Review: Evernight by Claudia Gray

This book really drew me in. At first I was slightly sceptical, after all it is another vampire book and after Twilight there YA vampire market has exploded so I was hoping that Evernight would bring something interesting and different to the table. And it did, it was great! I devoured it.... actually I pretty much inhaled it :)

Bianca is starting school at Evernight Academy‚ a prestigious boarding school deep in the countryside‚ and from the first day‚ she can′t wait to escape. Her parents‚ who are teachers there‚ are sure she′ll be happy‚ but Bianca has a feeling there′s something seriously wrong with the place. Something evil lurking in the shadowy woods at the edge of the school grounds...

So the boarding school setting has this awesome Harry Potter-esque vibe which I thought was very cool. With the whole old, stone building and dorm rooms and things like that. I thought Claudia Gray created this very spooky atmosphere, which is a perfect setting for vampires, and the school castle was a major part of that, as well as the creepy surrounding woods.

I felt the book was sort of in two parts, as there is a major plot twist in the middle which totally turns everything around. It was a good one too! So much so that I really didn't see it coming and felt a little cheated when it was revealed, but then I thought back and there were a lot of clever hints and things (that I totally missed) and it was actually really well done.

In fact, the whole plot and storyline was impressive; it was very detailed (but not in a confusing way) and when it came to the end and things started to get explained it was very satisfying to see all the bits and pieces start to fall in to place.

The main character, Bianca, was interesting and fresh although she was supposed to be shy but I didn't really see that too much! It's a pretty small thing, really, but I liked how Bianca thought of herself as beautiful, not in a full-of-herself kind of way, just in that she appreciated herself - it really stuck out for me. The secondary characters were also great, so much so that I'd be really interested to read about some of the other student's stories. (There was one character - Ranulf - who was barely in it but everytime he was mentioned I laughed out loud, it was a bit of a running joke)

I am so looking forward to the sequel, Stargazer, which isn't out in Australia until July. There is so much more that needs to happen and I can't wait to read about it. You can read more about Evernight here.