Yzabel / July 24, 2012

Unraveling by Elizabeth Norris

My rating: [rating=3]

Summary:

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.

Review:

An overall enjoyable novel, that I finished quite fast, considering its length, because I really wanted to see the events unfold. Thus I can say I liked it, and probably liked it enough to pick another book by this author someday.

The writing was quite flowing, and Janelle as a main character was interesting to follow: not the average, powerless heroine who gets carried around by whatever happens, but someone who tries to act, to take matters into her own hands, and is both aware of and frustrated at when things force her to react rather than act directly. What’s more, although she’s been going through several harsh experiences, her death being only the latest, she does her best to keep strong and not give up. This is the kind of protagonist I like. The plot and setting reminded me of some of my favourite shows, such as The X-Files and Fringe, with elements I tend to gravitate towards—FBI agents facing difficult cases, suspicions of bio-terrorism, characters not knowing anymore who’s their foe and who they can still trust… Those are the things that got me hooked.

However, the reason why I’m only giving three stars to “Unraveling” is that, as I was reading along, I couldn’t get rid of the nagging feeling that something was wrong. At first, I couldn’t place my finger on it, and this left me confused for a good part of the story. Then at last (and upon some more reflecting, now that I’m done with the book), it dawned on me: to me, it felt like the author was trying too much. Trying too much to elicit responses from the reader; to cram as many elements as possible within 400-something pages; to make Janelle too strong, too, in a way. For instance, early enough we learn that a couple of years ago, while at a party, Janelle woke up at the back of a car with her pants half-torn, and had never been able to piece that part together; we are of course left with the impression that she was raped, and this is evidently the effect sought after… but considering all the other hard events Janelle has to face in the story, I wondered: “Isn’t this just a bit too much? Isn’t there already enough going on? Do I really need that to be convinced that, alright, she’s a girl who had to become strong?” I don’t think so.

Besides, although I can’t exactly explain why, the turning point (the big revelation about Ben & Co, and what the countdown is about) didn’t have me squealing, but rather felt as slightly off. I’m not sure if the cause was the pseudo-scientific explanations, or the way it was all brought out. The second half of the book was full to the brim, when a lighter string of events would already have done the job well enough. In the end, I wasn’t sure anymore about who or what to root for, whose death I should regret or not, or if I cared or not about some of the characters, nor if I had properly understood everything. (I’m also still unsure of what to do with the relationship between Kate and Janelle. For the whole story, I thought something would happen, some discussion, some revelation… and then, nothing. I was a little disappointed, and wondered if those scenes involving Kate were really important.)

“Unraveling” had me spend a good time, and was mostly interesting. I just wish it hadn’t been so full, and that some plot points had been better exploited (or discarded as a whole, since they didn’t bring that much to the story).