Book Review: Blue Moon (Alyson Noël)

Eager to learn everything she can about her new abilities as an Immortal, Ever turns to her beloved Damen to show her the way. But just as her powers are increasing, Damen’s are waning.  In an attempt to save him, Ever travels to the magical dimension of Summerland, where she learns the secrets of Damen’s tortured past; a past which he has always kept hidden from her. But in her quest to cure Damen, Ever discovers an ancient text that details the workings of time. Now Ever must chose between turning back the past and saving her family from the accident that claimed their lives—or staying in the present and saving Damen, who grows sicker every day...

As much as I adored its prequel, Evermore, I have to be utterly honest about my less than enthusiastic response to Blue Moon. Ever is perhaps one of the densest, stupidest, most inconsiderate character I have  ever come across. At one point I felt as if carrying on reading was a torture - I could not, and almost would not submit myself to anymore of Ever's unwise decisions and selfish ramblings.

Generally, I think my dislike springs primarily from Ever's character. I felt suffocated by her by the end of the novel, not least because the book now solely focused on her. The fact that my favourite characters Riley and Miles were hardly present, not to mention Damen was MIA half the time also affected my view.

The beginning of the book was by no means a terrible start. Sure, it consisted mostly of Ever's insecurities about taking her relationship with Damen to a more intimate level, but that I can honestly say did not bother me. It was slow-paced, through not extensively draggy. The introduction of a suspicious, albeit charismatic new characters was an addition I welcomed and from then on the mystery and distrust slowly unravelled. Of course, at the climatic part of Ever and Damen's relationship, everything was shattered.

Shattered also was my excitement over Blue Moon. I felt that from this point onward, Ever dwindled to an incomprehensible character. Her voice began to fragment and I felt as if I needed to psychoanalyse her simply to follow her line of thought. Though I very much enjoy complexity of characters, I did not appreciate the fact that Ever seemed to be prone to the least intelligent of choices. For instance, would you really trust the person whom you've always disliked from the very beginning, the one whom you know is under the influence of darkness, more than the person who, despite flaws, helped you in your journey albeit a little annoyingly? I took into account the fact that Ever was distraught and damaged and hence may not have a fully-functioning logic, but even so her decisions hardly made sense and hence annoyed me.

Also, while I found the blurb to be exciting, I thought it was slightly misleading as the novel touches just briefly on her choice - I would have liked and also expected the book to have done it differently. The twist was not also given, for me, the proper acknowledgement. It did catch me off guard, but the intensity of betrayal I expected to have a lot more depth.

Although I did not like Blue Moon as much as I'd hoped, and was left with a personal disapproval of Ever, I still generally regard the mythology as solid and with potential. Hopefully, Shadowland would contain more action and more Damien&Ever interactions, both of whom I still really do like.

Two Stars.