Book Review-Unrest by Michelle Harrison

A bit of pre-review amble... Sorry for the week long disappearance!

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Title: Unrest

 Author: Michelle Harrison

Series:  N/A

Published:  26 April 2012 by Simon and Schuster

Length: 375 pages

Source: Library

Summary : Seventeen-year-old Elliott hasn’t slept properly for months. Not since the accident that nearly killed him. Sometimes he half-wakes, paralysed, while shadowy figures move around him. Other times he is the one moving around while his body lies asleep on the bed. His doctors say sleep paralysis and out-of-body experiences are harmless - but to Elliott they’re terrifying.
Convinced that his brush with death has attracted the spirit world, Elliott secures a job at a reputedly haunted museum, determined to discover the truth. There, he meets the enigmatic Ophelia. But, as she and Elliott grow closer, Elliott draws new attention from the dead. One night, during an out-of-body experience, Elliott returns to bed to find his body gone. Something is occupying it, something that wants to live again - and it wants Ophelia, too . . .

Review:  Ever since Elliot was killed and revived in a car accident, he's dreamed of ghosts and out of body experiences-and not in a nice way. To try and understand these, he works at Past Lives, a haunted museum. He and fellow worker Ophelia later discover another ghost, and this one wants both his girl, and his life.

Ghost story! Yay! It starts off a little creepy, with Elliot dreaming of the girl who used to live in his apartment before she killed herself. Getting through basic backstory and starting work at Past Lives only took a few chapters and the whole book is well paced in terms of things happening throughout. 

In terms of my interest levels though, it took about half the book for me to fully care. The first bit's ok, but it takes a fair bit of time for the out of body experience mentioned on the back cover to happen. After we get to know the spirit, Sebastian, that wants something off Elliot, it picks up a lot.

Elliot's average but likable, and you'll end up wanting everything to go well for him. Ophelia had to grow on me, which she only did just about. Their romance is the stereotypical meet, intensely dislike, somehow fall in love, but for Ophelia's personality, it worked.

The thing I enjoyed most was getting the backstories for the spirits, Tess and Sebastian. Both are sad in their own rights, and you do feel for them. They also ended up being the most developed characters.

XXX being the bad person was quite predictable, but there were other things that were a  surprise-the circumstances of Sebastian's death particularly.

I liked reading from Elliot's point of view. You get a good sense of how much he's put off kilter by the hauntings, but you also get the normal teenage boy feelings. I personally don't get why he'd want a girl he thought was a complete ... but I suppose it beats instalove.

There's quite a few twists and turns that keep you locked in Unrest for a bit of time, from the middle onwards. And once you have become invested in it, it's worth it. I was mildly interested at the start of Unrest. My heart was racing at the three quarter mark as things were revealed.

Overall:  Strength 4 tea to a ghost story that really keep you in once you're there.

 Links: Goodreads | Author website |