Review: Unraveling by Elizabeth Norris

Unraveling
by Elizabeth Norris
Pages: 445
Format: Finished Copy
Source: Bought
Release Date: April 24, 2012
Publisher: Baltzer + Bray
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Sixteen-year-old Janelle Tenner is used to having a lot of responsibility. She balances working as a lifeguard in San Diago with an intense academic schedule. Janelle's mother is bipolar , and her dad is a workaholic FBI agent, which means that Janelle also has to look out for her younger brother,Jared.
And that was before she died... and is brought back to life by Ben Michaels, a mysterious, alluring loner from her high school. When she discovers a strange clock that seems to be counting down the days to the earth's destruction, Janelle learns she has twenty-four days to figure out how to stop the clock and save the planet.

I'll say in truth that I never would've looked twice at this book were it not for the fact that I got an ARC of its sequel. I am not the type for complicated science-y books, but this one seems to be an exception. When I was reading it, the world around me seemed to fade away, the sounds around me becoming faint echoes and only the words that Elizabeth Norris wrote pounding into my mind.

As a writer, Elizabeth Norris is truly talented. Not only does she provide her readers with an intriguing, completely out-of-the-box plot, she provides thought-provoking characters and an intriguing love interest. I'll start with this idea that she has come up with for her readers. In this book, high-schooler Janelle Tenner is hit by a truck out of nowhere one day toward the end of the summer. Inside of her, Janelle knows that she has died. But then, she is suddenly revived, seemingly by the strange loner Ben Michaels, a boy who she has never talked to, though she's gone to school with him for years. I'm not going to spoil the rest for you, but there are some fascinating elements that make up the rest of the story--Janelle's being brought back from the dead only a fraction of what the book is about.

Our heroine Janelle definitely kicks butt. She's witty and down-to-earth, and on the outside she seems tough and not-taking-any-shit. But really, she struggles to act like the adult in her family--her mother is bipolar and her father a full-time FBI agent. It's up to her to take care of her younger brother, Jared. One of the things I liked the most about Janelle was that she was completely no-nonsense, even with her relationship with Ben.

I LOVE BEN. I'm not exaggerating. I TOTALLY IN LOVE WITH BEN. He was just adorable and perfect (ok, not perfect, but you know what I mean) and totally cute and amazing. And now I have added yet another book boyfriend to my ever-expanding list. Sorry, Four, you might've just been outshined by Ben <3 <3 <3 I could go on and on and on about him, but for your sake I won't. :P

The one thing--and the only thing--that I think could've been slightly improved was the fact that until about 3 days before the supposed apocalypse no one was rushing around urgently to save the world. I mean, the world was going to end. So. . . um, isn't it better to start earlier rather than later?

This one was most certainly a page-turner! I stayed up late to finish it, and the exciting and grabbing plot was just scrumptiously amazing. 4.5 stars!