Book Review: The Unquiet

Title:  The Unquiet
Author:  Jeannine Garsee
Where I got it:  From NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review

Amazon Summary:
When Rinn Jacobs moves to a new town she hopes it will be a fresh start-a place where nobody knows about her past. At first, everything goes according to plan. She falls in with the popular girls at her new school and falls for the very cute boy-next-door Nate. But River Hills High School has a secret. The ghost of a girl who died back when Rinn's mom was a student supposedly haunts a hallway. Rinn's not sure she believes it, but when strange things start happening to her friends, Rinn decides there's only one way to know for sure. She needs to ditch her bipolar meds and see what the voices are really trying to say...Fans of films like Black Swan will be fascinated by this psychological thriller.

My Thoughts:
I’ve been looking for a good creepy page turner for a while, and finally found The Unquiet, which totally fit the bill!  Seriously, I was so weirded out during parts of this book that I didn’t want to turn the lights off. 

The Unquiet follows Rinn, who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder but has struggled to stay on her medication until a terrible accident when she was on a manic high killed her grandmother.  She and her mother have returned to her mom’s hometown to give her stepfather some space, but when Rinn starts at the local high school, she discovers a mystery and a ghost that refuses to let go of the past.

The creepy influential ghost totally takes the cake in this novel, due to the simple fright factor.  Annaliese haunts the locked down pool at the high school, and is determined to make Rinn and her friends’ lives miserable.  Second place goes to Rinn, who has to battle the perceptions of everyone around her due to her illness, even though she’s the only one who puts two and two together about what’s going on.  She’s a snarky surfer girl with a total attitude, and I loved her character.

The small town dynamic of this book is completely realistic, and really works with the story.  I couldn’t put this one down, both because I was too afraid to turn out the lights, and because I was dying to know how it would turn out.  Fans of creepy ghost stories, what are you waiting for?