Kelly Creagh’s new debut novel, Nevermore, was released on August 31,2010. Kelly takes the works of Edgar Allan Poe and uses them to create her own world comprised of some of his most famous characters, such as the Red Death and Legeia. Isobel Lanely, the main character, is a junior in high school, and between cheer practice, her friends, and her boyfriend Brad she’s got a lot to handle. It all goes downhill the day Isobel's English teacher assigns the class partners for their big semester project. Isobel gets paired with Varen Nethers, her school’s king of the Goth's. Varen decides he wants to do the project on Edgar Allan Poe despite what Isobel wants. Isobel’s friends and boyfriend, Brad, upon finding out she has to spend time with Varen and that she actually doesn’t mind that much, start to distance themselves from her. Finally, when she stands up to Brad after he wrecks the ice cream shop Varen works at, they decide they’ve had enough and reject her. She makes a few new friends and starts spending more and more time with Varen. The farther into the Poe project they get; the scarier things become. When Varen goes missing and Isobel’s the only one with a clue about where he could be it becomes a race against the clock to find him and escape the alternate universe called the Dreaming that they've been sucked into.

Nevermore was filled with excerpts of Edgar Allan Poe’s work throughout, which made it easier to understand what was going on as Isobel learned more about him. Kelly Creagh mixed the facts into the fiction in a way that made the whole thing come together. As Isobel is doing the research for her project she is reading over things and you get to see what’s going on in her head and how she understands Poe’s poems and later you see how that helps her throughout the story. It get’s confusing at some places throughout the book when what Isobel’s really experiencing ,and what she’s dreaming of, occur at a fast pace. The character development is good and there’s something about most of the people in the story that’s relate able.

I liked how Kelly took Poe’s meanings literally and turned them into a whole new world. At first I thought the idea sounded kind of weird and I didn’t really get how she was going to bring someone else’s writing into her story and still make it original, but I have to say I really liked how it played out. Isobel was feisty and her best friend Grace kept the mood light and the sarcastic and humorous remarks going, even under pressure. The ending was great to, it was left open to allow a sequel but you get just enough information from Isobel’s thoughts to help predict what will happen next and it’s fast paced enough to keep you on your toes. The only thing that really bothered me when reading it, was how fast Isobel’s friend and boyfriend stopped hanging out with her. It seemed unrealistic to me that they would react so harshly to her spending time with Varen to finish her English project. Nevermore was good and I give it a four out of five stars and will definitely be excited when the sequel comes out.