Everlost ch. 1-5

Everlost is about a girl named Allie and a boy named Nick. While on their way to a wedding, the driver crashes and everyone in the car is killed... sort of. When Allie and Nick awake, they find that they are in a forest. Shortly afterwards, they meet a boy who tells them that they are in a realm called Everlost, a sort of dimension between life and death, where children in the living world who have died sometimes arrive, instead going on to where people usually go when they die. The boy, whom Allie and Nick decide to call Lief because he couldn't remember his old, living name, became a sort of guide for the two new arrivals. It turns out that Everlost has it's own rules of physics. For example, breathing is not required, you cannot feel pain, and if you stand too long in one spot, you sink into the ground, never to be seen again. Also, a monster known as the McGill is always trying to attack children in Everlost. Finally, it is impossible to leave Everlost. Once you arrive, you're there to stay. However, the forest where Nick, Allie and Lief are is sort of special. As long as you remain in the forest, you won't sink into the ground and the McGill will never find you, which is why Lief made it his home. Nick and Allie however, don't want to stay in the forest. They want to explore this new world and maybe, just maybe find an exit. Lief is strongly against this, not only because he thinks it's pointless, but he cares for the Nick and Allie. He doesn't want them to get caught by the McGill, nor sink into the ground. But the biggest reason that he wants them to stay is because he is lonely. But Nick and Allie decide to go anyway. In another part of Everlost, there is a leader who calls herself Mary Hightower, because she can't remember her living name either. She is a leader for several reasons, such as that she is one of the oldest at fifteen years old and she has done extensive research about Everlost and therefore is very knowledgeable. She has established a sort of community of children.

If I were one of the kids who had stumbled into Everlost, I would have a very mixed bag of feelings. I'd be shocked, miserable, amazed and curious all at the same time. The shock would be from the knowledge that I was no longer alive (but not dead either) and that I was cut off from everything I'd known, perhaps forever. The misery would be because I was separated from my friends and family. Amazement would stem from the fact that Everlost existed at all and that there was something beyond life and death. Finally, I'd be curious to find out as much as I could about this new dimension called Everlost. Like Nick and Allie, I would not have decided to stay with Lief in the forest, no matter how much danger there was outside of it. I would simply have to know what Everlost was and if there was a way to get back to the world of the living. I would have grilled Lief for all of the information that he had, and then set out to find something, anything, that could have helped me understand and come to accept Everlost.