Marisha Pessl

A compulsive, read-in-one-sitting suspense novel: page-turning, perfectly paced with a trust-no-one cast of characters and a high stakes death-cheating dilemma. Five friends. Only one can survive the Neverworld Wake. Who would you choose?

Neverworld Wake

i picked up this book because of the pretty cover and the discounted price, not expecting it to be a great read. but i was soooooo wrong about that! this is my first time reading with this type of genre and plot and oh girl i devoured this, i felt all emotions i can possibly feel THIS IS SO GOOD 

ayoni

3.5 of 5 stars

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The first half of this book felt weird for me. I can't even tell if I liked it or not at that time. But the curiosity of what really happened about Jim's death and about that strange world they were trapped in was what made me continue this book. I honestly can't wrap my head around the characters. Their personalities were so inconsistent. But the more I read about this, I realized I can get past that. What mattered to me was the urge of knowing about the whole truth and what all of this was really about and I found myself excited on what's waiting for me at the end. And after reaching it, it was actually quite satisfying, but sad as well. The truth was really unfortunate. I particularly liked the twist at the end when the truth was slowly revealing itself. It was not what I was expecting, and I had chills all over my body. Definitely enjoyed the second half of this book and that part was what revived this for me. Reading this left me with a bitter smile on my face. Overall, this was good, decent even.

Colleen

3.5 Stars

This is Marisha Pessl’s third book, and it’s clear she won’t be pigeonholed into any one genre. Each of her books has been noticeably different. Of the two, Neverworld Wake is closer to Special Topics in Calamity Physics. They both revolve around a teenage girl and an elite private school clique with massive personal issues. The major difference is that Neverworld Wake has a supernatural / SciFi twist. 

Beatrice seems like your typical college student. She just finished her freshman year of college and is floating through her summer break. But Bee is haunted by her past. In her senior year of highschool, her boyfriend died under suspicious circumstances and the case was never solved. His death caused a fissure between her and their group of close friends at their elite prep school. Now Bee returns one more time for her former friend’s birthday to try to find answers and move on with her life. But fate intervenes and the five former friends find their lives hanging in the balance. 

I can’t talk much about the supernatural / SciFi element without spoiling the twist. But it had some cool concepts. The story had a slow start though. I had trouble keeping the members of the school clique straight. They were all introduced at once and Bee tended to refer to them as a unit. So even though they had distinct personalities, it took a while for me to separate them. And I didn’t bond with Bee or understand her motivation at first. The story takes its time gaining momentum. It’s split into three parts. Part one basically a set up for the rest of the story. Honestly, it was hard to follow at times especially since the background information was parceled out slowly. There were some interesting ideas, but some moments felt over-the-top. There was purposeful withholding of info for dramatic effect which is a pet peeve of mine. 

Part II was much more engaging and fast-paced. There was a mystery element that kicked things up a notch. It kept me guessing and made me question what was real or not. There were some poignant moments, but I was never attached to Bee or any of the characters. This just was not as haunting like Pessl’s other books. While I enjoyed Neverworld Wake, it did have some bumpy parts and lacked cohesion. It’s still a page turner but not quite as good as her other work. 


RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 4 Stars
Writing Style: 4 Stars
Characters and Character Development: 3 Stars
Plot Structure and Development: 3 Stars
Level of Captivation: 4 Stars
Originality: 3 Stars

A compulsive, read-in-one-sitting suspense novel for fans of One Of Us Is Lyingand The Hazel Wood. Trust no-one.Fear everything. Five friends - the beautiful elite at their exclusive prep school - reunite a year after graduation. After a night out, they narrowly avoid a collision with a car on a deserted road. Back at the mansion belonging to one of the girls, a storm rages and a mysterious man knocks on the door, announcing something world-shattering. The friends must make a choice: one of them will live, and the rest will die. And the decision must be unanimous. So begins the Neverworld Wake. The nightmare. The nothingness. Time backbends and they are fated to repeat that day, but fears are now physical and memories come alive in horrifying ways. How will they vote? And will they be able to escape the Neverworld?

James Winduss

** spoiler alert **
           I really, really enjoyed this book! I was slightly hesitant about it, concerned it might’ve ended up being too childish despite the concept, but I was wrong. All of the twists caught me off guard, but not in a way that I felt weren’t believable or were too ridiculous. As I got to the final chapters I was incredibly concerned that the author was going to pull the ‘it was just a dream card’, but I’m so glad that she left it ambiguous enough that it’s really up to the reader to decide whether or not it was real. I know this book won’t be for everyone, but I loved it and I hope this author comes out with more stuff like this in the future.

Julia Lotz

Vor einigen Tagen erreichte mich ein geheimnisvoller Brief zusammen mit Niemalswelt aus dem Carlsen Verlag. Der Wächter, eine unglaublich wichtige Person aus dem Buch, lud mich zu einer Lesewache ein, bei der das Buch innerhalb von 11 Stunden gelesen werden muss. Da ich eine schnelle Leserin bin, dachte ich mir natürlich sofort: Challenge accepted und startete gemeinsam mit anderen Leserinnen und Lesern in die Wache. Ich muss es euch an dieser Stelle direkt sagen: Niemalswelt ist tatsächlich auch ein Buch, das man in einem Rutsch lesen sollte, denn so wirkt es unheimlich gut und ich hatte riesengroßen Spaß beim Lesen. Nehmt euch das Buch also wirklich für einen faulen Tag auf dem Sofa vor. Habt ihr einmal angefangen, wollt ihr so schnell nicht aufhören.

Aber um was geht es eigentlich? Bee trifft sich nach einem Jahr mit ihren alten Freunden in einem Wochenendhaus wieder. Ein Jahr lang hat sie sie nicht gesehen. Ein Jahr lang ist ihr Freund Jim bereits tot. Die fünf verstehen sich sehr schnell wieder gut, beschließen, abends noch feiern zu gehen und... haben auf dem Weg nach Hause beinahe einen Unfall. Überzeugt, mit einem Schrecken davongekommen zu sein, fahren die 5 nach Hause und erfahren dort von niemand anderem als dem Wächter, dass sie doch einen Unfall hatten. Nur einer von ihnen kann überleben und um den zu bestimmen, müssen die fünf sich darüber einig sein, wer überleben darf.

Eine geniale Idee und die wurde im Buch auch verdammt gut umgesetzt. Niemalswelt ist nicht nur spannend. Es ist auch verdammt klug und lädt selbst immer wieder zu miträsteln ein, sodass man nicht nur liest sondern komplett in die Handlung eintaucht. Um herauszufinden, wer überleben darf, versuchen die fünf Jugendlichen nämlich recht schnell, Jims Tod aufzuklären und steigen dadurch immer tiefer in die Geheimnisse der Niemalswelt ein, die mit einem komplexen Regelwerk, das aber auch sehr gut durchdacht ist, überzeugt. Seht ihr, wie ich schwärme?

Aber nicht nur die Idee und die Geschichte selbst sind gut. Marisha Pessl spielt auch mit den Lesern und mit ihren Charakteren. Bee mochte ich von Anfang an sehr gerne. Wir verfolgen die Handlung aus ihrer Sicht und ich habe mich sofort sehr gut in sie eingefühlt. Mit den anderen Charakteren allerdings wird man nicht so gut warm, was durchaus gewollt ist, denn gemeinsam mit Bee begegnen wir ihnen mit Misstrauen und lösen gemeinsam das Rätsel um Jims Tod.

Die Seiten flogen wirklich nur so dahin, ich wurde mehrmals überrascht und hatte unglaublcihen Spaß beim Lesen. Nicht nur mit dem Buch sondern auch gemeinsam mit den anderen bei der Lesewache. Auch wenn ihr bei der Lesewache selbst nicht mehr teilnehmen könnt, kann ich euch nur ans Herz legen, euch das Buch schnellstmöglich zuzulegen und zu lesen. Für mich definitiv eines meiner ersten Jahreshighlights und ein unfassbar gutes Buch!

Carley Whitehead

”Life does not belong to you. It is the apartment you rent. Love without fear, for love is an airplane that carries you to new lands. There is a universe in silence. A tunnel to peace in a scream. Get a good night’s sleep. Laugh when you can. You are more magical than you know. Take your advice from the elderly and children. None of it is as crucial as you think, but that makes it no less vital. Our lives go on. And on. Look for the breadcrumbs.”






  ”We are all anthologies. We are each thousands of pages long, filled with fairy tales and poetry, mysteries and tragedy, forgotten stories in the back no one will ever read.”

"A 'clear your calendar' kind of one-day read." -MELISSA ALBERT, New York Times bestselling author of The Hazel World Five friends. Only one can survive the Neverworld Wake. Who would you choose? From the acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of Special Topics in Calamity Physics and Night Film comes an absorbing psychological suspense thriller in which fears are physical and memories come alive. "A thriller that will grip readers from the start." --Hypable It's been one year since graduation, and Beatrice Hartley has mixed feelings about joining her friends a weekend reunion. She's right to be worried. After a night out, they narrowly avoid a collision with a car on a deserted road. Or so they believe. Back at the mansion where they are staying, a mysterious man knocks on the door during a raging storm. He tells them that they must make a choice: one of them will live, and the rest will die. And the decision must be unanimous. Soon time backbends. Beatrice and her friends are forced to repeat that dreadful day so many times they lose count. With each replay, events twist and fears come alive in horrifying ways. This nightmare, this nothingness . . . this is the Neverworld Wake. To escape, they have to vote. But how do you choose who to kill? And then how do you live with yourself? "Beautifully creepy." --The New York Times "You wont be able to stop reading until the mystery is unraveled." --Refinery29 "A dark and twisty tale brimming with psychological suspense." --Bustle

Sheila

Absolutely mesmerizing! Enjoyed this more than I thought I would.

Erin Russell

“We are all anthologies. We are each thousands of pages long, filled with fairytales and poetry, mysteries and tragedy, forgotten stories in the back no one will ever read.
 The most we can do is hold out her hands and help each other across the unknown. For in our held hands we find pathways through the dark, across jungles in cities, bridges suspended over the deepest caverns of this world. Your friends will walk with you, holding on with all their might, even when they’re no longer there.”

There was my life before this book and now there is life after this book. Marisha Pessl is 2/2 for me so far, her style of writing is just so haunting. Consider me a fan.

Aroosa Qureshi

Okay! Woah! This book in the beginning was A VERY SLOW START FOR A GOOD 100 pages....but when ish gets down it really captivates you and you cannot stop reading it. It's well written and had me on the edge and screaming and most points so confused. The concept creeped me out a bit cuz I do not wanna be stuck in the 'Neverworld' cuz I would go completely insane😂. Overall, I recommend anyone to give this book a read❤️

Vera Sokolyanskaya

Sometimes it's good not to have expectations. I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. 

Now if I have to go into analysis of why I liked it, I would probably have to tell you that there were plot holes, there were universe holes, the "whodunit" and the twist in the end were stupid, I'm not sure why the author chose the three part plot structure she did. And that there is no time travel in this book.

So let's say I enjoyed it for no good reason and wanted to go to bed early to read this book. There was mystery, there was action, groundhog day is one of my favourite plot devices, the style was good for the most part.

Grace O'Callaghan

*3.5 ⭐️
CW: Murder, death, suicide, depression

‘We are all anthologies. We are each thousands of pages long, filled with fairy tales and poetry, mysteries and tragedy, forgotten stories in the back no one will ever read.’

What a ride that was. I was a little disinterested for the first part of the book but I grew to thoroughly enjoy the story and the characters.

Bee has distanced herself from her friends from Darrow, ever since Jim’s death it hasn’t been the same. She’s finally ready for answers and shows up at Wincroft to get to the bottom of what happened to Jim. Was it an accident? Murder? Suicide? 
However they get into a car accident and are stuck in the Neverworld, where they will relive the same day until they decide who gets to live. Finding out the truth about Jim bring them together or drive them apart even further. But whatever happens, only one of them can live.

If you don’t like pretentious characters, don’t read this book. They appear to be standard tropey characters - the hacker, the pretty girl, the good girl and the geek girl, (I honestly don’t know about Kipling, southern farm boy?).
But as they are sucked into the Neverworld they change, for better or for worse you’ll have to find out.

I really liked Bee as the narrator, she’s your typical good girl but as the story progresses we learn more about her past and learn some interesting things about her.
Martha was probably my favourite though. I just loved her brains and how incredibly loyal she is.

As I mentioned, I was a little bored at the beginning but we were just getting to know the characters and were seeing the initial effects the Neverworld were having on them so I didn’t mind too much. There were some bits that were a little predictable, but others I didn’t see coming at all. It was for the most part a pretty entertaining story and was very atmospheric.

The Neverworld was also really fascinating to learn about. All the characters contributed to the Neverworld and it was so cool to see how it was individual to them. I don’t want to spoil anything, but I love what Martha contributed to it.

This was a character driven mystery with a speculative twist. I’d recommend if you like contemporary with a bit of a fantasy or sci-fi element. I wouldn’t recommend if you’re looking for a complex mystery.

Sheila Goicea

Annalee Harris

DNF @ 26%

I hate leaving a book unfinished, but this pile of garbage was so physically revolting to read, that I couldn't push through it. Insufferable, spoiled, rich white kids acting entitled and selfish doesn't make for a good read, especially when the novel is a weird retelling of Groundhog Day so they literally go through no character development and do crappy things, like kill themselves over and over again and do drugs! How fun, right? None of these characters have any dimension, the dialog is cringe-worthy, and the writing is just plain bad.

The protagonist is as dull of a Mary Sue as you could get, and her obnoxious frenemies are unpalatable, especially the flaming homosexual Kipling that was the author's attempt at a quirky token gay character, has extremely condescending lines, and creepily admits that he's taking advantage of this woman with cancer who thinks he's her savior. Whitley's rage attacks glamorize violence and proves that rich white girls get away with everything and I literally can't even remember the other character's names, except one is an "outcast" and the other is the star athlete, or something similar.

This book is just atrocious, and I'm sickened that I not only managed to make it over a quarter of the way through, but that I spent actual money on this thing.

I do not recommend, not in the least bit.

Kathleen Boyle

This was an addicting, compelling and fascinating read. Once the intrigue truly began, I had a hard time putting the book down! The characters were all so morally grey and really interesting even though I didn't really like any of them they were still just kids and therefore it made everything that much more tragic. 
The only qualm I had was that the Neverworld Wake and time was maybe not explained as well as it could have been. The writing is wonderful but I found myself having to reread passages at times because I didn't know who had just spoken.

Emily

Olivera Mitić

This would have been a 5 star read if the ending weren't so terrible. Literally worst atempt at a plot twist ever, nothing makes sense and everything was contradicted in the last few chapters. 

I'M OFFENDED.

Cat H

4 stars. I honestly really enjoyed this book so much. This is an amazing plot with a beautifully haunting atmosphere and amazing plot twists. I do not want to spoil anything and honestly the less you know going in the better! The characters felt gritty and honest (although sometimes the dialogue read a little awkward or cringey). The setting was able to constantly shift and adapt with the self-reflection and revelations that characters were going through. The best way to describe it is as a paranormal ground-hog day with a social experiment voting system that decides who gets to leave the Neverworld Wake (aka scientific limbo). I highly recommend if you like thrillers or are trying to shift and get into thrillers.
My only compliant is that we get these long drawn out scenes and then the most important action packed section of the book only lasts 1 single chapter. There were so many areas we could have cut and I would have preferred more resolution from the characters Martha and Beatrice. Also, the writing can be a bit too flowery and excessive at points, but I really do love the way the author describes the world at times.

TW: suicide, child abuse, drug abuse, murder

Jelke Lenaerts

This book has trigger warnings for drug use and suicide. 

This book had a very interesting concept and it didn't fail to deliver on that point. The reason I rated this 3 stars though is the fact that it took quite a bit to really get going as well as I didn't really like the ending. The characters were all very interesting and I loved learning more about them. The whole concept of the Neverword Wake was also very interesting and I liked what Marisha Pessl did with it. Like mentioned before, the ending was a bit disapointing to me. I mean, the person to survive was pretty predictable and the surroundings of how it happened were just very dissapointing and also just a bit messy. I don't know... I also kind of wish we would have done a bit more with our main character's mental health. We're told in the beginning that her mental health hasn't been great since her boyfriend died, but besides the odd mention of it now and then, it's not further explored. I do really want to check out more by this author though.

Moon of Pages

Kath Lau

Neverworld Wake is a strange, bizarre yet very entertaining and thought-provoking read. It has murder mystery, sci-fi and magical realism. It’s a mix of Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver and I Know What You Did Last Summer (movie) so if you’re into this kind of stories then you’ll probably end up liking this book.

Check out my full review HERE.

Jordan Robinson

Justine Rose

4.5*
This was such an interesting, well thought out book.

Elaine

WOW, this was breathtakingly good. Especially the third part was just incredible. 
This book started with a bang, and that ending left me breathless. I just couldn't put it down. As I reached the third part I HAD to know how it ended. 
I won't tell too much about the story, but be warned it is an epic ride!
the characters were all flawed in their own ways, in ways you didn't expect. The whole story had twists and turns and when you thought you had it figured out were it was going...BAM, another twist!
This was such a good book I can't wait to read more from this author!

Sofia Pereira

I loved this book! I loved the idea of the purgatory and the will to be a better person. Highly recommend it!

Neverworld Wake

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