Elizabeth J. Rekab’s supernatural dystopian young adult novel EVERHAVEN is the exhilarating first book in a trilogy with a brave teen heroine.
Seventeen-year-old Abigail Walters is the Rester of Everhaven, the sole person in town whose job it is to help the restless newly Dead come to terms with the end of their life and to lead them back to their graves. It’s a lifelong job she was assigned upon the death of the last Rester, and while she has no choice but to fulfil her duties, she wishes it were someone else. One night, a recently deceased townsperson comes to her door, and her plans to deal with him tomorrow are dashed when he disappears. No one has lost a Dead before. With her trusted friend Preston by her side, she searches the woods for him, only to stumble upon a different Dead person, who tells her he was murdered when he witnessed the first Dead being dragged away to the Beneath by the Silence, a group of monk-like people who devote their lives to the Provider, the creator of Everhaven who will return in a few short weeks to bring the Dead to Paradise. With the Silence gone rogue, Abigail and Preston know something is amiss, and when people start mysteriously dying in the town, the duo seeks answers.
The town of Everhaven is a uniquely terrifying place that on the outset feels like a utopia, if a bit cult-like. Through Abigail’s eyes, the history of the town and its people is revealed little by little over the course of the book, resulting in exciting and thorough worldbuilding that makes Everhaven and the lives of its occupants feel tangible. Abigail is an engaging and relatable young narrator. She feels trapped in her position in Everhaven, desiring freedom but fearing the consequences. As she learns more and more of the truth of the Provider’s role in the town, she grows braver, and as she makes more and more tough decisions about her friends and family, her true compassion for the people of Everhaven is revealed. Preston is a worthy sidekick to Abigail on her dangerous adventure, and his own backstory provides a deeper dive into the inventive lore of the story. Some aspects of that lore feel religious in nature, such as the predestined return of the Provider to retrieve the souls of the Dead, but the book succeeds in maintaining a strong divide between real-world mythology and Everhaven-world supernatural realities, which makes the story all the more immersive and compelling.
Blending genre with unique supernatural themes, exhilarating worldbuilding and an explosive ending that wraps up the book neatly, Elizabeth J. Rekab’s well-thought-out, suspenseful and immersive young adult novel EVERHAVEN begs for a sequel.
~Aimee Jodoin for IndieReader