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Review + Deleted Scene: Unravel by Calia Read

My Thoughts

Thrilling. Intriguing. Intense. Heartbreaking.
A entrancing experience of a girl’s struggle to grasp her sanity as unspeakable horrors and a chilling danger looms
despite being confined by the four stark walls of psych ward.

Related Posts: 2014 Favorites, 2014 Favorite Singles, Dark & Intense
Unravel: Amazon US | Barnes & Noble

Synopsis

Six months ago, I was happy. I was simply Naomi Carradine.

One month ago, I was admitted into a psych ward.

Yesterday, Lachlan visited me. Kissed me. And told me that I’m starting to lose my mind.

Hours later, Max haunted my thoughts, reminding me I’m not crazy and that he needs my help.

A few minutes ago, I drifted further from reality, trying to unravel the past.

And now…everyone thinks I’m insane. But, I know he’s real, and I know he needs me.

Do you believe me?

My Review

I was consumed by this book. I loved it for so many reasons. It’s originality. It’s intrigue. It’s tortured characters constantly at the brink of everything unraveling into utter chaos. Life. Love. Sanity. Their grip on reality blurring into a dark, unreachable oblivion. I love that it had this ominous feeling woven throughout. A sense of foreboding that kept you on the edge of your seat. This is the first book I read by Calia Read and I was so captivated by her engaging writing style. Her ability to craft such a twisted story line where you couldn’t discern reality from imagination was impressive. This is a thrilling and heartfelt story centered around a girl trapped by the chaos of her own thoughts, working to break free in order to right a heinous wrong.

“If anyone ever doubts whether madness exists, they only need to look right here. It drifts through every room. It slides down the sterile hallways and attaches itself to every patient, stripping them of their hope and covering them with despair.”

Naomi Carradine’s life quivers on a precipice. Teetering between sanity and insanity. Between what’s real and imagined. Constrained by the oppressive walls of a psych ward and tempered by the blur of medication, she struggles to grasp everything that’s happened. With a new doctor encouraging her to tell her story, she begins to unravel a truth so painful, so fresh, so buried that she fears there won’t be anything left … including the hope of walking out of those doors into a life with the people she loves. A normal life. A life before she saw the most horrific of events that changed everything.

“I’ll accept that in order to unravel my story, I’ll be destroyed first. Like the frozen water drop, it’s inevitable that I break.”

The story is told through past and present passages as we begin to understand what happened that led Naomi to Fairfax (the psych ward). We are introduced to the men she loves … plural, yes. There are two people that own her heart. Max and Lachlan. Lachlan is rooted in her childhood … a love that intensified over time … a love that endures, encourages her to fight to get better. Also a love she needs like air. A love she is unable to live without. Max is lust, love and fury personified. Someone that will do anything to protect Naomi. Max came into Naomi’s life like a firestorm. Unexpected and raring, prepared to take on the world if need be to do the right thing.

“If I had to choose between the two of them right here, right now, I couldn’t. I don’t know how to live without either one.”

But the turning point in Naomi’s life has to do with her best friend, Lana. After witnessing the most inconceivable of acts, she is determined to fight for her friend who is fading. Losing the battle with what she’s had to endure. Harboring a secret so unimaginable and entombing it so deeply within the recesses of herself that it’s as if it never happened because as everyone can attest, her family lives “the perfect life.”

“Fight for her. Fight since no one else will”

What ensues is a struggle to unearth the truth. Naomi must face her deepest fears to understand the reason she’s at Fairfax. To get better. To live again. But even as she begins to make progress, the danger she senses is ever-present. It threatens. It berates. It never goes away.

“There’s another train coming straight at me, at full speed. Yet I can’t see it. I can only hear the ground slightly tremble. The tracks rattling beneath my feet. I can hear the sound of a whistle blaring. But I can’t move.”

This book is just so completely mesmerizing. I felt Naomi’s cloudiness. Her heartbreak. Her simultaneous longing for and denial of the truth that will either set her free or unravel her entirely and permanently. I did figure out what was happening early on, but it didn’t weaken the power of the story in any way, in fact, I think it intensified the impact. Suddenly I was reading with an almost multi-dimensional approach as I picked up on subtleties that I may have overlooked otherwise. This psychological thriller owned me the entire time, gripping me with a story of profound pain and utter heartbreak. A story of enduring love and the fight to grasp on to hope … so elusive … so out of reach … but so necessary to heal and to live beyond the darkest of circumstances. A phenomenal book and a must read.

“What if I’m really fading away and there’s nothing left of me?”

Deleted Scene

Lachlan was close behind me. “What’s wrong? He asked. “Where are you going?”

I turned abruptly. He almost ran into me. “She was right.” My voice shook. “The whole time she was right and no one believed her. I need to see her. Right now.”

Lachlan looked scared. And he should be. We all should be. “Follow me,” he says.

The two of us ran to our cars. He sped down the highway and I kept up with him and the whole time I crossed my fingers, prayed, and hoped that we weren’t too late.

And if we were? I couldn’t think about that. Refused to think about that.