Review Detail

I seriously want to hug Elizabeth Norris right now. Really. The huge, bear-hug kind (just ignore how creepy that sounds). Because she is a genius.

There’s something in this book for everything. The sci-fi elements are kick-ass amazing. I think this is one of my favorite books dealing with alternate and parallel universes in the sense that everything seems so carefully laid out and easily explained. I’ve read all these books with intricate back stories and worlds that are then explained in pages upon pages of info-dump-ish paragraphs. But it wasn’t like that in Unraveling – the information is easy to absorb, and it only takes a few sentences. It wasn’t given to us all at once, either. Some of the information you’d piece together yourself in the midst of the action, and some we’d learn along side Janelle, our main character.

There’s also a lot of tension and the feeling that something’s going to happen soon at each turn of the page – and something does. Norris does this amazing job of keeping us all on our toes. Once we think we know something, she’d flip it completely upside down. I also loved the way the chapters were laid out, and how they each started with a countdown.

Norris also balances out the sci-fi and the romance in a way that doesn’t make it seem as if the romance is too overpowering, and yet you can also see how it’s a major – and necessary – part of the story. Everything really fits together here, and nothing happens ‘just because’ or ‘for the characters’ convenience.’ While I kind of really liked Nick (who, by the way, just seemed to disappear – what’s up with that?), Ben and Janelle made an awesome couple. They were strong, and dependent on each other without being too dependent in the sense that, yes, you could take one away from the other without throwing them into depression. And they were both strong individuals, too.

But I think my favorite part of it all was the ending. I mean, there were so many different ways the author could’ve ended it. It could’ve gone with the traditional and common ‘lets all hold hands and skip off into the sunset style,’ but it didn’t. Not everything was perfect. There were losses, there were gains, and the way she ended this story was both a little expected and yet heart-wrenching because you knew it was comming – that it was going to happen -, but you don’t want it to.

Unraveling is a mind-blowing, jaw-dropping book that has a little something for everyone. Grab yourself a copy, and prepare to read it all in one sitting because, chances are, that’s exactly what’s going to happen.