Review: The Unquiet by Mikaela Everett

The Unquiet by Mikaela Everett 
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Release Date: September 22nd, 2015
Purchase: Amazon

For most of her life, Lirael has been training to kill—and replace—a duplicate version of herself on a parallel Earth. She is the perfect sleeper-soldier. But she’s beginning to suspect she is not a good person.

The two Earths are identical in almost every way. Two copies of every city, every building, even every person. But the people from the second Earth know something their duplicates do not—two versions of the same thing cannot exist. They—and their whole planet—are slowly disappearing. Lira has been trained mercilessly since childhood to learn everything she can about her duplicate, to be a ruthless sleeper-assassin who kills that other Lirael and steps seamlessly into her life.

An intricate, literary stand-alone from an astonishing new voice, The Unquiet takes us deep inside the psyche of a strong teenage heroine struggling with what she has been raised to be and who she really is. Fans of eerily futuristic and beautifully crafted stories such as Never Let Me Go, Orphan Black, and Fringe will find themselves haunted by this unsettling debut.

My thoughts:
The Unquiet was a unique look at what would happen if two Earths existed.  This intriguing world doesn't just stop at two Earths, Mikaela Everett brings up the question of what would you do if you had a copy of yourself on the other Earth and what would happen if on one Earth people were disappearing because only one of you can survive.

I was intrigued with the synopsis and then when I started reading I was captivated.  The beginning of this book is amazing and truly terrifying.  I loved the whole t"rain killer assassins to infiltrate the other Earth and kill your copy" thing this book provided.  It was fresh and new and so terrifying that I honestly had to keep every light on in the house just in case my other was waiting on the other side of the door.

Sounds amazing right??  Unfortunately for me the author took a weird turn after the first part of the book and things fell flat.  Lirael in the beginning was a bada$$.  She was the strong silent character in the crowd that I just knew was going to bring the pain to whoever stood in her path.  I never once thought of her as weak, but then like I said part two started and she just fell apart.  I'm not saying what she had to do was easy, but her character in no way in the beginning showed she might change and become someone else.  I'm honestly left a little baffled with her because in the last part she was a cold blooded killer.  It's like she kept switching out with her other throughout the story.  Lirael didn't feel right throughout the book and it honestly made me sad because I really liked her in the beginning.

As far as story goes I feel the same way as I do with Lirael.  The story was great in part one, but then in part two it slowed way down and I lost interest.  The war was coming fast enough and I didn't understand why the author chose to throw in so many side plotlines when the true story was strong enough.  About halfway through I was so confused as to where the story really was going and what point the author was trying to make. I feel like there was some underlying message that I just missed somewhere.

The ending was interesting though and even though it was way open ended I felt satisfied with it. At that point though I was done with the story so maybe others will feel different and want more. I wanted my original Lirael back and I wanted more destruction and mayhem.  What this book delivers though is a little blood in the beginning, an intense look at Lirael life and her family, and a war at the end that was brutal.  Take out the middle part and I would have been a happy camper.  I felt like the author tried to hard to make this into something thought worthy when it could have just been a hands down amazing thriller.  I'm going with a rating of two...one for the beginning and one for the end.

2 snowflakes