“I thought, despairingly, that love didn’t make cowards of us, after all; it made heroes, and heroes usually didn’t survive.”
You ever close a book and then just sit there staring at a wall trying to pretend all is fine while dying inside from all the emotional damage you just suffered? Yeah, that is me right now after finishing The Everlasting. It’s pitched as a “genre-defying quest about the lady-knight whose legend built a nation, and the cowardly historian sent back through time to make sure she plays her part–even if it breaks his heart.”, which honestly sums it up perfectly, except for the fact that it was not just his heart on the line, but mine as well.
I am going to be very honest, for the first third of The Everlasting as we met our tender-hearted, anxious scholar Owen and travelled back in time to meet the fierce lady knight Una for the first (?) time with him, I was not totally sure that this was going to be the book for me. While I liked the set-up, loved voices of the characters, and adored the descriptive prose, I was so caught off-guard by the unique narrative structure and incongruous mix of vibes and tones that I feared I was never going to get emotionally invested in this chaotic tale. And now, having finished it, I can only laugh at my past self for having so much doubt, because this story ended up wrecking me in all the best ways.
There’s no denying that The Everlasting is a crazily ambitious book, but to me it never felt ‘too much’ because it’s all rooted in such an honest, authentic, and beautifully human story; the story of Una and Owen. These two precious, effortlessly endearing souls are somehow the epitome of both fated and star-crossed lovers, and their tragic journey through the ages somehow both healed and crushed my heart all at once. The (partly) second person storytelling – with Owen and Una recounting different parts of their legendary tale and directly addressing each other with so much heart, humour, and raw vulnerability – made me feel like I was trapped in the pages of this book together with them, experiencing all their highs and lows as if they were my own.
And trust me, the highs get high but the lows also get so soul-crushingly low. Harrow really doesn’t shy away from exploring the darkest depths of humanity through their tale in both obscurely symbolic and overtly confronting ways, with themes of war, propaganda, power, nationalism, corruption, gender roles, sacrifice, fate, the power of stories, the lies of heroism, the twisting of history, and the dangers of ambition being tackled with ruthless honesty; this book is political down to its very bones, and I love it all the more for it. On top of that, The Everlasting also features one of the most unhinged yet terrifyingly complex villains I have ever read about (hello Queen of Gaslighting), and I was equally horrified and fascinated to see how their presence hunted and haunted Owen and Una every step of their devastating adventure through time and space.
But then at the same time, there’s this irreverent, playful tone to the storytelling that balances out all the darkness and misery without lessening the impact of the emotional beats, which I really appreciated. The Everlasting is really a book of contradictions and surprises for me, but that is exactly where its magic lies. Like, if you thought a timeloop story would be predictable, repetitive or boring, you better think again. It is epic yet intimate, folkloric yet modern, lyrical yet sharp, funny yet devastating, beautiful yet haunting, sexy yet tender, heartwarming yet heartwrenching, timely yet timeless, and most of all, it is everything it promises to be while also being completely unlike anything you could ever expect, and I love it for that. Also, there’s a murderous war horse, and if Hen doesn’t have any fans, then I am dead.
In the hands of a lesser author, The Everlasting could very easily have crashed and burned, but Harrow pulls it all off with effortless grace. I loved reading this so much that I wished it was truly everlasting, yet I am also glad it ended the way it did because this has to be one of the most perfect and satisfying standalones I have ever read. Whether you read this genreblendy gem with your eyeballs or listen to the incredibly well-performed audiobook, The Everlasting is a tragically beautiful tale of fate, love, and sacrifice that will carve itself deeper into your soul with each turn of the page. I can’t recommend it highly enough.
