Unraveling Isobel by Eileen Cook

Isobel’s life is falling apart. Her mom just married some guy she met on the internet only three months before, and is moving them to his sprawling, gothic mansion off the coast of nowhere. Goodbye, best friend. Goodbye, social life. Hello, icky new stepfather, crunchy granola town, and unbelievably good-looking, officially off-limits stepbrother.

But on her first night in her new home, Isobel starts to fear that it isn’t only her life that’s unraveling—her sanity might be giving way too. Because either Isobel is losing her mind, just like her artist father did before her, or she’s seeing ghosts. Either way, Isobel’s fast on her way to being the talk of the town for all the wrong reasons.

I love creepy books. I don't know what it is about them, I've just always been drawn to them. When I heard about this book, I thought it had potential to be great. It had off limits (if not slightly odd) romance, twisted humor, and ghosts trying to make contact from beyond the (watery) grave.

However... this book seriously sucked.

I feel like I say this all the time, but I really wanted to like it. At first, I thought Isobel's quirky "lists" and bad attitude were endearing, but it quickly turned into downright obnoxious beastliness. (Or that other choice word, which would be most accurate.) If my whole life had been turned upside down, I'd probably be unhappy about it too, but seriously? Enough is enough. 

Then there was the romance. You know, I've read The Mortal Instruments series and other books or series, where there was a brother/sister romance (although they weren't really related, and they found out that they were "supposedly related" after the romance had already started up) and even though Isobel and Nathaniel were only related because of their parents' shotgun wedding, it was still just so awkward for me to read about them feeling each other up and spooning. Gross.

Lastly, can we talk about LOOSE ENDS? While the book actually started out okay, it rapidly unraveled from there. (No pun intended.) There were about 18 different side stories going on, and the only thing that wrapped up (kind of) was the one story that got way overshadowed by all the other crap. I know that probably doesn't make sense to you, but I am seriously appalled at what a horribly poorly thought out story this was. Don't waste your time.

Happy Reading!