Book Review - Entangled

Although I didn't get a review copy of this I did read it just after Christmas which was because of the lucky coincidence that WhSmiths put out several early January releases several weeks ahead of time. On with the review!

Title: Entangled
Author: Cat Clarke
Date: 27/12/2010 AM
Source: Bought
Description: The same questions whirl round and round in my head: 
What does he want from me? 
How could I have let this happen? 
AM I GOING TO DIE? 
17-year-old Grace wakes up in a white room, with a table, pens and paper - and no clue how she got here. 
As Grace pours her tangled life onto the page, she is forced to remember everything she's tried to forget. There's falling hopelessly in love with the gorgeous Nat, and the unravelling of her relationship with her best friend Sal. But there's something missing. As hard as she's trying to remember, is there something she just can't see? 
Grace must face the most important question of all. Why is she here? (Description taken from Goodreads)

My Review

I had been hearing about this book for a month or two before I read it and although people were saying how brilliant it was I still didn't have much idea what it was about. The synopsis is delightfully cryptic and you don't quite realise the sheer awesomeness of this book until you are up to your eyeballs in Grace's story.

I loved Grace's voice, so appropriate for her age and with the slightly mish-mash way of thinking that most teenagers have which causes the tangent-like jumps between the events she writes about. The fact that this is a British novel is fab because Grace uses words that I love to use myself and there is just not enough UK-authored YA fiction about at the moment. 

Right from the first chapter you're drawn into Grace's head, wondering where she is and why this Ethan chap is keeping her locked up. Slowly we learn more about Grace's life before she woke up in the white room and all the crazy drama with her best friend and her boyfriend. She is by no means perfect and makes quite a few mistakes during the story but no teenager is capable of being completely tactful all the time and is bound to have moments of self-centred introversion when they don't think about how their actions affect other people, but I love Grace for trying to do her best to come to terms with her own faults. 

Throughout the story Ethan is pretty much a mystery, he's gorgeous yes but Grace can't weasel out any concrete facts about him. She remembers meeting him in the park one night just before she was about to do something incredibly extreme, after chatting to him for a while she doesn't remember what happened next and when she comes to she's in the white room with just biros and paper for company. He just wants her to write and remember but why?

What is so brilliant about Entangled is how for the majority of the book you think you know what is going on, but just before the end Cat Clarke pulls the rug right out from under you and you're bowled over by the realisation that *nothing* is as it seems. Now *that* is one heck of a way to finish a book!

Cracking Characters, wicked writing, particularly mind-blowing plot (seriously struggled with an alliterative word to go with plot :P) and all-around Brilliant Book. One of my favourite books of 2010 and I am now *dying* to read Cat's second book because after the ending to Entangled I honest-to-God thought to myself "I can haz moar plz?" - now if I start thinking in LOLCat then you *know* it's a big deal :P

My Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

Entangled is available from the 6th January 2011 in the UK I don't know when the US release date is at the moment. Cat Clarke's website is Here

I'm hoping this will be the start of a more productive blogging year and I will be able to keep on top of my reviews. Folk can nag me if they want to see a review of a particular book I've read :P

Laters

LadyV