Author: Jeannine Garsee
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Find it here: Amazon, Goodreads
Source: ARC compliments of the publisher
Sixteen-year-old Rinn Jacobs has secrets: One, she’s bipolar. Two, she killed her grandmother.
After a suicide attempt, and now her parents' separation, Rinn and her mom move from California to the rural Ohio town where her mother grew up. Back on her medications and hoping to stay well, Rinn settles into her new home, undaunted by the fact that the previous owner hanged herself in Rinn's bedroom. At school, her classmates believe the school pool is haunted by Annaliese, a girl who drowned there. But when a reckless séance goes awry, and terrible things start happening to her new friends—yet not to her—Rinn is determined to find out why she can’t be "touched" by Annaliese...or if Annaliese even exists.
With the help of Nate Brenner, the hunky “farmer boy” she’s rapidly falling for, Rinn devises a dangerous plan to uncover the truth. Soon reality and fantasy meld into one, till Rinn finds it nearly impossible to tell the difference. When a malevolent force threatens the lives of everyone she cares about--not to mention her own--she can't help wondering: who should she really be afraid of?
Annaliese? Or herself?
My thoughts:
As soon as I began, I was a little bit disappointed. It started out like a lot of contemporaries I’ve read in the past. Girl arrives in a new town right before school starts, first boy girl meets she likes and they become a thing (because of course he’s good looking and single) and girl gets an immediate in with the kids at her new school. This aspect of the story really bothered me because I think it only shows one side to the character’s personality. All we’re seeing is that Rinn must be this amazing person because all the people flocked to her and wanted to be her friends instead of her having to seek out her friends. I think it show the complexity of a character.
What I did think was really interesting was her past and the disease that she struggles with and how it affected her before she moved to the new town. Like a lot of characters I read, Rinn carries around a lot of guilt and blames herself for the death of one of her loved ones.
I also really enjoyed the ghost story part. Annaliese was a really great ghost! She haunted the school’s pool room where she died and has feed off the energy of the other students. As she gets stronger and stronger she is able to affect people outside of school and Rinn’s friends start acting really crazy! I really loved the complexity of Rinn’s mom. She practically became a different person when Annaliese started gaining power. The mean girl inside of her starting coming out and it was pretty creepy!
As a whole, the book was pretty good and I enjoyed the ghost taking revenge on those who harm her story. I give The Unquiet 3 hearts because even though I liked it, I struggled to finish it.
4 comments:
Nice to read your honest review of this book. I had been thinking of picking it up for a read, but maybe I'll put it towards the bottom of my list for a bit. :)
Great review! I hate when books are slow and boring in the beginning because the beginning is what first catchs me and draws my attention. But the ghost story premise sounds so interesting and I'll probably wait for it to come in at my library.
Eileen @ ***Singing and Reading in the Rain***
I've debated several times with myself on reading this one, or passing it by. I'm encouraged to see that you liked it, but if the main character is one of those flat type of characters or rather, if we're only seeing one side of her, hmm, I may wait on it a little longer.
Great review though, Crystal!
Aw, I've wanted to read this for a while- now I'm not so sure. I might borrow it though- great review- thanks for being so honest about it.
Teenage Fiction
Post a Comment
I love feedback and really want to know what you think! Comment away!!