Engaging, interesting read. Should be popular amongst the teens in our library. A recommended purchase.

This was a very interesting book, didn't quite hit the hype that I saw for it but the story was well done and interesting.

Solid book, but I do wish it had been more substantial. Very forgettable, unfortunately. I really wish it had been more in a lot of ways.

I'm torn down the middle on this one. The storytelling is good, the pacing is a bit off in parts (some of it felt drawn out), and the paranormal aspects of the tale weren't my favorite in that genre, but overall I did enjoy reading this book. I'll have to look into other books by this author now.

Many thanks for the book! Review can be found here: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/reviews/the-edge-of-everything/

This book was so different from anything I've read. The pace was a bit slow at times, but I really liked the characters...the twist at the end was unexpected. I also felt things wrapped up to quickly, which lends itself to a sequel.

This book is...interesting...I guess? I'm still pretty on the fence about this one.

X is a bounty hunter for hell? I think? Zoe was human. Star crossed lovers and all that. A bunch of plot-twists and action and confusion ensues. The end. Basically.

Except, it ends on a cliffhanger, so I'm assuming at some point there will be a second one. I don't think I'll be waiting around for it.

Overall, it was pretty well written, with characters I enjoyed getting to know. Even the side characters were good. But the plot...the plot seemed to jump all over the place. I felt as though I was missing important back information, but there was none, you just jump in and attempt to figure out what is going on.

Unfortunately I could not finish this book, as the story or action itself didn't grab me. I also felt that the characters were filled with too many clichés - too many descriptions of hot/irresistible love interest, and not enough tension in many scenes.

Absolutely loved this book. I've bought several copies for my school library and will be book talking this one to classes. Riveting story with a great romance. I loved the two main characters.

I didn't believe the two main characters liked each other. They met, had insta-love, and were promptly separated. Then came page after page of a bumpy storyline that didn't make much sense. The paranormal aspects of this story are poorly explained and when an attempt is made at explaining things there is so much info-dumping I just couldn't even. Between that and all the "longing" the charters did for one another I was done.

Some people may enjoy this novel. I just didn't happen to be one of them.

The Edge of Everything started out great, but did not follow through well with the plot. As fantastical as it was, it still should have been believable, and I didn't believe it. The character weren't relateable, and the changing in point of view was disconcerting. Also, the love at first sight in YA books is overplayed and again not believable.

Zoe goes out into a snow storm to find her missing brother. While out in the elements, she comes across a murderous madman and a very handsome young man, who has supernatural powers. Zoe's life is forever changed because she can't stop thinking about X, the mysterious man she met in the snow. When X returns to the Lowlands, where he resides, Zoe tries to heal from the recent loss of her father. This novel features cave exploration and is set in Montana.

It was a solid fantasy novel.

3.75/5 starts.
This book stays at the edge of Contemporary and Fantasy (Paranormal). It was strange and a page turner. Jeff Giles succeeded to create something fresh and unique. Although, something was off and I cannot put my finger on it.
When the blurb came out about this book, a lot of people - including me - thought this was a contemporary novel. Wrong. Alright, half wrong. It is so much more than that.
You might want to read this book only for its beginning and end. There is so much tension and suspense that you want to grip something tightly. For a second, I got the impression I was reading a thriller/horror novel.
There are two worlds in this book-universe: our world and the Low Lands - kind of like a hell type of dimension. Our main characters are star crossed lovers from these two worlds, Zoe and X respectively. Their life stories are very interesting so I will let the book to tell you more about them.
The good romance loses same of its credibility due to the rushed start. It was like the author knew that they are going to be together and he was not quite sure how to deal with it so it happened quite fast. Don't get me wrong some moments felt real and genuine.
I feel like I am in minority because I preferred X's part of the story even though we still need to learn more about it. Zoe was a weird character and I mixed feelings about her. In one scene I was liking her and in the next I was despising her. She was not too considered and responsible at times. I grew more sympathetic towards her at the end of the book when things started to get resolved - somewhat.
I liked that the parent figure is not brushed off and be there just for show. That mother was involved. I am so glad. Lately, I see in a lot of YA books that the parent is portrayed as a villain or uncaring or dead or simply not there. And, my dear readers, I feel frustrated because it is not a good representation of how the parent-child relationship should be. In a lot of instances, I detected myself thinking, "That is not how my relationship with my parents is." I am not saying that those instances are not real too... But as I got older, I realized these type of books can send a dangerous messages - directly or indirectly - to the younger audience. And it is not good. It took me a good junk of my life to realize that the adults in my life were also teenagers at some point. (That is a lot of time of my life since I just reached adulthood. Adulthood such a weird word to say about myself when I do not feel like and adult at all.)
I was intrigued by the other bounty hunters (Banger and Ripper). I never thought I was going to feel sympathetic towards killers. I am telling you. This book is toying with your mind forcing you to see that things are not always black or white.
As a Minor Spoiler - How the heck did those dogs are still alive by the end of this book? Don't get it wrong, I am not complaining. It is just unbelievable among other things. - End Spoiler
Overall, this book was my cup of tea. Although, something was off and I cannot put my finger on it. I am looking forward to the next installment. I recommend this for its story arc which overshadows the annoying parts. In my opinion, it is something unique because it uses things we have read before but in an unexpected combination.
Give this book a try if you feel like it is something you would like to read.

This is my sole opinion. ^_^

I would like to say thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Well color me surprised! Admittedly, I went into this one with very little prior knowledge except a synopsis that sounded interesting and a cover that was ridiculously beautiful. This turned out to be so much more than I thought it was going to be. While I was not a huge fan of the insta-love, I did appreciate the complexity of both Zoe and X. Their lives are clearly complicated and GIles does an excellent job of developing them separately as well as together that even if insta-love is not your thing (it's not mine, trust me) you believe in it through these two. While Zoe is certainly a compelling character, let's talk about X, because to me he is the star of this show. He is just so interesting and I love the back story that Giles created for him. While, really, he could be considered a conglomeration of different tropes, there is something utterly disarming and unique about him. Add that with his complex relationship with Zoe and a plot that twists and turns constantly and you really do have the recipe for success. Definitely looking forward to having this in the YA collection and sharing it with teen readers.

Thank you to Bloomsbury for sending me an early copy of The Edge of Everything.

I am on the fence about this book. Part of me adored the writing and the characters, but another part really disliked the plot. It took me a while to understand what exactly was going on, and still, I am left with some questions. Like what’s up with the whole name thing. Why is knowing someone’s name such a terrible, terrifying thing?

The other major pet peeve I encountered with The Edge of Everything is the insta-true-love. I’m a romantic at heart, and adore stories about star-crossed lovers, yet Zoe and X fell in love absurdly fast and absurdly deep. Too deep for me, the reader, to follow. And sadly, their relationship ended up boring me instead of enticing me.

The prose really is lovely, though.

GOOD VERSUS EVIL AND STAR-CROSSED ROMANCE: THE PERFECT RECIPE FOR A GOOD YA FANTASY.

I haven't read too many YA novels lately. But when I started seeing reviews for this Jeff Giles offering, I was instantly curious. It had allusions to fallen angels, grim reapers, and demons. But when most mentioned about a forbidden romance between a human and a godly creature, I was sunk.

Zoe's year hasn't been the best, to be honest. After the sudden disappearance of her father, she's left trying to keep her family somewhat in a normal state. With her brother's bouts of anxiety brought on by the knowledge that their father's body could still be in the cave where he last went, things at home are a little precarious. When she lost him in a snowstorm, frostbite wouldn't be the only thing that could put both their lives in danger. They found themselves at the mercy of a deranged criminal. Just when she's about to lose hope, a vision in fire and light came to their rescue.

Their rescuer came in the form of X; a boy who looked to be in bad shape himself. His assignment was to retrieve the soul of one Stan Manggold, a hardened criminal who rightfully belonged in the Lowlands. Lowlands, for lack of a better word, is what you would call as hell. X is one of the bounty hunters who has lived in the Lowlands for eternity, it seems. There is no way out for the likes of him. But a deal with one of the generals could give X a chance to escape and live the rest of his life on Earth. It will not be easy, though, as his freedom come at a cost.

This book is gripping. I didn't think I would enjoy yet another YA supernatural fantasy, but here I am. Honestly, if I hadn't been distracted by so many books on my shelves, I could just as easily finished reading this in one sitting. As I mentioned, I'm a huge fan of star-crossed romances. It just so happens that X and Zoe were in one. The only downside to this is the speed with which they fell for each other. I feel like there wasn't much chance of getting to know X. But I get it. Since X didn't know much about himself either, I can forgive the underdevelopment of his character.

Zoe, on the other hand, is a girl whose life upended when her dad died. Granted that their dad wasn't a "conventional parent" by any standards, they still had a camaraderie like that of any father and daughter relationship. He was presumed dead, but they never retrieve his body in the cave. Their mom is present in their lives, sure but she's also distracted by trying to raise her kids. Mostly, she tried her best to keep what's left of her family together.

I enjoyed this book. It had funny moments, surreal moments, and instances where I choked up a little. I especially enjoyed Zoe relationships with her close friends and her brother. She took care of him the only way she knew how. I could've sworn Jeff Giles is an experienced author. I didn't realize this was only his second book. The Edge of Everything is exactly the YA paranormal fantasy that teens and adults alike would enjoy. The contemporary elements balance out the supernatural that makes reading it such a breeze.

I struggled to rate this book, to come up with a coherent enough review that captured my thoughts. The Edge of Everything had moments where I couldn’t stop reading, where I was sucked right into the world alongside the characters. But just as frequently I put it down, whether out of boredom or simply a lack of interest in the story. So by the end of the book, after several sections of binge-reading and moments of almost DNFing the whole thing, I had a lot of mixed feelings.

On the positive end of things, the writing is good. Giles as a way of really setting a scene (not counting the info dumps that became a tad bit annoying) in a way that both felt like an urban fantasy and a contemporary. It gave the book a different spin compared to a lot of the books I read. And the characters were solid on their own, though nothing about them stuck with me post-read.

My issues began with the pacing. Sometimes, I’d be hooked and unable to put it down. Yet for every one of these moments, which were randomly scattered throughout, there were just as many times that dragged and dragged. I love a good supernatural/paranormal story but this one just didn’t quite seem to reach that same level of interest for me as others.

Next came the insta-love. I rarely see a need for this kind of romance in any book or any genre even. I love to ship characters and if I can’t find a reason to then we have a problem. There was nothing about the romance to indicate there be a reason for them to be together, so why should I, as a reader, care? The beginning of The Edge of Everything started pretty strong and I was invested in the story but it soon turned to the romance playing a far more dominant role, which doesn’t work when the romance isn’t really built on anything in the first place.

Now I mentioned that the characters, individually, were pretty decent. Put them together and it’s a bunch of tropes with half not really serving much of a purpose. I just never connected with any of them. There was a distance between me and them that wasn’t working.

Also, brief trigger mention but there’s a short section related to animal violence and cruelty which is personally one of my only triggers and I almost put it down for that alone.

A lot was going on in this book. You get action, some (not so good) romance, mystery, and a supernatural element. But while that worked for some parts of The Edge of Everything, overall I think that perhaps it would have been nicer to see a stronger focus on fewer elements but with more development. Closer to the inch wide, mile deep idea versus the other way around.

I’m not sure if I’d really recommend this book. It received a lot of hype and, for me, it wasn’t warranted, but if that many people did enjoy it then perhaps it just wasn’t a good fit for me and others will enjoy it more. So if insta-love and uneven pacing doesn’t bother you, then I would give it a go. For me, it was an… interesting ride.

On Friday, February 3, Ridley High School was privileged to welcome Jeff Giles for a presentation in the Board Room! A longtime writer for Entertainment Weekly and Rolling Stone, he has just released a debut young adult novel: The Edge of Everything. The novel has received rave reviews from Oscar-winning director Peter Jackson, bestselling authors James Dashner and Melissa de la Cruz, and Ms. Pickett! Jeff Giles shared stories from his days in entertainment journalism, discussed how he found time to write a novel while working full-time, and talked about incorporating facts to make his fiction more realistic. For example, he studied “snow ghosts” in Montana and tried his hand at caving so these elements would be more believable within the pages of his novel. He also spoke about the importance of working closely with an editor in order to turn a good draft into a great book.

Over 150 students attended this special event and, as always, they were a wonderful audience. They impressed our guest of honor with thoughtful, insightful questions about his writing process. Thank you so much to Jeff Giles for making Ridley High School a stop on his book tour! And as always, THANK YOU to Children’s Book World in Haverford for making this event possible!

Going into this book, I had high expectations and hope that this wouldn't turn into a dominantly romance based story. Here we follow Zoe, and her journey to figure out who killed her neighbors and what actually happened to her dad. "X", a resident of the lowlands mysteriously shows up on the scene of a winter storm to harvest a soul. There begins a tale of coming-of-age, love, and sacrifice. As you can see from the synopsis, there's the line:

The first fifty to one hundred pages of this book were really solid, they could make me appreciate Giles as a writer. His craft is there, his descriptions are there, and up to my standards, and so I really enjoyed his writing style. Then we get to the part where the romantic subplot starts overshadowing the urban fantasy aspect of it. I had all sorts of problems with the romance.

<b><i><blockquote>For the perfect love, what would you be willing to lose?</b></i></blockquote>
First of all, it was insta-love, which as you may know is my number one pet peeve in YA. I honestly thought that in this situation, it would have been better to portray a slow burn than to jump on the first opportunity of romance. Some parts of this plot were underwhelming, and I really didn't like how they used the involvement of the father to further their own purpose. It was predictable to me at least, and I found it distasteful. Also, I found the whole romance to fall flat and be underwhelming in general.

My only favorite part about this was the sibling relationship between Zoe and Jonah. Jonah is an eight year old, who has ADHD and is a very sensitive child. Because of their single mother and mostly absent father, it has fallen on Zoe's shoulders to be the protectors of him. It's refreshing to see this healthy relationship portrayed in YA books, when usually if there's siblings, they're kind of brushed away as side characters. But truly, all of the character in this book were interacting with Jonah in one way or another.

I would like to see this worldbuilding be expanded. I honestly thought that what we knew of the "Lowlands" isn't enough to lead us on. I read this some time ago, and the only thing that I can remember is that it was like hell, but the author doesn't really describe the particular landscapes, or the rules that govern that society in them. The ending of this book does set you up right for the next installment, where I would hope that the author could develop the concept of "Lowlands."

Overall, although I could enjoy the reading experience for what it was, this just wasn't the book for me.

**<i>Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy in exchange to my honest review. All opinions are my own</i>**

4/5 Stars

I really enjoyed The Edge of Everything. It’s the story of Zoe, a teenage girl who is in the midst of dealing with the loss of her father, and X, a guy who was born in the Lowlands and is abused by the rulers into being a bounty hunter for criminal souls.
Zoe’s little brother Jonah was lost in a blizzard one night and she ends up on the hunt for him. Eventually she finds him and together they reach the closest house for shelter, a home abandoned after the owners were tragically killed. But once they reach the house and rest, a violent man named Stan shows up, and threatens to hurt them and their dogs. This is where X comes in, on a mission to collect his criminal soul and bring it to the underworld. They both have an immediate attraction to each other to give the story a nice and light romantic edge.
Jeff Giles creates both Zoe’s and X’s worlds in an interesting amount of detail and collides them together in a dynamic way throughout the book. The mountains Zoe lives in and the Lowlands in which X resides are described very well. I felt as though when the Lowlands were first mentioned, I was expecting obscurity and maybe an overdone cheesiness to the new world. Throughout reading the book, I was impressed! There was detail; order and hierarchy Giles described that gave me a full understanding of everything (although I don’t know exactly everything to the Lowlands as the book sets up for a sequel… At least I hope so!).
He really captures the character’s personalities in his writing and really keeps you equally interested in both accounts, as the chapters switch from Zoe to X. This book was not what I expected, which is a great thing. There better be a second one, Jeff.