Review: All Unquiet Things by Anna Jarzab

Title: All Unquiet Things
Author: Anna Jarzab
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: January 12, 2010
Links: Amazon | Goodreads
Source: Goodreads First Reads

Carly:  She was sweet. Smart. Self-destructive. She knew the secrets of Brighton Day School’s most privileged students. Secrets that got her killed.

Neily:  Dumped by Carly for a notorious bad boy. Neily didn’t answer the phone call she made before she died. If he had, maybe he could have helped her. Now he can’t get the image of her lifeless body out of his mind.

Audrey:  She’s the reason Carly got tangled up with Brighton’s fast crowd in the first place, and now she regrets it—especially since she’s convinced the police have put the wrong person in jail. Audrey thinks the murderer is someone at Brighton, and she wants Neily to help her find out who it is.

As reluctant allies Neily and Audrey dig into their shared past with Carly, her involvement with Brighton’s dark goings-on comes to light. But figuring out how Carly and her killer fit into the twisted drama will force Audrey and Neily to face hard truths about themselves and the girl they couldn’t save. 

I liked reading this book. I did have a theory about who the killer was, and ended up being right. I could never be certain about it, though, so that kept things interesting.

Throughout the story, the perspective switches back and forth between the characters of Neily and Audrey. I felt like it worked for the purpose of looking at the story from two different angles. But the two characters, even though they were from different social circles, had similar personalities that made the switch between perspective less obvious. If the parts had not been labeled with "Neily" and "Audrey", then I might not have noticed right away that the change had taken place. I wish that their personalities would have been a bit more distinctive from one another.

The story moves along pretty quickly, so it is an easy and enjoyable read. When I finished it, I was not left disappointed, but I was left wishing that the story had been more in-depth and less simplified. I wanted there to be more. I wanted the mystery plot to be more complex than it turned out to be. It was worth the read, but had room for improvement of complexity and depth.