Review Detail

4.2 12
Young Adult Fiction 282
Bitter
Overall rating
 
1.3
Plot
 
N/A
Characters
 
N/A
Writing Style
 
N/A
Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)
 
N/A
The world ends in exactly 24:00:14:32

Well... I wasn't expecting that.

I rarely read the descriptions because it's a spoiler for me. When I checked this out I was expecting something like Shatter Me. I guess it was because of the cover? The cover for Unraveling reminds me of it for some strange reason. I also had high expectations for the book after I read the back:

She didn't see it coming...
A truck that came out of nowhere.
A boy with the power to restore life.
A countdown to the end of the world.
...Until it was too late.

Tell me that doesn't sound interesting. So when I think boy-with-powers I think Superman, I think The Incredibles; I think X-Man... but all I received was an FBI crime investigation.

What... the... heck? I've said in my status updates that I hate reading novels about crime investigation involving the FBI, LAPD, etc. It's just so uninteresting to me. The concept of Unraveling could have been awesome -- Janelle is hit by a truck but is brought back to life by Ben Michaels. She should have been dead instead of the driver who had hit her. She wants to know any information on her John Doe, but the body is unidentified. Her father, an FBI agent, is working on the case to discover who the driver really was.

Janelle sneaks into her father's office to browse through his files for any information; while she looks through them, she finds pictures of dead bodies. Only, it's not like any other corpse she's used to seeing, it's radiation burns. The victims' body have been burned. What's worse, behind these dead bodies are countdowns, but to what? She investigates more and finds out her John Doe was already dead before he'd hit her -- over radiation burns. She talks to Ben about what happened That Night and he tells her what she needs to know and comes to the conclusion that this countdown may be to the end the world, now she has to find a way to stop it....

Yawn. I'm sorry, it's just not my thing. Though I must admit, at some point Unraveling had me on the edge of my seat, but my eagerness was immediately wiped away by the constant swear words (it was just too much and annoying!), random passages, the insta-love, and the ending. I stopped on page 290, I skimmed through the rest and read the last few chapters. Why is there going to be a sequel? This should have been the only book.

But this story had some high points:

Kate and Janelle's friendship How they went from growing up together to drifting apart because the other wanted to fit in with the "cool kids". It's really sad reading about stuff like this. Janelle is left to deal with things on her own (she does have Alex, but we all need that one female contact).

Janelle's mom She's bipolar and Janelle raises her little brother on her own. Her father is always out solving crimes. I loved Janelle and Jared's relationship.

Ben Michaels I'm not only interested in his powers, but him in general. He's that smart kid that doesn't do any work in school. He's the quiet; shy boy while his friends are loud and very vulgar. I liked Ben. The insta-love between him and Janelle was just sad. Janelle notices him after he saves her life; while Ben's been in love with her since he was 10.
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