Review: Unraveling Isobel by Eileen Cook

From Goodreads: Isobel’s life is falling apart. Her mom just married some guy she met on the internet only three months before, and is moving them to his sprawling, gothic mansion off the coast of nowhere. Goodbye, best friend. Goodbye, social life. Hello, icky new stepfather, crunchy granola town, and unbelievably good-looking, officially off-limits stepbrother. But on her first night in her new home, Isobel starts to fear that it isn’t only her life that’s unraveling - her sanity might be giving way too. Because either Isobel is losing her mind, just like her artist father did before her, or she’s seeing ghosts. Either way, Isobel’s fast on her way to being the talk of the town for all the wrong reasons. 

My Rating: 3.5 hearts 

Thoughts on the Novel: Since I haven’t been in the mood to write a review in the past few days, I’ll be doing a pros and cons list for Eileen Cook’s Unraveling Isobel.

Pros:

• The book is guaranteed to make you laugh!
• It’s a standalone novel, which means things are wrapped up neatly and there are no cliffhanger endings.
• Isobel has a great sense of humour and is easy to like.
• Nate, the love interest, is someone who does his own thing and doesn’t just follow the crowd.
• Since Isobel’s father is a schizophrenic, Cook does a good job of making the reader wonder whether Isobel is having delusions or whether something more sinister is going on.

Cons:

• The secondary characters could have more depth. 
• While the romance was sweet, it didn’t seem to take Isobel and her stepbrother very long to get together; and once they hooked up, the two never really thought about the strangeness of their relationship.
• Even though Isobel sees a psychologist to come to terms with her dad’s condition and acknowledges how common mental disorders are, I thought the topic of schizophrenia was handled a little too lightly. As a result, it kind of felt more like a plot device to me. 

A good choice to pick up if you want a fun contemporary with a bit of paranormal and mystery; Unraveling Isobel will be released by Simon Pulse on January 3, 2012. 

Comments About the Cover: I think the cover’s cheeriness fits the overall tone of the novel, and I like how it incorporates Isobel’s artistic ability by having the model pose so that it looks like she’s painting the cover.

In exchange for an honest review, this ARC was received from the publisher (Simon and Schuster) for free via Galley Grab.

original image from thegate.ca