We Were Restless Things is a slow story with a wide cast of complex characters that I found to be almost impenetrable. While the prose was absolutely beautiful, I wanted to feel closer to our characters - if we're supposed to believe that they have these tangled interpersonal relationships, I want brutal vulnerability that hurts to read. While I didn't mind the slow build so much (i think listening to the audiobook definitely helped me here) I found the ending to feel lackluster and I wanted more of a payoff. However, I did enjoy the ace rep and the wlw relationship on the side, though I found it hard to believe that every single boy in the story was head over heels for Noemi.

3.5. I picked this book up because it had a similar premise to the book I'm working on, and I'm always curious to see how texts in my genre are playing out right now.

3.5 ⭐️
The beginning of this book drew me in and I was super excited to keep reading but I just couldn’t get into it and found myself skimming through it.
I did like the multiple POVs though, I found that very interesting and the reason why I gave it more than 2 stars

New to me author but definitely won't be last. Thoroughly enjoyed this story. Thanks Netgalley and to the publisher for letting me read this advance copy.

I feel like I went into this book with the wrong expectations and unfortunately it led me to be disappointed in this book. In this novel. we follow the fallout of the death a teenaged boy named Link. We follow Jonas, new to town and just learning about the tragedy that unfolded, and his close friend Noemi, who believes that Link was murdered. While trying to come to terms with Link's death, Noemi starts getting mysterious texts from an unknown number, who she believes is Link.

The premise of this book, to me, seemed to lean into the thriller genre and I was excited to read an atmospheric small town thriller. However, this book was very character focused and was more about the relationships between the characters, and how the dealt with Link's death. This story focuses a lot on themes of growing up, discovering one's self and coming into your own. And the writing, especially when describing the small town setting and the forest, was really well done, especially towards the beginning of the story. Again, this all made me think I was going to be reading a thriller, which was not necessarily the case. And because of the was this was marketed, and described to me, I found myself waiting to get to the thrilling part of the story.

Personally, I wanted more from the texting subplot and less of the everyday lives of these teens. I felt that the ending reveals were a little random and there was a lot of telling at the end instead of showing throughout the story. The characters were interesting enough, but in the end I just wanted more from them.

Overall, this book touches on a lot of important issues and themes, but my expectations may have been a bit too high and I finished the book disappointed.

Continuing my way through all of my old reviews! When I first read the summary for this book, I was excited and really interested to get an ARC. However, I just couldn’t really get into it. The prose itself was lovely, but the characters and the plot fell flat for me and was ultimately disappointing. The pacing was exceptionally slow and as I kept reading I felt the excitement wear off and confusion and boredom set in. It could have been really promising, but the author may need to spend more time working on plot and trying not to do too many things at once.

This just didn’t end up being a book that interested me. When I first read the premise, I was very excited and invested, but getting into it made it clear that it just wasn’t for me. Hopefully it works for others out there!

An intriguing and slow read! The authors writing was beautiful, but the pace was a little too slow for me.

I want to thank NetGalley, the publisher and the author for giving me the opportunity to review this book. I admit in my joy at joining NetGalley I may have been overzealous in my requesting numbers. As this book has already been published, I am choosing to work on the current upcoming publish date books in my que. As I complete those I will work on my backlogged request and will provide a review at that time. I again send my sincere thanks and apologies.

I saw this book's gorgeous cover and read the synopsis and immediately thought this was something I could easily fall in love with. While this book is well written (the language is great!) the story never really goes anywhere. It's really slow, and a lot of the characters are flat. That being said, this book is not something that is written about in YA a lot, and I did really appreciate that.

This was pretty different than any book that I read- the book cover is absolutely beautiful - I can see this one being popular.

This book took me a bit to get into. But once I was in, I was hooked. It was very unique. It was told from multiple points of view which made it even more enjoyable. There was also an a-sexual character which you don’t see often in books and I really appreciated that. The cover is gorgeous and the whole reason I wanted to read this book.
That being said even though I was hooked, I was still very confused. Because of me being so confused I finished this book. I was hoping for so much more.

A lyrical and haunting debut. WE WERE RESTLESS THINGS is a captivating new contemporary fantasy novel in which a boy is found drowned on dry land in the middle of the forest. His death is ruled an accident, but then his friends discover an impossible lake in the woods that seems to appear and vanish at will. A lake that calls to them, drawing them ever closer, forcing them to try to uncover its dark secrets before it can claim another.

I went back and forth a lot while reading this book. I couldn't quite figure out what it was. I would sometimes be content and involved and then it would suddenly lose me and I had to work to get back in. I think it is because it went in too many directions. Sometimes it was one thing. Sometimes another. I was trying the entire time to get my head around what the author was trying to do and say with this work. Too often, the change in direction would pull me out of the narrative. There was just too much going on with not too much happening and very little direction. I had a hard time picturing the setting or getting to know the characters.

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for a review copy of this book. The below opinions are my own.

This book was a miss for me. the cover is so pretty and it had the chance to be good but that gets lost in the plot and the pacing which felt really dragged out. I felt very bored with this one and I couldn't connect with the story and couldn't care less for the characters.

It felt disappointing.

Thank you, NetGalley for letting me have an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

To be very forward, We Were Restless Things first piqued my interest by the beautiful mysterious cover and the summary.. a small-town homicide mystery.. count me in.. but I couldn't even finish it. The plot was rough and the pacing slow.. lots of the connections built between the characters were confusing and honestly left me asking a lot of questions. I eventually had to stop and just let go of the story. Looked promising but fell flat.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book. I went in not knowing much and was a bit disappointed ultimately. It was a cross between YA and supernatural I think, and it definitely fell flat for me. I thought the concept was cool but I didn’t really understand until the very end when it came full circle.

Eerie but not scary! It isn’t easily pulled off by Cole Nagamatsu’s masterful storytelling leads itself to a “feels like you’re there” story.

There is so much shrouded in mystery, from Link Miller’s death to the disappearing lake, that readers will just want to fly through the pages to keep diving deeper and deeper into the lives of the characters.

Each character is so distinct, their characteristics, personality and traits are clearly defined.

The only reason why this book got 4 star instead of 5 is because I would have liked to gotten more depth and background on the mysterious elements of the lake in the forest. It feels like we were just scratching the surface and then the book was over.

I can’t wait to read more from Cole Nagamatsu!

Thank you #netgalley and #SourcebooksFire for an advanced copy of #WeWereRestlessThings in exchange for my honest opinion.

I received an e-ARC from the author/publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

DNF 38%

I really wanted to like this novel, but unfortunately it wasn't the book for me.
While I thought the atmosphere was really well done, and I appreciated the asexual representation, there were too many other things I didn't really enjoy. I didn't feel like the characters were getting enough development, and the whole plot/mystery felt really flat. I also wasn't a fan of the budding step sibling romance.
This was very much a case of an interesting concept that wasn't executed that well.

First of all, this book has the most gorgeous cover I have seen in a long time. Unfortunately I just couldn’t get into this story, I really tried but there just wasn’t a character or plot point that gripped me. Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for an egalley.

I have mixed feelings about this one. I really loved the atmosphere and overall concept of the mystery but I struggled to connect with the characters. At times I was confused and not in a way that added intrigue to the mystery but in a way that made me contemplate DNFing at one point.

But I did enjoy the writing and ultimately was interested enough to finish the novel. It wasn’t bad by any means but it didn’t spark a feeling of intensity in me to warrant a higher rating. It was ok and I’d even contemplate rereading it again if only to experience the eerie, atmospheric tone of it.