Review: Unraveling

Unraveling by Elizabeth Norris

Published by Balzer + Bray

Genre: YA

$17.99 (US hardback)

445 pages

What it's about:

Two days before the start of her junior year, seventeen-year-old Janelle Tenner is hit by a pickup truck and killed—as in blinding light, scenes of her life flashing before her, and then nothing. Except the next thing she knows, she's opening her eyes to find Ben Michaels, a loner from her high school whom Janelle has never talked to, leaning over her. And even though it isn't possible, she knows—with every fiber of her being—that Ben has somehow brought her back to life.

But her revival, and Ben's possible role in it, is only the first of the puzzles that Janelle must solve. While snooping in her FBI agent father's files for clues about her accident, she uncovers a clock that seems to be counting down to something—but to what? And when someone close to Janelle is killed, she can no longer deny what's right in front of her: Everything that's happened—the accident, the murder, the countdown clock, Ben's sudden appearance in her life—points to the end of life as she knows it. And as the clock ticks down, she realizes that if she wants to put a stop to the end of the world, she's going to need to uncover Ben's secrets—and keep from falling in love with him in the process.

From debut author Elizabeth Norris comes this shattering novel of one girl's fight to save herself, her world, and the boy she never saw coming.

My thoughts:
At first I was really excited about this book. Girl coming back to life because a cute mysterious boy  brought her back? Awesome! All a synopsis has to say is "cute mysterious boy" and I'll pretty much be excited about the book. I can't get enough of cute mysterious boys.

And I was loving the book. I found it interesting and different. I was constantly guessing what was going on and what in the world Ben was and how did he bring Janelle back to life? But then I hit the point in which all was revealed and was disappointed. I literally went "Oh... Damn." because to me, it wasn't all that interesting and I'm not sure why. It was a cool topic but apparently it wasn't what I was wanting for this book. I found myself not that interested in finishing the book but I did anyways.

I kinda wish I hadn't.

The ending completely ruined the book for me. Completely. Everything that I had liked about this book was completely taken away by how much I disliked the ending. To me, endings are the most important part of a book. The whole beginning of a book can really suck, but if the ending is good, I'll like the book, or the other way around. And because Norris did all 3 of the things that are complete no-nos for endings imo, I ended up disliking this book.

I can honestly see why people are really liking this book because it was interesting and catching, but that ending...damn. I just couldn't hop on board with that.

My rating: 6/10