I have to admit, I did not take to this book. Excellent writing clashes with unsympathetic characters and a snail-like plot to make ALL UNQUIET THINGS a difficult read for me.

There is no question that Jarzab's writing is great. Like Curtis Sittenfeld, Jarzab meticulously analyzes nearly every facet of Neily, Audrey, and Carly, making them feel as if they could be your flawed classmates. However, also like Sittenfeld's characters in Prep, Neily, Audrey, and Carly simply aren't very likable, sympathetic, or appealing. We know their history and their thought processes as if they were our therapy patientsâan overly intimate and annoying form of relationship that I, as a reader, found disturbing and unenjoyable.

I don't really mind psychoanalysisâat least not when the person has some ultimately redeemable qualities. However, the three main characters in ALL UNQUIET THINGS are just so unlikable. Neily spends most of his time sulking and remembering the past, his relationship with Carly, while Audrey bullies Neily into helping her uncover the mystery behind the identity of Carly's murderer.

I also found an unsettling disjuncture between how Audrey and Neily are in the present time, and who they were in their flashbacks. I think this is a result of all the telling-not-showing that went on in the narration. I don't want Neily to tell us that he hates Carly's new friends, then be shown a passing moment in which they snap off, like, two biting remarks to one another; I'd rather see the tension between the characters, the strain of the past versus the present, of what they think of one another versus who they truly are. As a result, I couldn't connect to the main characters as real people, so much like untouchable character sketches they were.

I mentioned earlier that Anna Jarzab is a great writer, and I'm not contradicting myself by saying so: if you enjoy ultra-complete character analyses, you'll find this a great book, a wonderful achievement by a debut author. However, I felt that her writing skills were unfortunately used in the wrong wayâtoo much in the telling and flashbacks, and not enough in the playing out of a genuinely interesting story arcâwhich led to my lack of connection with the book.

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My Thoughts: We meet Neily who used to be Carly's boyfriend before she dumped him for someone else. He isn't like everyone else, he's kind of a loner and is just "there." We meet Audrey who was Carly's cousin and her dad is the one who was convicted of Carly's murder. We are introduced to Carly in memories of Neily's and Audrey's. We meet all the side characters such as the classmates and Carly's recent boyfriend. Honestly, I didn't like this one as much as I wanted too. I had high expectations. Yes, it was good, but it just wasn't what I expected. There also was not much romance in it. It is clearly a murder mystery as you can tell from the description. Its worth a read and is long and I just felt like I couldn't connect to the characters as much as I would have liked. The ending was the best part, where we found out the person who actually killed Carly. I didn't really see that coming. It was still a good book, just not up to my 5 cupcake rating. It it still worth a read, especially if your more into mystery books than anything else.

Overall: I liked it. I liked Neily a lot more than Carly and Audrey or the side characters.

Cover: Like the cover. It fits the book.

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