Applegate likes to experiment, and her novels tend to be lively exercises in ideas and techniques. In the case of Everworld, she creates a place where all the world's ancient mythologies coexist, and she creates adventures that mix the mythologies.

For the "Everworld" series, she creates four adventurers who are snatched from fairly ordinary teenaged American lives, although Jalil's psychological problems are somewhat out of the ordinary. Through these characters, she experiments with techniques of narration by having each one narrate novels. David narrates Search for Senna, which introduces Vikings, Loki, and Norse mythology. Jalil's Realm of the Reaper delves more deeply into Norse myths about life and death and the underworld than Search for Senna does. Christopher's Land of Loss focuses more on Aztec mythology than Norse mythology and introduces the CooHatch, aliens from yet another world. April's Enter the Enchanted tells of...