Review: The Unquiet by Jeannine Garsee

"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?"

Title: The Unquiet

Author: Jeannine Garsee

Release Date: July 17, 2012

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Pages: 388, Hardcover

The Unquiet reminded me a lot of The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer.

Kind of.

Besides the ghosts and all that in this novel, there was definitely that psychological thriller aspect in there. Yes, the ghost-part was a little scary, but no, the psyc.-thriller part wasn't as awesome as Mara Dyer. In fact, The Unquiet left me really, really disappointed. Furthermore, the novel was way too stretched out for me, and I think it could've been shorter. Or maybe that's just me, wanting the story to be over.

The characters completely fell flat for me. None of them stood out. I didn't like Rinn, the main character, because I just couldn't connect. Sure, she was different than most characters because she is bipolar and almost committed suicide, but okay. Alrighty. Now what? And at first, I liked Nate (the love interest) a lot but then I just grew really bored of him. And all of Rinn's "friends"? Shaaalllooww. Why would you ever be friends with them?

Also, the concept didn't even make much sense. There was a LOT of things going on. I understand that it had the psychological thriller-type thing going, and the point is to blow your mind, but some areas just could have been elaborated more. For example, the Voice(s). It was pretty much described in one sentence. And the shadows. I would have loved to hear more of the history behind that.

Lastly, the ending was just disappointing. UM, HELLO. Isn't the conclusion of a novel supposed to be AWESOME since it's kind of what the reader remembers? Well, in this case, it just kind of ended for me. They were supposed to figure out the whole ghost business. They did, but in a way that I wasn't expecting (in a bad way). I was expecting so much more EPIC from it. The build up and tension right before the conclusion was so great, and then it sky-dived suddenly into a shallow pit that left me extremely disappointed.

The ONLY reason why I could finish this book was the creepiness. Yes, I do love me some creep-factor! I was pretty scared. Yeah, I liked it. It kept me up on my toes, and the suspense was really heavy at some points!

In the long run, The Unquiet was a shudder-some novel that wasn't exactly for me, simply because the characters didn't stand out, the concept left me perplexed, and the result fell short of my expectations.

Nonetheless, if you like creepy ghost and thriller-type novels, I'd recommend giving this one a try.

Grade: C+

Source: Publisher via Netgalley--thank you Bloomsbury!