Title: Rattled
Author: Lisa Harrington
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing
Pages: 189
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Mystery
Rating: 4/5
Review:

Rattled by Lisa Harrington surely left me rattled.
I finished this book in one sitting, and after that I thought about it a lot. It’s a book that has a really good concept, and I really enjoyed reading about it. It’s a book that I absolutely devoured, and that’s something that I haven’t had in a while. I’ve been in a little bit of a reading slump lately, although I read a lot of books per month (which is *formerly* 2 books for Digitally Lit: Our Stories Matter, Bridge to Publishing and then my current other read), I can still forget why I love reading so much, and why I keep coming back to it time and time again. When I’m in a reading slump, I still read I just don’t enjoy it as much. It really just takes the right book to get me back into reading again.

There’s a lot that I like about this book, and the main reason is that it tells a really good story. I also like how the characters solved the mystery and that they weren’t afraid to take risks and get their hands dirty. That being said, there’s a lot in this book that I did find strange. The writing style was very easy to read, it was easily digestible and easy to comprehend, however I would also consider this book to be young adult fiction, so for teens 13-17 like me. It deals with slightly more mature themes like murder and blood, so I’m not sure I would really place it at middle grade fiction which is 8-12 years. It could be at that, but I think the author wrote it for a young adult audience considering that the main character is 15.
I felt that the age range and the writing style didn’t quite match.

With a young adult book there’s a certain level of writing style that I think I expect from it, and it shouldn’t really be as easy as a middle grade novel. As a reader I thought this was a bit weird. However, I will take into account that fact that this was written quite a while ago and things might’ve been different then, maybe this is what the books teens read were like. I don’t know, but I felt that the writing style was for a younger audience, considering that this book is likely young adult.

Characters in this story are another thing that I want to discuss. In terms of character, I felt that the ones in this story had none. They are said to live in Halifax Nova Scotia. Halifax is a real place, and Halifax is the setting of this story. Somehow this world didn’t feel lived in enough. It felt empty, it was like the entire city of Halifax revolved around these characters and this one story. Perhaps the reason was that this book is very short and building up the surrounding world wasn’t really a priority, which I can understand. I felt a lack of a connection from the characters to the outside world. It really seemed that the characters were only there to move the story forward, rather than have a story about characters doing certain things.

For the longest time I debated whether or not to give this book 5 stars or 4 stars, but I ended up giving it 4 stars because of a lot of things that I found slightly lacking. I will take into account that this is the authors’ first novel, and for that I think she did a good job. No novel is perfect, and it certainly takes a lot to publish a book into the world and have readers like me talk about it. I did think that this story had an excellent concept behind it, but the execution isn’t all quite there. Personally, when I read a mystery I appreciate when clues and hints are set up beforehand, a nice little misdirect here and there, and a nice plot twist at the end. I find Lydia’s immediate suspicion of her new neighbors predictable.

I had quite a lot to say about this book… if you’ve made it this far you might think that I didn’t enjoy it as much as I’ve rated it, but I can assure you I did. Truly I was hooked on it’s story, and I did like the end result of how everything played out. I do hope that you consider reading this book, so to give you a little rundown on what it’s about, here is the official synopsis from Nimbus:

It’s just all so unfair. My ditzy sister is trying to get her claws into my future husband, plus, I’m pretty sure I’m living across the street from a murderer, and of course no one believes me. Could my life get any suckier? I didn’t know it yet, but apparently it could.
Fifteen-year-old Lydia, resigned to a boring summer in Halifax, is thrilled when Megan and her totally hot brother, Sam, move in across the street. But their rude and hostile mother, Mrs. Swicker, is strangely protective, and does everything she can to stop Lydia and her older sister, Jilly, from getting anywhere near her kids.
One day Lydia accidentally stumbles across something very puzzling in the Swickers’ basement. Determined to find some answers, Lydia enlists the help of Jilly. But the further they investigate, the more bizarre the discoveries.
Lydia’s suspicions about Mrs. Swicker are mounting, but she has no idea what a twisted, dangerous secret she has uncovered until it’s too late.