Review: Unraveling

Unraveling by Elizabeth Norris
Release Date: April 24, 2012
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Age Group: YA
Pages : 445
Format: ARC
Source: Own
Interest: Sci-fi
Challenge: 2012 Goodreads Reading Challenge, 2012 Debut Author Challenge
Buy the Book: Amazon

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.

I have been pinning away for this book for what feels like forever! I was so excited to finally get a copy, and I threw myself into it immediately. For some reason I just didn't really connect with the book until I was about 100 pages in, and then boy was I hooked! I really loved the story itself, I felt like it was unique and very intruiging!

Janelle's life was complicated and multi faceted. Her father works for the FBI, how cool is that? Unfortunately he's really great at his job and spends so much time catching bad guys, that he's not always around too much. While Janelle's mother suffers from bi-polar disorder, and goes through manic highs and lows. Much responsability is left to Janelle, like taking care of her brother and cooking meals for the family. But she handles it all like a pro, and I loved how close she was to her family! They had such a strong relationship and bond, where most kids would've resented their parents. I loved the witty banter between Janelle and her father, all the x-files quotes. ( I'm a huge X-Files fans myself tooo!) And her best friend Alex, is possibly the absolute best "best friend" character ever written in YA! I mean, I would totally steal him for my bestie!

Even when someone close to Janelle dies, while it rocks her world, she doesn't let it destroy her. She keeps going, taking care of the people she loves and racing to fight the ticking clock before something terrible happens. The story was seriously epic! I couldn't put it down and I literally had an inner fight within myself to constantly stop myself from flipping forward to see what happens next. There is nothing I can say that will do this book justice. It's just THAT good!

So to sum it up, I loved this book so much and I highly recommend it! Although, I will warn you there is some heavy cursing and a whole lot of f-bombs being dropped. But despite that I loved this book and found it to be unique, intense, thrilling, and full of action! It's such an incredible debut novel and I look forward to reading much, much more from this author!