Audiobook Review: Immortal by Gillian Shields

This is entertaining in a YA appropriate fashion.

• Audible Audio Edition
• Listening Length: 7 hours and 23 minutes
• Program Type: Audiobook
• Version: Unabridged
• Publisher: Harper Audio
• Audible.com Release Date: June 29, 2010
• Language: English

Genre: YA
My Rating: 3.75

Publisher's Summary:
Wyldcliffe Abbey School for Young Ladies, housed in a Gothic mansion on the bleak northern moors, is elite, expensive, and unwelcoming. When Evie Johnson is torn away from her home by the sea to become the newest scholarship student, she is more isolated than she could have dreamed. Strict teachers, snobbish students, and the oppressive atmosphere of Wyldcliffe leave Evie drowning in loneliness.

Evie's only lifeline is Sebastian, a rebellious, mocking, dangerously attractive young man she meets by chance. As Evie's feelings for Sebastian grow with each secret meeting, she starts to fear that he is hiding something about his past. And she is haunted by glimpses of a strange, ghostly girl—a girl who is so eerily like Evie, she could be a sister. Evie is slowly drawn into a tangled web of past and present that she cannot control. And as the extraordinary, elemental forces of Wyldcliffe rise up like the mighty sea, Evie is faced with an astounding truth about Sebastian, and her own incredible fate.

Gillian Shields's electrifying tale will dazzle readers with suspense, mysticism, and romance.

Review:  This YA tale is full of mystery, evil witches, ghostly presence and a haunting romance.

Evie feels like an outcast at the exclusive and oppressive Wyldcliffe school.  She longs for friendship and thinks that Helen, the other “scholarship/sponsored” girl, will be her friend but instead Helen gives her a brief tour and then seems indifferent to her.

Evie begins to experience strange flashes of a girl named Agnes - a girl from the past. Unknown to Evie at first, her necklace plays an important part in the history of the school and all the mysteries.  Meanwhile Evie is sneaking out to meet a mysterious young fellow, Sebastian.  Sebastian and Evie grow closer and closer but Sebastian is hiding secrets.  The romance is light and appropriate for the age of the story’s primary audience.

There are secretive meetings going on with the teachers and some students have died although their odd deaths have been declared as accidents.  Finally Helen reveals the extent of danger to Evie and another friend, Sarah.  The girls agree to become a coven to fight the evil witches.

The story wasn’t overwhelming but the mysteries and the flashes to Agnes kept it interesting enough. I enjoyed the different POV presentation from Evie and Agnes’ diary. I also liked the gothic feel and the slowly revealed mysteries. The narrator has a light, crisp British accent that tends toward breathy, delicate and ethereal. It seems to fit the young girls for the story.

I might get the sequels if they were on sale...but I won’t be rushing to get them with all the other books available.  I appreciated receiving this book through the Sync YA listening program at Audiobook community. This story was paired with Wuthering Heights and although there were some similarities in the Gothic setting and the ill fated romance I don’t think Immortal met the depth of the tragic characters found in Wuthering Heights.