Review: The Unquiet by Jeannine Garsee

The Unquiet by Jeannine Garsee

Publication Date: July 17th, 2012
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Page Count: 388 pages
Format: ebook
Source: eARC provided by publisher via NetGalley

Synopsis From Goodreads:

Sixteen-year-old Rinn Jacobs has secrets: One, she’s bipolar. Two, she killed her grandmother.

After a suicide attempt, and now her parents' separation, Rinn and her mom move from California to the rural Ohio town where her mother grew up. Back on her medications and hoping to stay well, Rinn settles into her new home, undaunted by the fact that the previous owner hanged herself in Rinn's bedroom. At school, her classmates believe the school pool is haunted by Annaliese, a girl who drowned there. But when a reckless séance goes awry, and terrible things start happening to her new friends—yet not to her—Rinn is determined to find out why she can’t be "touched" by Annaliese...or if Annaliese even exists.

With the help of Nate Brenner, the hunky “farmer boy” she’s rapidly falling for, Rinn devises a dangerous plan to uncover the truth. Soon reality and fantasy meld into one, till Rinn finds it nearly impossible to tell the difference. When a malevolent force threatens the lives of everyone she cares about--not to mention her own--she can't help wondering: who should she really be afraid of?

Annaliese? Or herself?

My Thoughts:

I was really looking forward to reading The Unquiet, and I really wanted to love it, but in the end I thought it was just okay. The premise is enticing and there is plenty of drama and angst - enough to make things interesting and to keep me reading to find out what happens next. The writing is very descriptive and keeps the story entertaining.

The author does manage to keep up the creepy factor throughout the book. I just felt that the story kept going and going without any sort of resolution in sight. I want to compare it to any of the scary movie series where the characters are killed off one by one, and the rest of them never get a clue and figure out who's doing it and how to survive. The viewer can't look away, even though they know what's coming. That's how I felt while reading The Unquiet.

I liked Rinn as a character, although I never personally connected with her. As the story progressed, I really started wondering how reliable Rinn was as the narrator. Was she delusional? Where these things really happening, or was it all in her imagination? Rinn was on so many drugs to help her bipolar disorder, and the way she described things going on around her it was as if she was watching from outside her body. The reader has no way of knowing if the goings on were real or just really weird!

Overall, I did enjoy reading The Unquiet, and I am interested in what Garsee will write next. I definitely recommend The Unquiet if you love scary and creepy! You will get your fill with this book.

My rating: 3 of 5 stars