Title: Everless
Author: Sara Holland
Genre: Dystopia YA
Format: E-book
Length: 368 pages
Series: Everless #1
Publisher: Orchard Books
Publication Date: 2nd January 2018
My Rating: ★★★★ (4 stars)
Goodreads | Storygraph
Synopsis:
2018’s bestselling YA book.
Time is a prison. She is the key. Packed with danger, temptation and desire – a perfect read for fans of The Red Queen.
In the land of Sempera, the rich control everything – even time. Ever since the age of alchemy and sorcery, hours, days and years have been extracted from blood and bound to iron coins. The rich live for centuries; the poor bleed themselves dry.
Jules and her father are behind on their rent and low on hours. To stop him from draining himself to clear their debts, Jules takes a job at Everless, the grand estate of the cruel Gerling family.
There, Jules encounters danger and temptation in the guise of the Gerling heir, Roan, who is soon to be married. But the web of secrets at Everless stretches beyond her desire, and the truths Jules must uncover will change her life for ever … and possibly the future of time itself.
‘Sara Holland is a fierce storyteller. An intoxicating blend of blood, secrets, and haunting mythology, Everless gives new and terrifying meaning to the phrase running out of time.’ Stephanie Garber, New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author of Caraval
My Review:
This novel has been catching my eye for a while, and I really wanted to delve in and absorb it. I finally decided to buy the book and settled in for the ride.
The story was captivating, mysterious and heart-wrenching. I was hooked from the first chapter. The whole novel centres around the concept that time is money. Time can be taken from your blood, from your lifespan. The rich can possibly live forever, while the poor sell their time to survive.
Sara Holland is an artist in her world-building and she has created a coherent and well thought out world that I got sucked into. I absolutely adored the imagery within this novel.
The roots beneath my feet don’t live for centuries by causing other plants to shrivel and turn grey. And their time can’t be bled from them. If only we were more like trees.”
It does fall victim to the chosen one trope, but it was done in a way that I didn’t expect. The pacing was fast and exciting and there were some twists that I didn’t expect. Sara manages to keep your attention and mounts the tension, keeping me reading to find out what was going to happen next.
The best thing about this novel is that not all the characters are as they seem. Jules is a girl who defies her father to go back to the place they ran away from in order to earn money rather than letting her father sell more of his time. Everless is owned by one of the richest families in Sempera, the Girlings, where Jules used to live as a child. Sara keeps you on your toes in terms of the characters, and when you think that you have them sussed, she throws another spanner in the works. The characters are complex, with fleshed-out personalities and characteristics, none of the secondary characters felt unimportant.
While there is a brewing romance in this novel, there is also a major focus on female friendship and them being supportive of one another. It’s quite refreshing to read a novel where the girls are locked in a bitchy battle because they both love the same guy.
The novel ends on a major cliff-hanger and I am looking forward to reading the next instalment to see what happens next.
