Book: Unraveling by Elizabeth Norris

Book Info: Published by Balzer and Bray; 464 pages; read on my Nook

Genre: YA: Mystery/Thriller/Romance

Find out more at: Goodreads~Barnes And Noble~Amazon~Author Website

Goodreads.com 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.

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.

Unraveling is an action-packed book, and it was hard to put down.  I was very intrigued by the idea that there are other people out there, and that they are a lot like us.

I liked Janelle’s curiousity, and her desire to figure out what’s going on and save the world.  It is a little hard to believe that it’s so easy for her to hack into her father’s work computer and to look through the files he brings home.  But I’m willing to overlook this because otherwise, there wouldn’t be a story.

I didn’t like the romance in the book, and while it was a little different than I expected, it was pretty predictable.  I have to say that part of me wanted Janelle and Struz to end up together, even though I knew it was never going to happen.

I thought the structure of the novel was interesting.  Each chapter is a different point in the countdown to the end of the world, and was titled as such.  The chapter length was pretty random, with some being really short, and others being sort of long.

Norris did manage to get a lot in the book, which made the book action-packed.  But at the same time, everything that was happening was slightly overwhelming.

Overall, it gets a 4 out of 5.  It was fun and action-packed but had a few flaws.