Review: Unravelling

Unraveling
by Elizabeth Norris
ebook
464 pages
Published April 24th 2012
by Balzer + Bray

Summary 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.

Thoughts:
I have very high expectation of this book after reading all the rave reviews it has been garnering on the web. Although the book has quite an original storyline and not just putting some twist on the same tried and true formula, I was not quite blown away by it.

Likes
Janelle is a strong character and I'm glad that she's not some damsel in distress type waiting to be rescued by some guy although she was saved by Ben early on. She's a part time life guard on the beach, she's taking care of her family because her mother is bipolar and a loyal friend to Alex.

Dislikes
Unfortunately she makes stupid decisions sometimes and it really bugged me that she can recklessly get drunk or just run off somewhere in the middle of the night just to meet some guy. I don't know why the actions of these fictional teen characters starting to bugged me more and more lately. All the parents seemed  to be absent most of the time and the kids can pretty much do what they want which is really troubling.

The action started pretty late in the book and although Ben did save Janelle in the beginning, I think the bulk of the story is about how Janelle is coping with all of it and her family troubles. Not to mention her relationship conflicts with her supposedly ex-best friend, her not quite boyfriend and her male best friend which frankly speaking does not interest me at all. The mystery is only revealed half way through the story and after that everything is sort of rushed along. I know so many people are confused with the sci-fi elements of the story and I must say I'm quite confused myself. However, the concept of parallel dimension is certainly very intriguing and the idea behind the book is very unique although the execution left a lot to be desired.

Recommended for: Sci-fi fans
Verdict: 3 stars.

In my Debut Author Reading Challenge 
Available on: Amazon