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A review by m_h_dahl
The Unquiet by Jeannine Garsee
2.0
Is they’re really a YA novel without a scene where the teens sit in a circle with candles and play Ouija board, and suddenly scary, inexplicable things happen and the candles go out, it gets so so dark and everyone gets scared?
I think The Unquiet is somehow a pale version of Mean Girls.
Or a non-scary version of The Vampire Diaries, but without any vampires.
Or a bad version of Pretty Little Liars, but without an A who blackmailes someone.
You have probably read about similar characters before. The mean girls who gang backbite each other when one of them is not present. The handsome, popular jackass on the football team. The outcast girl who is laughed at. The mentally ill protagonist with a mysterious and dark past, that can not always trust her own senses. Did it really happen, or was it just something she imagined? We never know for sure.
I think the book is more about the main character trying to be liked by the mean girls, than that it is actually a mystery.
When I read a mystery / horror novel, I need it to be beautiful in the mundane, with interesting characters, and with a fine line between the grotesque and the beauty.
The atmosphere must be some kind of a dark, twisted fairy tale with destructive, huge cracks beneath the surface.
The setting must be captivating - which in this case is a pool in a high school. Therefore, it took a lot to raise this story to the same level as the fantastic book cover … Had it not been for the captivating book cover, I dom’t think I would have picked up this book in the first place …
The Unquiet is a non-scary ghost story with shallow personalities, banalities and clichés.
The fact that I actually finished reading this book is almost a miracle. But once I start a book, I always think they deserve a chance before I give it up. I skimmed it only for the paragraphs that seemes interesting - but no, this wasn’t horror to me. Not at all.
So if you are looking for horror that scares the shit out of you, this is probably not the right book.
And it’s not a guarantie at all that you automatically would like this book only cause you’re fan of the movie Black Swan … It's fairer to compare this book to the TV-show, Scream - just replace the serial killer with a ghost … This reading was a waste of time for me - and I’m a huge fan of Black Swan!)
A book can definitely not be written for everyone, and The Unquiet wasn’t written for me.
But if you’re hooked on gritty and bloody teen series and need a dose of high school drama, with some ghosts, mean girls and a mentally ill protagonist who refuse to take her medicines and caused by that, maybe is a killer in her past (- cause it’s always like that with mentally illness in movies and books: it is often sooo exaggerated, and isn’t exactly helpful in combating prejudices about mental illness.)
Sounds interesting? you've probably found the right book.
(The Unquiet gets an extra star for having a fantastic book cover)
I think The Unquiet is somehow a pale version of Mean Girls.
Or a non-scary version of The Vampire Diaries, but without any vampires.
Or a bad version of Pretty Little Liars, but without an A who blackmailes someone.
You have probably read about similar characters before. The mean girls who gang backbite each other when one of them is not present. The handsome, popular jackass on the football team. The outcast girl who is laughed at. The mentally ill protagonist with a mysterious and dark past, that can not always trust her own senses. Did it really happen, or was it just something she imagined? We never know for sure.
I think the book is more about the main character trying to be liked by the mean girls, than that it is actually a mystery.
When I read a mystery / horror novel, I need it to be beautiful in the mundane, with interesting characters, and with a fine line between the grotesque and the beauty.
The atmosphere must be some kind of a dark, twisted fairy tale with destructive, huge cracks beneath the surface.
The setting must be captivating - which in this case is a pool in a high school. Therefore, it took a lot to raise this story to the same level as the fantastic book cover … Had it not been for the captivating book cover, I dom’t think I would have picked up this book in the first place …
The Unquiet is a non-scary ghost story with shallow personalities, banalities and clichés.
The fact that I actually finished reading this book is almost a miracle. But once I start a book, I always think they deserve a chance before I give it up. I skimmed it only for the paragraphs that seemes interesting - but no, this wasn’t horror to me. Not at all.
So if you are looking for horror that scares the shit out of you, this is probably not the right book.
And it’s not a guarantie at all that you automatically would like this book only cause you’re fan of the movie Black Swan … It's fairer to compare this book to the TV-show, Scream - just replace the serial killer with a ghost … This reading was a waste of time for me - and I’m a huge fan of Black Swan!)
A book can definitely not be written for everyone, and The Unquiet wasn’t written for me.
But if you’re hooked on gritty and bloody teen series and need a dose of high school drama, with some ghosts, mean girls and a mentally ill protagonist who refuse to take her medicines and caused by that, maybe is a killer in her past (- cause it’s always like that with mentally illness in movies and books: it is often sooo exaggerated, and isn’t exactly helpful in combating prejudices about mental illness.)
Sounds interesting? you've probably found the right book.
(The Unquiet gets an extra star for having a fantastic book cover)