The next morning opens with Ever and her dead sister ghost talking about what to wear to school today because that’s all this book is, people.  It’s just fantastical elements being completely ignored in favor of everyday bullshit that didn’t need any ghosts.  Problem is, this actually can be interesting if it’s played with.  Fantasy elements an everyday situations are basically what made Harry Potter so popular, or at least one part of it.  But it actually has to be played with, whereas here it’s more like the fantasy part is just an afterthought. 

They chat about boys while Ever denies she has a crush on someone, and I am so, so sick of watching every relationship in these books play out the exact same way. 

At school, Damen is flirting with the mean girl and doing that trick where he pulls something out from behind your ear.  He does it with a flower, and he did it to Ever in an earlier chapter, I just didn’t care enough to mention it.  Somehow, I think is suppose to be tension, but since there’s been exactly zero chemistry between Ever and Damen, and since he’s never indicated that he wants to be involved with anyone, I don’t feel tense.  Maybe he just likes to flirt.  Ever think of that? 

Later, Miles and Haven bemoan the loss of their super cool friend because he’s…I don’t know.  He’s hanging out with the other “cool kids” but he hasn’t rejected them or passed them over for anything except lunch, so this only makes sense if you have a zero sum view on social interactions. 

Which really explains a lot about why these three are “uncool.” 

The entire rest of the chapter is taken up with obsessing about all of Damen’s interactions with the other students and worrying about art class.  But Damen isn’t in art class, yet he’s left a note at Ever’s desk that’s just a sketch of a tulip. 

I’m still confused on why I’m supposed to care. 

Where the fuck is the plot?  There isn’t even a romantic plot going on.  Ever likes a boy.  They sit around and have small talk with no complications whatsoever.  That’s not a plot; that’s wasting my time.  

The next chapter takes a thankful break for the endless boy parade to talk about her upcoming Halloween party.

Miles is going as a pirate, but that’s only after I talked him out of going as Madonna in her cone-breast phase

Gay men and drag queens are two different (but often overlapping) things.

Repeat after me book:

GAY MEN AND DRAG QUEENS ARE NOT THE SAME THING.

God, I hate you, book.  And you’re not even trying to make me like you, which in the end just makes my hatred of you kind of pathetic.  

Ever and Riley decorate, and Riley is physically hanging up lights, so yet more confirmation that she can affect the physical plane.  Really not seeing why Ever can’t use that to prove to people that her dead sister ghost is real. 

Well the boy-break didn’t last long as Riley and Ever start talking about how she so, so totally doesn’t like Damen, like, no, really, you don’t even understand how so totally she doesn’t like Damen, and did I mention that she doesn’t like Damen?  

By Halloween night the house looks amazing. Riley and I taped webs in all of the windows and corners, and stuck huge black widow spiders in their middles. We hung- black rubber bats from the ceiling, scattered bloodied, severed (fake) body parts all around, and set up a crystal ball next to a plug-in raven whose eyes light up and roll around when he says, “You’ll be sorry! Squawk! You’ll be sorry!” We dressed zombies in ‘blood” covered rags and placed them where you’d least expect to find them. We put steaming cauldrons of witches’ brew (really just dry ice and water) in the entry, and scattered skeletons, mummies, black cats and rats (well, fake ones, but still creepy), gargoyles, coffins, black candles, and skulls pretty much everywhere. We even decorated the backyard with jack-o’-lanterns, floating pool globes, and blinking fairy lights. And oh yeah, we placed a life-sized grim reaper out on the front lawn.

Um, yeah.  Amazing.  If you were going for a middle school gym party.

“Do me a favor? Sneak down the hall and check out Sabine’s costume, and let me know if she tries to wear that big rubber nose with the hairy wart on the end. I told her it’s a really great witch’s costume, but she needs to ditch the nose. Guys don’t usually go for that sort of thing.”

“She’s got a guy?” Riley asks, clearly surprised.

“Not if she wears the nose,”

And as we all know, getting a guy is way more important than having fun with your Halloween costume.

So, all chapter Ever’s been teasing everyone about what her costume is going to be, keeping it from even the readers like it’s some big secret.  Her costume?  It’s just a Marie Antoinette dress.  Big whoop.  I have no idea why that needed to be kept back like it was some big deal. 

Riley has a moment of fairly good angst where she bemoans the fact that she’s never be a teenager, then Ever has to go and ruin it.

sometimes forget how she’s not really here, how she’s no longer part of this world, and how she’ll never grow any older, never get the chance to be thirteen. And then I remember how it’s all my fault to begin with

How on earth is it Ever’s fault?  She wasn’t the one driving the car when it crashed. 

After the let’s pity me more parade, the party finally gets started.  Haven and Miles each show up with friends, and they all start talking about Damen because when do they ever not talk about Damen?  Haven continues to act like a one dimensional plot device whose only purpose for existing is to capitalize on woman-vs.-women drama.  Ever reads her mind again and informs us that Haven considers her an enemy for “driving Damen away.”  Or maybe for having more on his attention, I don’t know.  Point is, Damen wasn’t invited. 

Doesn’t stop him from showing up anyway!  Oh, and he has dressed like Count Fersen, even though he shouldn’t have known about Ever’s costume choice. 

Then again, since it’s not like Marie and Count Fersenhave unique outfits, they could just be two random nobles from the same time period.  Ever opens the door and sees his costume and just assumes he’s the count, because of course the world revolves around her. 

But since he confirms that she guessed right, that’s really fucking creepy.  He’s basically admitting that he either spied on her or has supernatural powers that he doesn’t mind using on her.  That’s not romantic, that’s stalking. 

Haven comes up to do her one note thing, yells at ever for “stealing” Damen even though she had “dibs” and then stalks out.  Now on the one hand, I can actually see this being reasonable if there had been more emphasis on the whole “everyone likes you better” part.  That’s, if not a valid complaint, at least something that could ruffle anyone’s feathers.  It’s really depressing and stressful to always be overlooked for your more interesting friend, even if it’s not the friend’s fault.  But no, the book does not take that route.  We haven’t seen any cases of people ignoring Haven for Ever, and in fact Haven gets far more attention, both positive and negative.  Plus, she’s been treating this “Damen is mine” thing far too seriously, when he’s never shown any interest in her, so in the end she comes off as being disconnected from reality, not as a teen with reasonable gripes. 

After Haven storms off, a new person comes up and introduces herself as Ava, saying she’s a psychic hired by Sabine and also she can see Riley.  Dun, dun, dun.