Unraveling Isobel

You are looking to read a light paranormal psycho-thriller....read-on read-on.....and on that thought I present before you all my views of Unraveling Isobel by Eileen Cook.

Here is the summary of the book:

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.


A great cover, a great and fitting synopsis that gripped me from the beginning, ghosts, haunted houses, peculiar murders and the best of all hunky step brother...ohhh tingling with excitement. The protagonist Isobel is like every other teenager today. She is also not without her problems, her dad has Schizophrenia, her mom married some guy she just met off the Internet, and she is forced to leave her only home and high school during her senior year. If you are thinking that is horrible...well rather on for what is worst. When she moves in with her step family (step-dad and that hunky step-brother) in a haunted house and starts seeing ghosts of a haunted looking girl she fears she has inherited Schizophrenia from her father. But what is worst.....she seems to have fallen for her hot and hunky step-brother Nathaniel aka Nate, who seems to want to do nothing about it at all. Can the situation get any worse?

All these ghostly sightings has Isobel thinking that there must be something wrong with her step-dad Richard (whom she calls Dick) Wickham's family or himself because well he is a creeper but also due to all the strange deaths that surround the family and that haunted house were they live. Isobel is determined to figure it all out, because she knows something is going on in this house. It doesn't all add up. Isobel's new step-dad is catching on and starts telling her and her mother that she needs help. So Isobel does all she can to solve this mystery as fast as she can before it is too late.

Aptly named 'Unraveling Isobel' - the book does that in a great way by peeling away layer over layer about her character at each step without it all being a hassle. Isobel is a typical teenager and like every other teenager she goes through a phase where she questions herself, typically when she starts seeing those ghosts and tries to deny but she knows in her subconscious mind that denying wont do any good and that those really are ghosts. She is an amazing artists, and she is a fighter.

Her mother on the other hand is an idiot. She goes off and marries a guy she met on the internet after only three months, she moves to some place she doesn't know when she perfectly knows that Isobel is absolutely not willing to move where she is from. There should be some compromise, and it should be something that should be discussed. Then she starts believing her new husband whom she only met three months before over her own daughter who she knows much better than that Dick. Such hypocrisy. Then comes that new husband....what to say about him - he is a Dick, and he is creeper. Also he seems like he can manipulate people to his will (Isobel's mom to be exact) and is a attention seeker. He doesn't care for any other human being but himself and this house (haunted house).

Last but not the least is that hot and hunky step-brother Nate. He is sweet, caring and the perfect boyfriend material. He seems to be the perfect fit for Isobel. Although at first it seems like he hates her and Isobel also tries to deny her feeling for him but gradually they open up to one another and things start to head up between them but they are not blood related so its good enough(conditions and situations apply). Nate is also a good listener and later becomes Isobel's only confident in that haunted house.

As far as the writing is considered - that is very well done, the plot literally flows through the pages and not a break in any of it all. It starts out slow and gradually gains momentum and will make you want to read through till the end in one go. There is humor, reality, paranormality, seriousness, a murder mystery that needs to be solved, a burgeoning romance and an every day teenage high school life expertly woven through these pages.
I am so getting a copy of it when it releases in January next year.

"Thrilling, creepy, sexy and a light read that will make you want to finish it all in one sitting"

Genre :      Young Adult, Paranormal


My Copy:      Courtesy of Simon and Schuester Galley Grab and Shelf Awareness 


Publisher: Simon Pulse


Rate:              5/5 (It was Awesome)