ARC Review: Entangled by Cat Clarke

Title: Entangled
Author: Cat Clarke
Available: January 2011 (UK release?)
Reading Level: Young Adult


5 out of 5 Stars










Description from Goodreads:


The same questions whirl round and round in my head: 
What does he want from me? 
How could I have let this happen? 
AM I GOING TO DIE? 

17-year-old Grace wakes up in a white room, with a table, pens and paper - and no clue how she got here. 

As Grace pours her tangled life onto the page, she is forced to remember everything she's tried to forget. There's falling hopelessly in love with the gorgeous Nat, and the unravelling of her relationship with her best friend Sal. But there's something missing. As hard as she's trying to remember, is there something she just can't see? 

Grace must face the most important question of all. Why is she here? 


My thoughts:


Grace is seriously troubled. Her father passed away, and the relationship with her mother is strained. The one place she can find happiness is with her best friend, Sal. They connect and understand one another. When things turn sour between them, Grace turns to desperate mean to escape the pain she feels.


Entangled is a beautifully tragic novel that caused this reader to feel an array of emotions. Dark, gritty, and featuring a plot infused with heavy topics. Topics others might find taboo. I love that author, Cat Clarke, wasn’t afraid to "go there" when it came to the situations her characters encountered. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started reading. The synopsis was quite vague when I initially added this book to my reading schedule, and in all honesty it was the gorgeous cover that caught my eye. Is it contemporary, paranormal, or maybe even dysptopian? I wasn’t sure, and I kind of liked it that way. I went in with no expectations about what I’d encounter. I knew there was a girl somewhere she didn’t want to be, but the rest was a mystery. I picked it up while waiting in the bus line at my daughter’s school planning to read just the first chapter. 30 pages later I finally put it down, and only because it was time to drive. When I got home I started reading again, and I only stopped when I could no longer keep my eyes open. I was reading again as soon as I woke the next morning, and didn’t close it again until I was finished. The author’s words grab you and don’t let go. I couldn’t walk away from what Grace was experiencing, and found myself fiending for answers to all of the book’s mysteries. The ending was just WOW! Not at all where I thought it was going.


Grace is on a downward spiral of self-destruction. My heart broke for her. Her mother opted to turn the other cheek instead of being a parent and saving her daughter from herself. This isn’t a book for the faint of heart. Grace won’t win cool points with all readers, but don’t give up on her. As the novel progresses, and you see what she has experienced over the course of her short 17 years I promise she’ll find a place in your heart. Just make sure you have a box of tissues handy. 


FYI: Contains language as well as situations that might be too heavy for some of the younger teens. With that said, I think this is a book teens should read. It’s a real eye opener when it comes to situations effecting our youth, but I’d recommend giving it a read before passing it on to the 14 and under crowd. It’s rare that I can say a novel actually touched something in me, but that was without a doubt the case with Entangled.

Cat Clarke on the web:

Website | Blog  | Twitter

Source: Star Book Tours