Jaime's Review of Unraveling by Elizabeth Norris

Unraveling

Elizabeth Norris

Hardcover: 464 pages

Publisher: Balzer + Bray (Harper Collins)

Release Date: April 24, 2012

ISBN:0062103733

Source: ARC from the publisher

Rating: Loved

From Goodreads.
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.

When Unraveling came in the mail a letter was with it from the senior editor at Balzer + Bray in the letter she described Unraveling as the love child of I Am Number Four and the TV show Fringe. While I saw the Fringe aspects in the book this was nothing like I Am Number Four. I didn’t like that book. Actually I would compare Unraveling to Fringe and the TV show Sliders from the late 90’s which happened to be a favorite of mine; with little X-Files thrown in there. The fact that the MC and her family loves and quotes X Files kinda helped with that one lol.

I will admit that this book is long and the beginning takes a bit to get in to but once you do holy crap this book rocks! It’s one of the coolest sci-fi books I’ve read in a long time! What I loved about it is that this stuff is set in the real world not on a space ship or anything like that and, a lot of the stuff that happens could really happen! I also thought that the setting of San Diego was awesome since I could recognize most of the places in the book (and she mentions water polo!!!! Sorry for this tangent but that was my sport in high school and I’ve never seen it in a book before!).

I loved the MC Janelle she’s a complete smart ass and she’s really intelligent. Not only that but she has balls she isn’t afraid to go up against the FBI or the end of the world. Oh and there’s cussing in this book which I thought was pretty cool. Elizabeth didn’t hold back in that department because I mean really; I know 16 year olds and trust me they cuss. I loved the realness that it brought to the story. Ben is totally swoon worthy but just because he’s hot (which he is) he’s caring, funny, sarcastic, protective, smart, but he has a secret and it’s pretty big . What I loved about the relationship about these two was it wasn’t insta-love thank goodness and there were no love triangles! I also really loved the rest of the characters especially Alex and Strutz!

I chose a passage from Janelle and Ben’s first date because I loved it! and the other one I wanted to use probably had a little too much cussing for the blog hehe ;)

“This might be the coolest thing you could have done for me,” I say bumping my shoulder into Ben’s.

His fingertips brush over the back of my hand until his whole hand covers mine and gives it a light squeeze.

Tearing my eyes away from the sky, I look at Ben. His floppy brown curls are falling into his face, shading his eyes, but I can see the look on his face, like he’s laughing at himself.

“What?”

He shakes his head. “I almost just drove us to the movies.”

He’s lying. I can see it in his face. He might have thought about it, especially when he was all tense in the car, but he knows me too well to just take me to a movie.

I smile, and that’s all it takes. He leans forward and our lips touch, and it’s like his lips were made to fit around mine.

His arms tighten around me, and I reach up to the back of his neck and pull him into me. Our lips part, our tongues touch, and I taste him until a sigh escapes with my breath.

Ben pulls back just a fraction of an inch so our foreheads are touching and his lips smile against mine.

“This was perfect,” I whisper.

He closes his eyes, and his voice is quiet, like the words are simply being exhaled. “It was better than perfect.”

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