Book Review: The Unquiet, Jeannine Garsee

Reading Level: Young Adult Format: EBook Publisher: Bloomsbury Kids 7/17/12 Parasols: 4

Jeannine Garsee captures the essence of mental breakdowns and ghostly encounters with grace. Rinn Jacobs is a 16 year old girl who is bi-polar. And because of this, she is to blame for the death of grandmother who died in a fire under mysterious circumstances. So mom and Rinn leave California and move across the country to her mom's hometown in podunk Ohio. 

Once she arrives in Ohio strange things begin to happen. She meets up with some friends who are really mean girls in disguise. But she does meet the kindly-hearted Nate who takes an instant liking to the feisty Corinne. However, once Rinn finds out about Annaliese, she becomes obsessed with finding out more about her and the circumstances of her death twenty years earlier.

When strange things begin to happen to Rinn's friends, she believes that Annaliese is haunting them, but some people think that Rinn is imagining everything because she's not exactly the most mentally stable person in the world. Even Nate begins to question Rinn and her illness. 

I absolutely enjoyed this story and I read several versions of this, but the finished product was perfect. I read an advanced copy so not a completely clean copy, but the message and the hysteria of the novel was dead on. You never knew if Rinn was just going crazy or if she was really seeing things that Annaliese wanted her to see. Rinn is not a very reliable nor credible main character, you're constantly second guessing yourself especially with the way that Garsee writes. Being a nurse for a busy psychiatric ward in Downtown Cleveland probably gives you more than enough credibility to write with such aplomb. The ending of the book is by far once of the more scariest and unbelievable turn of events that I've ever read and it will remind you of that final secret in THE SIXTH SENSE. I remember finishing the book and just sitting there with mouth wide open wondering what the hell. Damn you, Jeannine! 

If you like a ghost story, a human interest story and one that has a slight love angle, then you'll really love this book. It's creepy, scary and downright bizarre in a good way. The twists and turns keep the reader on edge and you will find no cheese between those pages. You get pulled into the story and feel like you are Rinn and all her craziness. 

I highly recommend this one and with the Halloween season coming upon us, it'll be a great time to dive into THE UNQUIET. It just might scare the bejeezus out of you.