UNRAVELLING BY ELIZABETH NORRIS

ISBN: 9780007460212
Publisher: Harper Collins Childrens Books
Pages: 416


BLURB from Goodreads
24 meets the X Files in the biggest teen blockbuster of the summer…

STOP THE COUNTDOWN. SAVE THE WORLD…

Leaving the beach, seventeen-year-old Janelle Tenner is hit head on by a pickup truck.

And killed.

Then Ben Michaels, resident stoner, is leaning over her. And even though it isn’t possible, she knows Ben somehow brought her back to life…

Meanwhile, Janelle’s father, a special agent for the FBI, starts working on a case that seems strangely connected to Ben. Digging in his files, Janelle finds a mysterious device – one that seems to be counting down to something that will happen in 23 days and 10 hours time.

That something? It might just be the end of the world. And if Janelle wants to stop it, she’s going to need to uncover Ben’s secrets – and keep from falling in love with him in the process…

MY REVIEW
Wow! I don't quite know what I was expecting, but this book definitely exceeded my expectations. It is a mixture of the following genres, Sci-Fi, Dystopian, Apocalyptic, Romance and YA- lit all rolled into one great read. This book is not an easy, quick read, it's a more thought provoking, involved story.
You immediately become attached to the main character Janelle who literally stumbles into something from another world. But I can't say too much because I want everyone to buy the book and read it for themselves. 

The byline of  "24 meets the X Files" is very fitting and there are references within the book to Mulder and Scully which are good too, though you don't have to faithfully watch the x-files to understand the references in the book.

The book covers Janelle's family life & the fact that her father isn't around much as he works for the FBI. Also Janelle's mother has a mental health condition so spends a lot of time away sleeping in her room. All this shows why Janelle is so mature and independent and explains why she takes things into her own hands a lot. Janelle is also very responsible as she is a replacement parent figure to her brother Jared. This book covers many relationships, friendships that are close like that of Alex and Janelle. Then you experience the parental relationship between Alex and his mum whom he loves dearly but she drives him mad not allowing him freedom. His mum has Alex's future all mapped out. Compare that parental relationship to the one that Janelle has with her mum and dad. Janelle is more of a parent doing the cooking and cleaning the house. If Janelle's dad is going to be late home from work it is Janelle he telephones not his wife. Janelle is the one that makes sure Jared is up, fed and ready for school and she even feeds her father and his FBI colleagues.

We also see a friendship that has changed between Janelle and Kate. Kate betrayed Janelle's trust, though Janelle eventually comes to terms with this she cannot go back to the same sort of friendship as she had before. (You'll understand this more when you read the book)

This story has lots of intrigue, and kind of had you asking more and more questions as it goes on. The tension builds as you see the countdown timer getting less and less as you read the book, you feel like you are counting down, yet feeling the climax of the story approaching with characters. You feel their desperation to avoid the disaster that they feel will happen when the timer reaches zero. Elizabeth Norris keeps you in suspense a lot then slowly different areas of the story start to tie in and culminate in a conclusion that has loss, sadness, relief, joy, and yet more questions as to what happens next! Will there be a bk 2? Hmm I think there could be in how the story is left but then again it could also be left at the end of this book.

Now for the cover, now  I have discussed this with my daughter Rachel (Rai29BookReadNReview) and have to admit we cannot agree on this cover, I prefer the US which I have pictured below this review where Rachel prefers the UK version. The reason I prefer US version as the female on the front depicts Janelle and in my opinion the fact she stands out from the crowd she's not part of the popular crowd. 

Where as Rachel likes the UK cover as it has the countdown timer on the front and Janelle presumably passing through a portal. Also another option for an explanation of the US cover is that there are only two people on it just repeated which would possibly tie in with the alternate universe theory, ie Is there one of each of us on each universe? I just have to say that out of the two covers the US one is the one that I would pick up to read the back of in a book store. The spelling of Unraveling/Unravelling is also spelt differently on the book covers.

So, Did I enjoy the book? Yes I did. Would I read more by Elizabeth Norris? Yes, I enjoyed the fact you had to concentrate more on what was happening.

Available from Amazon.co.uk

So fellow blogger's and reader's the question I want to ask you is which cover do you prefer?
Myself and my daughter from Rai29BookReadNReivew are totally at odds on this one. I prefer the one just above which presumably is the US rest of the world cover, and my daughter Rachel prefers our Uk cover picture at the very top of this post? Help which do you prefer and any reason why?