Everworld

Everworld is a fantasy novel series written by Katherine Applegate and Michael Grant, who collaborated under the pen name K. A. Applegate. Scholastic published the series from 1999 to 2001, which includes twelve books and a companion music CD called *The Everworld Experience*.

The story centers on five main characters: David, April, Christopher, Senna, and Jalil. When the wolf Fenrir kidnaps Senna, the others try to rescue her and are thrown into an alternate fantasy realm known as Everworld. The protagonists exist in both Everworld and the normal world simultaneously, fully conscious in both realms and able to switch between them at will. In Everworld, they confront powerful enemies, visit places from myths and fairy tales, struggle to survive, prevent evil creatures from opening a passage to the normal world, and seek to understand why and how they travel between the two worlds.

David Levin acts as the group’s self-appointed leader. He carries the group’s burdens and is haunted by a past where he was cowardly, striving to prove himself a man. Before entering Everworld, he was romantically involved with Senna Wales, making him especially vulnerable to her powers. He displays courage before Zeus, other gods, and Vikings. After witnessing Sir Galahad’s death, David takes up Excalibur. At the series’ end, he chooses to stay in Everworld to help protect it and to escape his mother’s smoking and depression. David narrates books 1, 5, and 10.

Christopher Hitchcock is the group’s reluctant clown, making jokes aimed at April (sexism), Jalil (racism), and David (antisemitism) to keep others at a distance. He describes himself as on the path to becoming an alcoholic like his parents. He can be cruel one moment and kind the next. He turns down an offer of immortality after failing to save Ganymede, Zeus’ male lover, blaming his failure on latent homophobia, which plunges him into alcoholic depression and marks a turning point for his character. His prejudiced jokes decrease when Keith, a member of a racist and antisemitic group planning to overthrow the government, tries to recruit him. At the end, he stays in Everworld to avoid his parents’ alcoholism, escape his younger brother’s ridicule and abuse, and steer clear of a potential alcoholic future.