Book Review: <em>And Then Everything Unraveled</em> by Jennifer Sturman

Title: And Then Everything Unraveled

Author: Jennifer Sturman

Pages: 256

Received from: author, free of charge.

Summary:

Delia Truesdale has no idea her life's about to change forever. She's too busy enjoying the California summer. Her internet tycoon mother, T.K. Truesdale, is out of town, and that means Delia can spend all her time at the beach, surfing. That is, until everything unravels.

Her mother suddenly goes missing, and everyone thinks she's dead - excpet Delia, who knows T.K.'s way too organized to simply disappear. But Delia's still sent to New York to live with her two aunts -- a downtown bohemian and an uptown ice queen.

And in case that's not bad enough, she also has to deal with a snooty new school and trying not to fall for the wrong guy. Oh, and finding her mother.

As she delves deeper into the tangle of conspiracies and lies surrounding T.K.'s disappearance, Delia begins to suspect that the wrong guy may be the right guy ... and that some secrets -- especially the dangerous ones - were never meant to be unraveled.

I knew the second I read the eye-catching title that Unraveled was right up my alley. Teen mystery, New York setting, uppidy school and wacky aunts. All it needed was a teen wizard of some sort and I would have died of happiness before I could write this review. Therefore, you about to read an audacious example of journalistic bias. Here we go.

Delia Truesdale lives with her anal-yet-brilliant scientist mother, happily enjoying the California surf and waiting to find her niche in society. That is, until her mother goes missing on an expedition in the Arctic and the scientific community is all too quick to begin stirring up their own theories behind T.K.'s mysterious dissapearence. And Delia is quick to believe them--believe anything, in fact, that confirms her feeling of unease at the thought that her perfectly organized mother could just vanish without so much as a chunk of metal from her boat. Adding the fact that she has to assert these ideas to people who would gladly stick her in therapy rather then take them as legitimate concerns, a new school full of uppity douchenozzles and the tug of war between her two aunts in NYC.

The book is definitly one of those types where you start it, you haven't even gotten to the mystery yet and you're completly engrossed. At least, I was. But then, it's not too hard to hold my attention.

Right away, though, I could feel Sturman start to linger the line between mystery and contemperary romance, sometimes uncomfortably close to the latter. Maybe this should be some kind of crossover appeal, but I think the fact that it doesn't have any mythical creatures involved takes care of that aspect from the first page. I think the reason I kept on reading was because I was waiting for more informtation, more clues about TK's disapearence. At one point I was thumping my head against things because it was getting dangerously close to forgetting the mystery all together.

Luckily, towards the end Sturman remembered the novel she was writing and moved aside her silly romantic subplot. Which, I say, thank Jesus she did, else I would have taken one shit of a stompin' over that thing. In her defense, all the characters were interesting enough that even while at my most frustrated I was still delighted at how fun the aunts were to listen to, how witty Delia's narrative was and how adorable the Love Interest proved to be. A solid read, for sure, though would probably appeal more the the Sarah Desson readers then the Agatha Christie ones.

Rating: 7

Also: OMG HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS OMG is anyone else hugely excited for the Battle of Hogwarts? Shit's gonna get epic.

But then, Hedwig dies. And Fred. And George's ear.

Not as excited anymore.