Mini-Review: Neverfall by Brodi Ashton

Neverfall
Brodi Ashton
Series: Everneath, #1.5
Release Date: December 26th, 2012
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Number of Pages: 96
Source: Bought
Rating: 3 stars

A thrilling new novella from the author of the Everneath series!

Jack is trapped for eternity in the Tunnels while Nikki has managed to evade Cole's grasp . . . for now. But Cole is more desperate than ever to find answers about Nikki, his best chance for taking over the throne of the underworld. How did she survive the Feed? Can Cole find another Forfeit like her who can survive it too?

Cole's quest leads him to the other side of the world, to a mysterious, dangerous society known as the Delphinians, whose price for information might be higher than Cole can pay—a price that could destroy Nikki. But when Cole attempts to steal the answers instead, his mission ends in disaster. Faced with centuries in a Delphinian dungeon, Cole is confronted with questions he's been too scared to ask himself: Is he really obsessed with the throne—or is he obsessed with Nikki? And can she really give him a new beginning as the Everneath's king . . . or will she instead bring about his tragic end?

I'll admit that the one and only reason I picked up Neverfall was that I found Cole to be the one and only character to be interesting and multi-dimensional in Everneath, drifting helplessly in a sea of bland and boring characters, and I was incredibly intrigued by the concept of being stuck in his head for nearly one hundred pages.

I'll also admit that being stuck in his head for one hundred pages felt more like I was being trapped in there - more often than not, I wanted to get out, and wanted desperately to go back to my initial thoughts of Cole. In Everneath, Cole was portrayed as the relentless and endlessly cruel Everliving who wanted to make Nikki the queen of the Underworld. That is the view of Cole I prefer, and somehow Neverfall managed to screw that all up by attempting to make Cole ... *shudders* likable...

I'm not against Brodi Ashton attempting to make Cole likable, and in a way I encourage it - character development is a good thing, and honestly, I'm Team Cole in the inevitable and predictable love triangle because I find Jack to be as boring as watching a can of soup for eight hours - maybe even more - but I do not approve of how Cole's characterization, in my opinion, devolved in this novella.

Everything that Cole was in Everneath, and hopefully is in Everbound, was flipped on its head in Neverfall, all thanks to the effects of Nikki on Cole. All thanks to insta-love. I like Cole, I really, truly do. But honestly, I'm going to act like this entire novella never happened. I prefer to view Cole in the same way I viewed him in Everneath, and not as the sappy mess he was in Neverfall.

As a whole, however, I found Neverfall to be mostly good, if not a bit boring at times, hence the three stars, but I do not approve of this portrayal of the one character in this trilogy that I actually like. I do not approve of it at all.