I give this 3.5 stars :)

Isobel's mother has just married a guy (Richard AKA Dick) that she met online 3 months ago. He and his hottie son live on an island, meaning Isobel will be leaving Seattle and spending her senior year living there. And she's not just living on the island, she's living in Morrigan, the estate that Dick's family built when they founded the town. So creepy house, creepy step-dad, oblivious/selfish mother, hot standoff-ish step-brother.

Once there, Isobel starts seeing things (ghosts or delusions?) and Dick starts pushing the idea that she is mentally-ill like her bio dad. They send her to a shrink and even throw around the idea of residential treatment. Isobel is sure that either a. she's seeing the ghost of Dick's deceased mentally-challenged daughter, b. Dick is setting her up to get rid of her, or c. she really is nuts.

I found this book hard to put down because I really liked the mystery in it. I wanted to know what happened to wife #1 and the daughter. I would've liked it even more if we got to know Isobel better. I never felt like I got a feel for her. She was witty and funny, artistic and smart, but her personality was just blah for me. (And she read much younger than 17 as well.) The brother kept saying how she was unique and fearless, but I didn't see how he saw that in her.

The other thing was the romantic relationship. It happened too darn fast!! I need some build up. It happened too quick and once it happened it didn't really go anywhere... not that it could really go anywhere being that they were step-siblings (semi-yucky I think).

I loved the mystery part of it, and I even liked the popularity-high school stuff. I think it added to the story. I also really liked the idea that Isobel was struggling with the fact that schizophrenia can be hereditary. I'm sure that is a common fear among children of the mentally-ill. It definitely made her struggle more believable.

Definitely a good book for someone looking for a creepy-mystery with some humor thrown in.

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http://pinkpolkadotbookblog.blogspot.com/ ( )

Excellent Book! ( )

First I want to talk about what an incredible injustice this cover is to the wonderful story inside it. The cover for Unraveling Isobel (fun fact: in the original cover, they spelled "unraveling" with two L's.) looks more like a contemporary, chick-lit sort of story. But in reality Unraveling Isobel is a horror story! You could never gather that from the cover, and I'm sorry for that, because I almost passed it up based on the cover, and I know I am not alone in that. Also, Isobel is an artist, but she uses charcoal, not paint.

Unraveling Isobel was exactly the kind of book I needed. I was struggling with another title, totally bored by the flat characters and lack of plot. So on a whim I picked this one up at the library and read it almost all in one sitting. At one point I had to put the book down for tedious things like food and my husband. Also because it was scary but don't tell anyone how much of a chicken I am.

I absolutely fell in love with Isobel right from the get-go. She has a snarky, familiar voice that is easy to read. She is a very comfortable character who's head is easy to sink into. And of course, anyone who uses lists to explain her feelings is someone I need to be friends with. Also, I loved how she struggled with the ghostly aspects of the book. Instead of immediately thinking it HAD to be a ghost, she went for more obvious choices, like her family's mental health history, or her creepy new stepdad.

There is something to be said about unreliable narrators. You never know if what you're reading is actually happening, or is all made up. Unraveling Isobel has frequent twists and turns; I never knew what to expect. Cook wrote a solid mystery and I spent the whole book wavering back and forth, trying to figure out who did it, and what exactly they did. I was confused and intrigued and I just could not put this book down.

Now, it wouldn't be right if we didn't talk about the scary factor. Unraveling Isobel was deliciously horrifying. I had to take a (quick) break at one point because I knew it was about to get too scary for me. Plenty of ghostly sightings, nightmares, and eerie encounters with Isobel's stepdad made this a heart-pounding read. I slept with the lights on the night I read this.

The romance had a tiny bit of ick factor: Nathanial is her step-brother. So while they're not technically siblings, it's still a little weird. Besides that though, the two had some great chemistry. I rooted the whole time for those two to get together, despite the weirdness, and the fact that one of Isobel's friends had a major crush on Nathanial. I'm not sure how a relationship like that could work out in the long run though. Makes for some awkward family reunions.

Unraveling Isobel is one of those transcendent novels that can easily fit into different genres. It has something for everyone: a mystery, a romance, a ghost story, a contemporary. Filled with hilarious snark, a quirky main character, a swoon-inducing male lead, and terrifying horror scenes, Unraveling Isobel is the perfect book to curl up with on a crisp autumn night. It is short, sweet, scary, and sexy, and a great Halloween-time read. ( )

Unraveling Isobel is the first book by Eileen Cook I've read - I have others on my TBR list and have meant to read them but this is the first one I've read. It is a great one to start with. It leaves me wanting to know about all of the other books she's read. Unraveling Isobel is creepy and different.

Just months after meeting him on the internet, Isobel's mother has moved them to some tiny island to live with her new husband. It's Isobel's senior year and she has to leave Seattle behind, leave her friends behind. All to live with her mother and some man she doesn't even know in his huge, creepy mansion estate. Oh, and his incredibly good looking but incredibly off limits son, her new step-brother.

Just when Isobel thinks life couldn't get much worse, her first night in the house she sees something that leaves her with two options: Either she's losing her mind like her artist father did . . . or she just saw a ghost.

Isobel isn't quite prepared for just what life in this new town - and house - is going to bring.

Unraveling Isobel is like a perfect blend of Daphne DuMaurier's Rebecca and the Buffy episode "Ted," with a twist of Holly Schindler's A Blue So Dark.

The serious plot lines continue to progress and the characters develop all while this paranormal story line is happening. A paranormal background that, at first, seems like it may be imagined, but as things unravel we learn that there's more and more to it. And things get creepier and creepier. Both for the characters in the novel and for readers reading about it.

Unraveling Isobel doesn't go for the horror factor or pile of the gore of the violence, it's the best kind of creepy with things making you jump, things startling you, things being eerie or just that little bit off. It's fantastic.

That the interpersonal relationships don't suffer for sake of the paranormal in the book is great. Readers still get to see Isobel adjusting to being a new student (one who very much does not want to be there), learning things about her new step-father and brother - both from the island's residents and by living with them, and dealing with her mother and their relationship.

They also get to learn about the estate Isobel and her new family are living on - and what's happened there in the past. Big, creepy, old houses are perfect for spooky books.

There is one part/element that is pretty predictable (to say what it is would be spoilery, I think) but I don't think the story suffers for it. It may even supposed to have been that way - where the readers could guess it but not the character, I'm not sure.

Unraveling Isobel is a book I loved - one that is creepy, has a great setting (both the island and the estate) and the characters are well developed and have relationships with each other that progress well throughout the book. I hope you'll love it, too.

egalley read thanks to S&S GalleyGrab! ( )

The main character, Isobel, reluctantly moves with her mom and new stepfather to a mansion which means she misses senior year at her old high school. To make it worse she soon hears all the rumors surrounding her stepbrother Nathaniel and her step dad. Did one of them commit murder? And what happened to the two girls who disappeared after saying they would visit Morrigan, the mansion Isobel now lives in. Is it true that a crazy lady was locked in the attic for many years. As Isobel researches, with the help of a young librarian, she learns some things that could put her life in danger, but she can't stop because there are too many forces encouraging her to keep going. ( )