Title: All Unquiet Things
Author: Anna Jarzab
Pages: 352
Genre: Young Adult; Mystery
Etc:
The Short of It
Secrets lead to death; mystery unsolved.
The Long of It
Neily first met Carly in middle school. It was his first day interviewing for a very elite and academically challenging program. Carly made him feel at home and they were immediately inseparable. Until Carly decided that she needed a change, years later, and dumped Neily to hang out with her cousin Audrey and the “in” crowd.
Then, one night Carly calls Neily repetitively. He refuses to answer the phone, still pretty pissed about the breakup. Those are phone calls that Neily will beat himself up over for not answering. Carly ends up dead. Murdered.
The police convict Audrey’s father for the murder, but Aurdrey doesn’t believe it. A year later, she enlists Neily to delve deep into the lies and scandals of the in-crowd to prove her father’s innocence and find closure.
The Thoughts about It
All Things Unquiet is told in alternating voices of Neily and Audrey. I found this a bit distracting because the chapters are miniature-sized, but rather we’re inside Neily’s mind, for say, a hundred or so pages and then all of a sudden we step into Audrey’s for twenty or thirty and then back to Neily. (1) By the time I got to Audrey it felt forced and unnatural.
Besides that one gripe, though, the mystery was GREAT. It really had me guessing up until the last page. And then, when it was finally revealed, I was like “OMG, OF COURSE!”. Seriously. I don’t read enough mysteries to suggest that this is the end-all-be-all, but it was misleading, so that’s gotta mean something right?
(1) This is a loose estimation. I could easily pull the book off of the bookshelf for an accurate and precise number, but I’m just that lazy and refuse. *grin*
This does sound good! I'm a fan of the alternating viewpoints, nearly always.
ReplyDeleteI don't read many YA mysteries, but this sounds good, even if the alternating viewpoints don't quite work.
ReplyDelete