- Review 

6/6/2018- Tea With Mermaids- Review 

6/7/2018- Trendy Simple Life- Review 

6/8/2018- A Dream Within A Dream- Review 

  

Week Three: 

6/11/2018- Books Coffee and Repeat- Review 

6/12/2018- Nerdophiles- Review 

6/13/2018- Life of a Literary Nerd- Review 

6/14/2018- Jena Brown Writes- Review 

6/15/2018- Once Upon a Twilight- Review 

  

Week Four: 

6/18/2018- Here's to Happy Endings- Review 

6/19/2018- Book-Keeping- Review 

6/20/2018- A Gingerly Review- Review 

6/21/2018- Cindy's Love of Books- Review 

6/22/2018- RhythmicBooktrovert- Review 

  

Week Five: 

6/25/2018- BookHounds YA- Review 

6/26/2018- Under the Book Cover- Review 

6/27/2018- Smada's Book Smack- Review 

6/28/2018- Hauntedbybooks- Review 

6/29/2018- The Cover Contessa- Excerpt