Elizabeth NorrisRecensioni

Oh hey sequel to the book I was surprisingly in love with last year. How are you? Doing well? Life treating you good? Because I was rocked by reading you.

:ahem: Sorry guys, Unraveling made an impression on me (as did the e-book book "Undone" from Ben's POV) that Unbreakable had a bit to live up to. Which it did. So breathe easier now.

Quote: "She's so tough, its frightening. That girl will outlive us all." (pg 331, HC)

That quote up top there is the reason why this duology consistently pleases me. We're given an idea of what Janelle could have been like if some details had been changed, but largely kept similar. Unbreakable also addresses the idea that was brought up several times in Unraveling (and "Undone" for that matter), but largely unimportant to the plot. Its more relevant to this book however--that is the nature of 'doubles' across the multiverses.

Unbreakable doesn't pull punches. We see the devastation that Janelle's world is left with and its frightening honestly. Despite how messed up the world is, how insane and militaristic everything is now because its a necessity to keep everyone calm and safe, I wouldn't say all is lost. Life is far from normal, but there is some normalcy. Board games, the tedium of school, movie night--these normal activities keep Janelle's world from being completely bleak.

Barclay re-enters the picture and that's an interesting moment. He just can't turn up, be like 'Hey what's up? Let me follow procedure and explain the really dire circumstances so no one gets the wrong idea and doesn't trust me'. He's just as arrogant and smug as he was in Unraveling, but he's also got a desperate edge. And desperation makes people...secretive at times.



We learn throughout the novel that the IA (Interverse Agency) is pretty much everything he ever wanted. He wanted to make a difference, not just in his world, but in others. Through him we learn more about Prima, about the multiverses and about what could be at stake. I found that I liked the gradual understanding that grows between Janelle and Barclay, plus he offered a look into the larger picture that Janelle didn't care quite as much about.

Janelle and Ben take a sideways turn that I think would have bothered me more if I hadn't read "Undone". Without spoiling the choice that Ben makes, one that Janelle finds hard to fathom or forgive (especially after she encounters a similar moment of confusion), makes a whole lot more sense when you realize what he had been through when he made that choice. Its not perfect and its messy, but from Janelle's POV it makes sense why she's in so much pain because of it.

My one real complaint with the novel is the repetition. Maybe because I was so keen to find out what was going on and how it would wrap up I was more easily irritated by Janelle's constant repetition of facts. How guilty she felt over Alex's death. How much she missed Ben and held his memory so dear. How much was at stake. It felt like these things were brought up an awful lot.

In the end however this book keeps you moving at a break neck speed. Its set over an even shorter time span than the first book (7 and half days give or take some time in the end) and while it seems like a LOT is crammed into that week, when you break it down its not really as much as it feels like (considering how little they slept). This was a wonderful companion/sequel to Unraveling and well worth checking out!

Prelim Review: This book was surprising in a lot of ways for me. The premise interested me, as did some of the reviews I saw around the web, but honestly I kept putting it off. The first chapter didn't grab me initially so I kept placing it lower and lower on my reading pile until I finally realized it was out in stores so I should get a move on.

I'm really glad I did. It was gripping, tense and (most of the time) fast paced. The kind of back and forth narrative threw me originally, but I got used to it over time. The book is set up much like the 'countdown' Janelle is trying to solve. So much so that entire days go by without any chapters, or several chapters bunched together form half a day story wise.

This reminded me of Sliders though, which was one of my favorite science fiction shows back in the 90's (before it got picked up by the then SciFi Channel and so drastically altered by the last episode I wasn't surprised a formerly dead character came back as a head in a glass container because it made more sense than everything else). I should say that Ben, Elijah and Reid reminded me of the universe-hopping crew of the original season.

Full review to be posted at Poisoned Rationality

Oh my shiny stars...told from Ben's …POV and starting before he saved Janelle's life we see just how much he was torn between fixing a wrong he was only partially responsible for and moving on. I have to admit on paper, comparing his actions to other YA male love interests, he sounds like a super-creep.

He admits to this, justifying himself by pointing out he understands he's being creepy. But I think what sets him apart is that he doesn't force his attentions on Janelle. We see various 'crucial' moments in his life (involving her) before he saves her and each time its sort of sweet how he's like "All right I got this, we will talk and she'll find me funny and--there goes my chance. If i talk to her now it would be creepy. Well there's always next time."

We also get to see how his and Eli's homecoming was NOT what they (or anyone could reasonably) expect. My heart broke for them, and their families. I think things were a bit too easy in the case of Reid's family though.
And then there's the after-after which sets up UNBREAKABLE's (dire sounding) plot and THAT is horrific to imagine.

Requires a bit more suspension of disbelief than is typical even for sci-fi type stuff, but overall it was a fun, action-packed read. I could have done without the inaccurate reduction of feminism (feminism isn't saying that men and women (or non-binary people) are the same, but that they should be treated as the same, which are two very different things) and I think that the duology has some confusing gender messages but I'm willing to let it go. Especially since there was no love triangle, which I apparently will forgive a lot for.

It's hard to say much about this book because it is one where I think you should go in with as little plot detail as possible. There has been more than one "Veronica Mars meets the X-Files" reference, and as someone who just got her KS VM shirt yesterday, that's not a bad thing at all to be.

The plot's pretty good, genuinely surprising, and not afraid to take HUGE risks. Admittedly some cutesy stuff along the way falls a little flat--I do cringe through the scene where heroine and love interest debate marriage proposals in AP English.

But the emotional core, and the character of Janelle Tenner, are major bonus points for this one--a heroine (like Veronica) with no special powers but smarts and determination that lets her play with big boys on cases of incredible importance. I could totally buy why she was worthy of such devotion AND oblivious to it. Her devotion to her family isn't just the common YA lip service. A late-book scene with the heroine and her brother was very real and striking. The intense and intensely platonic friendship she has with her male best friend is touching and refreshing. More in the Everdeen than Swan mold by a longshot, but Janelle is much more emotionally accessible than the former, badass though she may be.

So overall I'm thrilled to know there's more, although it does stand alone pretty well. I can't imagine where to take the story from the end, but it's got to be something!

This book reminded me quite a bit of Neal Shusterman's The Dark Side of Nowhere, one of my all-time read-it-600-times YA books. I'd definitely recommend it to others.

Why ding a star, assuming 5 to be the default, and points deducted only for flaws? Well, it's author Elizabeth Norris's freshman effort and it was very good. I think she has great things ahead.

Loved, loved, loved this book. Janelle is such a wonderful main character. She's strong, smart, and badass. I love the way she cares for her family and friends and will do anything to keep them safe. I was also surprised at how much Norris made me like Taylor Barclay. This is a different YA series. After all, how many of books are there about parallel universes? Although I did read somewhere on the internet that this was just going to be a two books series, I can see where there's potential to keep this series going on forever (Janelle could just keep having adventures in other universes and maybe join the IA). That would be awesome. I think the author and publishers need to rethink this two book idea. ;)

This book played to so many aspects of my sci-fi geek. First, Janelle's dad is a total geek. He raised his kids watching X-files and going to Comic Con. There's one scene where they're carrying on a conversation using X-files quotes and I laughed so much because not only did I get it all but my family has done that. Then there were echos of Roswell and Sliders in the story and Firefly even made an appearance. Now you know I'm loving a book when they reference Firefly. The dialogue was witty and fun.

But the novel was a lot more than the geek references. There was a good story in here. Janelle becomes a regular Nancy Drew when she decides to investigate one of her dad's cases on her own and finds herself in danger. Norris keeps the plot moving quickly. She Janelle's a tough and smart girl. She figures things out and never thinks about herself when there's danger. She worries about her brother, her dad, and her best friend, Alex. Even at the end of the book, Janelle thinks more about what's best for Ben and not herself.

Norris also doesn't pull any punches when it comes to keeping characters safe. She broke my heart not just once but twice in this story with deaths. And I love that in a book. It keeps me on my toes as a reader and makes the story more intense.

Unraveling could easily stand on its own but I am glad that there is a second book planned as I want to see more of Janelle and Ben.

You have to give this book a little. At least to 25 percent.

But then it gets really good. Like, Amazing.

Real review to come.

Just as good as the first time I read it!

Not bad. It was like a big mashup of some shows I really like: Roswell, Fringe, Sliders and Veronica Mars (haven't seen Sliders? Go to Netflix, it's freaking awesome). I'm not ignoring the fact that a lot was straight lifted from these shows (not derivative...lifted). It drags in places, but everything takes off starting on page 361...out of 400 pages...so, awkward. Anyway, I enjoyed it, I'll read the sequel as well.

Elizabeth Norris has an amazing talent for building tension. Every single chapter of Unraveling ends on a nail-biting cliffhanger that makes putting this book aside extremely difficult. Also in the tension department is the fact that some chapters are very short, which makes it easy to shrug and think, okay, one more chapter and then I'll go to bed. Yeah, right. Suddenly it was 3am and I'd flown through something like 200 pages and I had to FORCE MYSELF to close the book and get some sleep.

Things I really liked:
1. The romance. Janelle and Ben's relationship was very touching and real for me, and I enjoyed watching their love bloom even over a short period of time.
2. The plot's originality. Norris is far from the first person to use parallel universes as a plot line (first thing that comes to mind is the His Dark Materials series), but the take is fresh and deliciously scifi without getting bogged down with needless details. Listen, the science doesn't matter. Give me the opportunity to suspend my belief, and I will follow your plot to the end of the world. Norris did this well.
3. I mentioned the tension, right? Well, it's worth mentioning again. Norris is the type of author who hits the reader with a bunch of little plot points that all add up to a whole lot of story. Huge revelations came just about every chapter and yet evolved naturally. I always felt engaged and every time it seemed like the action was ramping down, something dramatic would happen. Earthquakes during English class, anyone? Okay!

Things I didn't like so much:
1. The whole thing with Kate went nowhere. Now, I understand that there will always be time for Kate in the sequel, but still. Nothing bothers me more than having seemingly important characters introduced, make me remember who they are, and then never do much with them except glare at them from across the room.
2. Alex's death. What. The. Heck. It seemed contrived and horrible and just downright wrong. When you have a guy around who can heal people with a touch, the tension is gone from a character's death scene. So when Alex got shot, I was completely meh because I knew Ben would bring him back to life. But then when Alex's spirit or whatever did not come back to his body for unknown reasons, I felt deceived and cheated. I wasn't sad--I was angry. And don't tell me that it was Alex's "time". It so was not. Bah. This completely unnecessary death also overshadowed Ben and Janelle's parting scene. Even as invested as I was in their relationship, I couldn't bring myself to feel very much. I was just numb.

Overall, however, I really liked this book. It was, in a word, gripping. I look forward to the sequel.

A Fantastic read. Loved every minute of it, the story was so engrossing I found it hard to put down. The writing flowed with a cast of well flushed out characters. The protagonist Janelle has a lot on her plate to deal with than the typical teenager but she doesn't fall apart she handles them with strength and determination. I think the stuff she has to deal with made her who she is, a strong willed no nonsense girl. A really fantastic book.

This novel was really good! I enjoyed every second of it! (Although I need the next book, like, NOW!) The characters were awesome, and so was the plot and writing!

Let's start off with Janelle, I really liked her, she is realistic and caring, so is her brother and her dad. Her mother is too, although she has her problems. Janelle kind of raised herself and her brother. Her Mother is mentally ill and her dad disappears at work most days and nights. But she has her best friend Alex, and she stil knows her dad is mostly there for her. Janelle is pretty awesome. She has some killer qoutes, I would share them with you if I could actually remember them, and I don't want to go hunting for them now, maybe I'll share them later. Well, anyway, she is sarcastic, sweet, and doesn't take to being messed with.

Ben is amazing. Although I felt we didn't see quite enough of him. In fact, this whole book passed really fast. It is definitely action packed! The science fiction part was very well done too! I won't say anything more than that so I don't spoil anything!

The chapters were really cool and added to the story. At the top of each it shows the countdown! ( I loved the countdown part of the story!) And the varying lengths left an impression, 3 paragraphs to ten pages!

Just to let you know, some important characters die, I won't say who, no spoilers! But, while I wasn't heartbroken, I felt for Janelle and the victims.

Overall, this book was awesome! I enjoyed it! However, I didn't feel enough strong emotion in myself for this to be 5 star, you know? I didn't feel as embedded into the characters as I do with The Host, or Harry Potter, for example. A kind of, I don't care feeling just sometimes washed over me.

I would definitely reccomend this! I loved the plot and all the action!

Loved, loved, loved this book! It's got so many great features: sci-fi elements, end of the world events, romance, and heartbreak.

Janelle is your typical high school girl until she gets hit by a truck. Then all hell breaks loose. There are earthquakes, wild fires, and unexplainable deaths. All the makings of a great book.

Janelle is a strong character. She takes what life has thrown at her, and tries to make the best of all situations. She's led a great, but stressful life. She's also very inquisitive, to the point where it could bite her in the butt. She can't seem to let the mysteries in her dad's files be put to rest. She needs to find out what is happening. Her best friend Alex is awesome. I love that he is witty and loyal. Alex is everything you want in a BFF. And that leads us to Ben. He's not a popular kid at school, and hangs out with questionable people. He's smart, hot and funny. I enjoyed being able to learn about him. I'd love to see things from his perspective though. That would be pretty awesome.

The story line was very fast paced. You are sucked in from the very beginning. I didn't want to put it down. There's a ton of mystery, and some great X-Files quotes. (Yes I'm one of those folks that loves that show.) The characters are what make this book so awesome. Their feelings aren't on the surface only. Each person has been through something that has made them who they are, and fuels their decisions in certain circumstances.

Since I listened to this book, I want to thank the narrator for doing such an amazing job throughout the book.

And a side note. Grab some tissue, cuz you may or may not need them.

This book was a disappointment. I was reeled in by the blurb and enjoyed the first part of the book, but then it became convoluted. There were just too many things happening to be realistic, especially when the sci fi element was introduced. Janelle wasn't a bad protagonist, she was outspoken, intelligent and caring, but the romance between her and Ben, like many of today's YA novels, happened far too quickly. I thought there would be more suspense in this book as the main characters raced against the clock to save the world, but basically "Unravelling" was just another teen romance.

Another unrealistically bad ass teenager saves the day, but isn't that pretty much what you'd expect from the genre? I enjoyed the story because of the characters and their interactions -- and of course the references to the X-Files, Firefly, and San Diego ComicCon -- not because I found the parallel universe or the teenage FBI-style agents believable.

I really liked how vivid the characters were in my mind as I listened and how real the relationships felt, with the exception of Janelle's mother. She was reduced to a caricature of someone suffering from bipolar (who clearly wasn't being properly medicated) and had no real relationship with anyone, to the point that I wondered why she was even in the story. (At one point I thought maybe she'd been snatched from another universe as a child and that's why she was mentally unstable, but there was nothing to that effect in the first or second books in the series.)

I enjoyed the parallel universe idea only b/c it's something I hadn't yet encountered in YA dystopian sci-fi, and I read so much of that that I always appreciate a different angle. But the whole idea of separate universes that have the exact same people (down to the same names) seems completely improbable. The moment one universe separates from another, some people would inevitably make different decisions that would lead to completely different outcomes -- and offspring. Some of the first generation offspring might be similar to their parallel universe counterparts, but after a few more generations, they'd undoubtedly diverge to the point that the second universe would be filled with completely different people.

That drove me crazy about the parallel universes in the TV show Fringe, as well. And yet I really loved the show. I gave this book four stars, so clearly I'm capable of hoisting my disbelief out of the way if I enjoy the characters enough :-)

I listened to this immediately after I finished the first in the series, so my review of the first covers both.

There better be Ben in this one..:P

Things all start when Janelle Tenner is killed by a truck, however she's saved by a boy, a boy she has noticed but has never seemed to notice her back. Now she's involved in a race against time to save the world, but can their romance survive.

I liked this one, liked the characters and how they made hard decisions because they should, and weren't afraid to abide by those decisions. An interesting read that kept me wondering.

When it comes to Unraveling, I had just been looking for something quick and easy to read. Don't get me wrong, I've had it for a long time and thought the summary sounded good, sadly when I read it I got just that, a quick and easy ready that didn't wow me at all.

Janelle, the main character, is working her last day at the beach, its also the last day of summer before she goes back to school. Everything seems to be going fine, she's with her boyfriend, they haven't had an incident in the water (she's a lifeguard) and she's making plans with her friends, until while leaving to pick her brother up she is hit by by a truck and brought back to life (a little bit Twilight-esk move if you ask me) by the school's loner Ben. She knows she's died, because her life flashes before her eyes and she is remembering things about her mother before she was unhappy most of the time. Not only is she remembering things about her self, but it seems she is also seeing into Ben's thoughts and memories as he heals her. She knows she's right, and not crazy, but trying to corner and confront Ben is looking like a more difficult task than she thought.

At home her mum is bi-polar and no longer the person she once was, her dad is an FBI agent and constantly away all the time, which leaves her and her brother Jared. She practically raises him, feeds him and makes sure he gets to school on time. Hell she practically looks after them all. But her dad is on a new case a bit closer to home, one with a series of strange and random deaths. Janelle and her best friend Alex decided to do some investigating their self but Janelle soon finds out that the deaths, and her new mysterious Ben, may be linked in ways she never thought possible. Doubt of her new love interest and the discovery of a clock counting down to something terrible, Janelle knows that no matter what she might find she has to keep on searching for answers. After all she's lost too much already.

If I'm honest, I didn't like Janelle's character, that's not to say she was a bad one, I just did.. feel a spark with her. I didn't really get her relationship with Ben, at times I felt she thought she 'loved him' more out of the fact that he saved her life. There was moments when I felt like it was all one sided. It's strange, with Ben I never doubted his feelings, they were right out there in the open and granted I felt them to be a bit borderline stalkerish sometimes, they were still true. There were only a handful of times I felt anything for Janelle's character, times when it was just impossible not to. So like I said, she wasn't a bad character I just found her annoying at times. As far as sub characters go, I loved Alex, he made me laugh and really seemed like a loyal friend (at times I thought he was secretly in love with Janelle but I've been wrong before) and he was just a character that I warmed to. Ben's best friend Elijah and Reid however I could not. I think that is because they didn't try setting any roots down or connecting with more people, they were just so focused on one thing and even though I know it was a big thing, I also would have liked to see them actually give others the time of day instead of just brushing them of

So much happened in this book and it made it damn near impossible to stay focused. If it was spaced out a little bit more between the series than maybe I would have liked it better. I really liked the idea behind the story, and I also know it was a début so I'm hoping that the others will be better. I didn't hate this book, not really. I just expected more than what I got but that's due to my own stupidly high standards.

This book is a great empowering read for young adults. Young adults because of words and content. It is about a girl who comes back from a near death experience and relives her life in a new found light. It's inspiring so much that I wish I had books like this to read when I was in high school. It would definitely help students over come high school social group pressures.

Janelle knows she died that day the truck hit her. All she remembers is seeing it hurtling toward her, then darkness. Then excruciating pain—and her classmate, Ben Michaels, standing over her. She knows she died, but she knows Ben brought her back.

This is freaky in and of itself, but things are starting to get even stranger in Janelle's life. Her father, an FBI agent, is investigating cases where unidentified bodies are showing up, with the cause of death being extreme radiation burns. They can't figure out where the bodies are coming from, or what caused the burns. In addition to all this, they've found a device with a countdown, though they aren't sure what the device does (is it a bomb? something worse?) and are unable to deactivate it. Janelle and her best friend Alex start their own investigation, eventually joined by Ben and his friends, but they may have gotten in over their heads—the fate of their world might be at stake.

Unraveling is a page-turner, for sure. It is a mystery, an apocalypse story, a love story, an action story all rolled into one. Janelle is an interesting character, and I enjoyed being in her head. She swears a lot, which I found pretty typical for a teenager, and she has a no-nonsense attitude that I liked.

As far as plot goes, when one of the big reveals happened (those who've read the book know which one I'm talking about), I did an eye-roll and thought, Really? But once the initial inner groaning stopped, I got back into the story. I really wanted to know why these strange and supposedly unexplained things were happening. I also loved that Norris made Janelle, her younger brother Jared, and her dad huge X-Files fans, which probably got me more excited about the unexplained stuff. Not that I was ever a huge X-Files fan, but it lent a nice flavor and atmosphere that would have been missing otherwise.

I read Anna's review for this on her blog while I was reading the book, and one thing I couldn't agree more with: I had a hard time believing Janelle's dad would leave his FBI files out everywhere for Janelle to find. It should not be that easy to hack into the federal government's system, even if it is your dad. Or, you know, go into his office and just grab papers and read them. Not likely. I almost wish Janelle had been older and an FBI agent herself; I think it would have been more believable.

Lovers of romance will be happy, too, since Ben turns out to be a romantic interest for Janelle, though *gasp* it's a forbidden romance! To me, this wasn't a huge plot point in the novel since I wasn't that interested in their quickly developed relationship/didn't really care if they ended up together, but I know I'm speaking only for myself. The more important aspect for me was the adventure and mystery of it all.

A couple more things that annoy me. 1) The cover. Janelle is described as olive-skinned, and to me the girl on the cover seems a bit whitewashed for my tastes. Also, I usually hate covers with models. 2) There were some characters that I found to be unnecessarily added in. Not a whole lot of development, not a whole lot of purpose, but in there enough for me to wonder why they were important. There were also a few subplots that didn't really turn into anything and I couldn't help but wonder why they were even included at all, since they were distracting from the real story.

Despite a few weak plot points and issues with suspension of disbelief, Unraveling was enjoyable. Not the greatest sci-fi book I've read in the past year, but fun. If you like high stakes, sci-fi, X-Files-y stuff, and a bit of edginess, this might be worth a read for you. Just beware: it's a bit thick, weighing in at 464 pages.

Review originally posted here: http://tahleenreads.blogspot.com/2012/07/review-unraveling-by-elizabeth-norris.h...

Daughter of FBI agent uses her sleuthing skills to find the answer to the mystery of a catastrophic countdown the origin of which is unknown. Turns out our heroine is right at the center of this mystery in more ways than one.

Lots of action, a little bit of romance and incredible characters make this debut novel a good read.

I think the editing was probably heavy and didn't always translate what the author intended. Character development is good and believable. The primary element that keeps this story from being 4 stars is the impression that certain parts of the story are steam-rolled or fast-forwarded. Again, it feels like it was an editing issue, versus author delivery.

I look forward to the next novel from Norris.

Update: my review of Unraveling is up! check it out here to find out why I gave this wonderful book only 3.5 stars...

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3.5 stars
Because even though this book was a 5 star up until the three or so last chapters, those chapters just made me feel so freakin' meh about it. They damn near cancelled all the amazingly good feels I had for Unraveling. I don't know what to do. Maybe I'll feel more forgiving when I write the review, but right now I just... I can't even.

I had heard good things about this series and it did live up to its hype. I wasn't sure exactly where it was going most of the book but I enjoyed it and will be continuing the series sometime soon.