Title: Unraveling by Elizabeth Norris

Pages: 464

Genres: YA, Science Fiction

Published by: Balzer + Bray (April 24, 2012)

Summary

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.

What I Thought

I’m not really sure what I was expecting when I decided to read Unraveling. It was on sale in the Nook store for a $1.99 and the summary seemed interesting enough, so I thought why not?  Well, let me just say, while this book wasn’t horrible, I’m glad I only spent $1.99 on it.

Now, first off let me say, this book wasn’t necessarily bad.  I think maybe I just wasn’t in the right mood to read it (I mean Christmas just ended so maybe death and end of the world stuff was just too intense after all the jolliness?) or maybe it just wasn’t the right book for me, but either way this book irritated me! I don’t know what it was about it but I just never felt fully connected into finding out how it was going to end until around the last 20 pages or so.  I found myself skimming a little bit through different parts and just never felt emotionally connected.  Then, the one thing I did want to get to know more about (Kate and Janelle’s friendship), was never really expanded upon, but there is a sequel so it’s probably explained in more depth there.

One last thing that bugged about this book was the language! I felt like there was so much cursing in it! They even used the F-bomb in front of their teachers in the middle of class!  I feel like if that were to happen in real life that would not have been allowed.  But what do I know? I was homeschooled. Maybe people do curse like that in school! 😛

Despite all that negativity, this book wasn’t all bad.  There were some pretty great characters in Unraveling. I loved Alex, Struz, and Janelle’s awesome English teacher! I also felt like Kate’s character definitely had some potential, and I hope we get to know about her more in the sequel.

Another thing I actually loved about this book was Janelle and Ben’s relationship.  So many times in these types of books, the love interests try to take over the whole story. Like, seriously? The world is ending and people are fighting and you two just met and now you feel the need to just randomly make out? Please..But that didn’t happened in Unraveling.  They’re relationship progressed slowly and over time (no insta-love), and they always made sure to get their priorities straight most of the time. Their relationship was actually realistic, given the circumstances.  So, thank you Elizabeth Norris!

Overall, Unraveling wasn’t the greatest book, but it wasn’t the worst either.  I probably won’t ever reread it, and I do plan on reading the sequel but not anytime soon. Maybe in a few months, I’ll change my mind and decide I need to read it!  I don’t feel like I wasted my time with this book, but I’m glad I got it at a discount, and I will probably just get the sequel from the library.

*Review originally written January 2014.*

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