Book Review: Unraveling

Book: Unraveling (Unraveling book #1) by Elizabeth Norris

Source: Library

Description:

Sixteen-year-old Janelle Tenner is used to having a lot of responsibility. She balances working as a lifeguard in San Diego with an intense academic schedule. Janelle's mother is bipolar, and her dad is a workaholic FBI agent, which means Janelle also has to look out for her younger brother, Jared.

And that was before she died...and is brought back to life by Ben Michaels, a mysterious, alluring loner from her high school. When she discovers a strange clock that seems to be counting down to the earth's destruction, Janelle learns she has twenty-four days to figure out how to stop the clock and save the planet.




Rating: 2 stars

Review:

This started out so good, it had an interesting story and a well written main character. Then turned into another clichéd stereotypical story. It felt like the story wasn't fully defined because it shifted from being a standard school life story with a slight sci-fi angle to a romance driven/sci-fi - alternate universe/FBI/mystery/apocalyptic story. It's as if the author wanted to include everything all in one story.

The story centered on Janelle Tenner who had died but was brought back to life by Ben Michaels. Some how the person whose truck ran into her is connected to a bizarre string of events that center on strange deaths popping up around the area. The deaths might lead to the end of the world.

I thought it was refreshing that Janelle wasn't the typical YA character, she was smart, a little head-strong and total bookworm. She knew when her relationship with Nick wasn't working and didn't feel the need to drag it out or try to date both Nick and Ben.

However, that didn't last long because after she figured out the truth about her death, resurrection and Ben Michaels, the level-headed Janelle no longer existed. She became another one-minded damsel-in-distress character whose only thoughts were about Ben. She couldn't really focus on much except for Ben. And the times she did manage to focus on something else, it didn't last long because she was back to thinking about Ben. Their relationship was too codependent for me. It didn't feel believable or interesting. But on a positive note, Ben wasn't the typical domineering jerk (why do writers like to make the love interest a jerk, I never understood that) instead he was a nice guy just perhaps a bit too in love with Janelle.

Sadly, the rest of the characters in the book were not very well written and lacked development. There was nothing to find interesting in any of them.

I thought there was just too much going on in this story and sometimes the writing felt like bad acting. I give it credit for being fast-paced and suspenseful and starting out good but that's all. I did love the fact that a lot different books were mentioned throughout. However, a poorly constructed story and poorly written characters doesn't help the story at all.

I don't know if I plan on reading the sequel to this.