Miss Page-Turner's City of Books: Unraveling

Looking for some thrilling YA reads this summer and fall? Then these are your books! THE MURDER COMPLEX by Lindsay Cummings, BLACKBIRD by Anna Carey and UNRAVELING by Elizabeth Norris.

The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings

This debut transports its readers to a futuristic world where life means nothing and killing is everything. It's time for Meadow Woodson, who has been trained to fight and survive anything, to find her place in this cruel and dangerous society. Zephyr James is already part of that system, an assassin. Their roles in the system could uncover truths and secrets that could ultimately hurt both of them and destroy their new-found bond.

THE MURDER COMPLEX is made up of short chapters told from Zephyr and Meadow's perspectives which I liked both. The actual story could be confusing at times though. When one string of action had just begun and got promptly interrupted by another, I tended to fail to stay on top of things. The system our characters are caught in is dangerous. When starting this read you have to expect violence to be a big part of this very extreme and unpolished world Lindsay Cummings invented. And it's no surprise society is slowly and inevitably crumbling under the weight of violene, death and betrayal. In the end this twisted game of killing and being killed was even too wicked for me.

3/5 *** THE MURDER COMPLEX - One bloody great debut some would say! Rough characters, dark story line with unpolished writing in some places.

THE MURDER COMPLEX is Lindsay Cummings' debut novel. She's come a long way to become a published YA author. And she came up with a very powerful story idea, centred around a reckless society reigned by one of the most dangerous threats to humanity, murder. Promising story concept, lacking in realization. This book is for readers who are looking for extreme and challenging reads.

Publisher: Greenwillow Books

Publishing Date: June 10^th 2014
Length: 398 pages
Keywords: YA, thriller, dystopia, killing society, romance

Source: Edelweiss

Goodreads Summary

The Murder Complex Excerpt

Author's Homepage

Blackbird by Anna Carey

"A girl wakes up on the train tracks, a subway car barreling down on her. With only minutes to react, she hunches down and the train speeds over her. She doesn’t remember her name, where she is, or how she got there. She has a tattoo on the inside of her right wrist of a blackbird inside a box, letters and numbers printed just below: FNV02198. There is only one thing she knows for sure: people are trying to kill her."

Sometimes it felt like Anna Carey kind of threw her readers on the train tracks, too, and asked them to work out how to like BLACKBIRD with so few information about our heroine and everything about her life. BLACKBIRD starts as a complete mystery that needs to be solved step by step. First it was difficult for me to get into the mood for this kind of story. But then suddenly one third into the story, I was so invested I just needed to read all of it as soon as possible. Especially the love story and creepy flashbacks worked perfectly for me to make Anna Carey's newest book an equally dark and desirable fall read 2014.

4/5 **** BLACKBIRD - Anna Carey's newest book is a fall '14 highlight and should be an auto-buy for YA thriller readers!

BLACKBIRD is a definite must-read for fans of the MARA DYER series, too. It might not be as extreme and terrifying but sure sets a dark and dangerous atmosphere for one girl's fight to find out her true identity. The hunt for clues, the never-ending run from her pursuers and secret girl's relentless willpower are what make Anna Carey's new book so exciting and memorable.

Publisher: HarperTeen

Publishing Date: September 16^th 2014
Length: 256 pages
Keywords: YA, thriller, mystery, romance

Source: Edelweiss

Goodreads Summary

Author's Homepage

Unraveling by Elizabeth Norris

Janelle and Ben have the most uncommon start for a love at first sight. The story of UNRAVELING begins when a boy saves a girl's life and literally brings her back from the dead after she's been hit by a car and her heart stopped beating. How he did that and how Janelle and Ben are going to save the world together will be explored in Elizabeth Norris' fast-paced YA thriller debut.

UNRAVELING is a sci-fi thriller with many mysterious occurrences. It's also set over the course of 24 days. I was unable to put it down!

It's when Janelle discovers a clock that counts down to the destruction of the earth, that our countdown of 24 days starts. In the beginning of every chapter there's a note on how much time is left, increasing the urgency and the enormity of what's at risk. Her familiar situation isn't that simple either and her brother, father and mother are definitly no happy family. I really loved that part of the story and its sincerity and realness. Just as real was the romance between Janelle and Ben. It was destined to be, impulsive and hot. And the end of UNRAVLING totally broke my heart! Very much need to get to its sequel, UNBREAKABLE soon.

5/5 ***** UNRAVELING - A badass teen agent caught between an unforgettable love story, a murder investigation and parallel worlds.

UNRAVELING is one of my favourite YA thrillers and I absolutely loved that Janelle was so passionate and professional about everything she did. She's a great investigator (probably thanks to her father being an FBI agent), always says what's on her mind and is fighting for justice whenever she can. The whole story reminded me a bit of a more mysterious and scientific Veronica Mars. If you decide to pick up a copy of this first book in a duology, you should get ready to solve a few gruesome crime cases and enjoy the romance between Ben and Janelle which is just as sweet.

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Publishing Date: April 24^th 2012
Length: 464 pages
Keywords: YA, thriller, mystery, romance, FBI, parallel worlds

Source: Bought

Goodreads Summary

Unraveling Excerpt

Author's Homepage

Welcome to my new Behind The Pages post! You can find last month's post of this feature, with Jennifer Salvato Doktorski and her debut novel How My Summer Went Up In Flames, here. Today I'm sharing annotated pages from UNRAVELING by Elizabeth Norris with you, a fast-paced and thrilling read!

What is Behind The Pages all about? I asked some of my favourite authors and a bunch of promising 2014 debut authors to annotate a scene, page or more of one of their books. I see the feature as a chance to show readers what's behind a page. Authors can share their favourite writing memories, the music that influenced a certain scene or anything else that comes to their mind. We might get hints to what the characters were thinking and feeling that exact moment or other fun details about their story. Hope you enjoy Behind The Pages as much as I do. I'm intending this feature to be a monthly post here on the blog.

Thanks to all the incredible authors who took the time to annotate a page or scene for us, your comments are always so insightful and fun to read. When readers can't get enough of a book and its characters it only shows how much the author's work means to them, to us. Thank you!

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Sixteen-year-old Janelle Tenner is used to having a lot of responsibility. She balances working as a lifeguard in San Diego with an intense academic schedule. Janelle's mother is bipolar, and her dad is a workaholic FBI agent, which means Janelle also has to look out for her younger brother, Jared.

And that was before she died... and is brought back to life by Ben Michaels, a mysterious, alluring loner from her high school. When she discovers a strange clock that seems to be counting down to the earth's destruction, Janelle learns she has twenty-four days to figure out how to stop the clock and save the planet.

Source

About Elizabeth Norris: "Elizabeth Norris briefly taught high school English and history before trading the southern California beaches and sunshine for Manhattan's recent snowpocalyptic winter. She harbors dangerous addictions to guacamole, red velvet cupcakes, sushi, and Argo Tea, fortunately not all together. Her first novel, UNRAVELING (Balzer+Bray, April 2012), is the story of one girl’s fight to save her family, her world, and the one boy she never saw coming." (Author bio found on Goodreads.)

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Unraveling by Elizabeth Norris