All Unquiet Things

Review Time! Another 2010 Debut that I have left til the last minute to read. I got this one from the local library which is well, my second home. It's got heaps of YA books! Well updated with new releases too! I wasn't actually going to read this book but when I saw it I couldn't help but pick it up...

Carly: She was sweet. Smart. Self-destructive. She knew the secrets of Brighton Day School’s most privileged students. Secrets that got her killed.

Neily: Dumped by Carly for a notorious bad boy, Neily didn’t answer the phone call she made before she died. If he had, maybe he could have helped her. Now he can’t get the image of her lifeless body out of his mind.

Audrey: She’s the reason Carly got tangled up with Brighton’s fast crowd in the first place, and now she regrets it—especially since she’s convinced the police have put the wrong person in jail. Audrey thinks the murderer is someone at Brighton, and she wants Neily to help her find out who it is.


As reluctant allies Neily and Audrey dig into their shared past with Carly, her involvement with Brighton’s dark goings-on comes to light. But figuring out how Carly and her killer fit into the twisted drama will force Audrey and Neily to face hard truths about themselves and the girl they couldn’t save.

The Short Story ? - All Unquiet Things is a complicated book to review. It explores the themes of loss, friendship, love and loneliness. It's written about a unsolved murder, the boy who can't cope and the girl who wants to know the truth. It's dark, it's haunting and it's full of mystery and suspense. It's not my usual kind of a read but it was good. ( sorta)

The Long Story ? - All Unquiet Things was kind of an experiment for me. I have never read a mystery/murder novel without boys, designer clothes and who's cheating on who. I guess Pretty Little Liars is as far as I have explored in the mystery/murder genre and let's face it, it wasn't even that depressing to read. I enjoyed Unquiet Things but I can't say that it was easy for me to read or that I really found anything memorable.

For me All Unquiet Things was too slow moving. There was so much unnecessary information  given at the start I was tempted to put the book down ( but I didn't, of course) I would have been happy with a who,what, where and why instead of a 80 page recount on everything Carly was and wasn't along with how heart-brokened Neily is.

I'm not into the whole death and depression theme in books and I have to say that the roots of this book started from exactly that. Neily was all about feeling sorry for himself, about how he couldn't help Carly and while some people might find that heart-touching and shred a few tears for him, I found it boring. However, once we got past the whole death and depression and got onto the solving the murder, it was very interesting.

I admire the author's ability to write this book. If it was me, I would have given up long ago. To plan a entire book out, to write a full 300 pages and frame a murder on a character so that it makes sense and fits in with everything is something very difficult and clever. So many secrets were unraveled during the progress of solving the murder, it became an addiction to flick the pages faster and faster.

I would have probably enjoyed this book more if I felt comfortable with the writing, it seemed to stiff to me. Too formal and serious, while it fits with the dark plot of All Unquiet Things, personally, I felt it was not comfortable.

Overall, it was a good book, but it could have been better. I loved the whole murder /mystery /detective /secret plot but the writing was uncomfortable for me to read and there was too much death and depression for my liking. Rating 3/5

Badass Bookie xx