Rating 3

The cover for "We Were Restless Things" by Cole Nagamatsu is beautiful. It is a clean design and already makes one wonder what the book is about. I mean seriously having vines as veins coming out of the hand?! Just wow, what a wonderful job. Especially in the choice of flower color neither too bright nor dull. As if the cover wasn't enough the synopsis really grabs ahold of the reader making them want to know more. Who doesn't love a good story involving secrets, different point of views, and a weird forrest? I know I do but unfortunately this book just didn't do it for me. I'm not sure if it was the writing style or the main plot but I just could not get into it. The story seemed to switch directions and from there I just lost interest.

Should you read "We Were Restless Things"?
Honestly, I would give it a try because I'm not sure if it was just me or the story as a whole. But don't be afraid to not finish if it isn't for you.

**Received an advanced copy through NetGalley in return for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. **

Set through the viewpoint of multiple characters, this novel takes on the life of a forest and a lake that sometimes appears there. After the death of a teen boy, a group of friends go to the forest for answers.
Opinion
This book was a bit strange for me because it was out of my normal realm of fiction. The style of writing was intriguing and the characters were very interesting. I did not get the ending I wanted but the ending provided was good. Overall, I enjoyed the book.

“Last spring he’d erupted into a classmate like a cold-water geyser. Now, he was depressurized, a near-empty, placid pool, but a shove in the hallway or a match behind his hair could change that. “

The plot of this book drew me in. Link died from drowning, where there is no lake for mikes and miles? Noemi is the only one who knows the truth and it’s becoming too heavy of a burden so she enlists the help of 2 others to get the real truth? Oh yes please.

Someone stating they’re Link is texting noemi to stay away. When I saw those texts, I rubbed my hands together because I knew it was about to get good. Sadly, it never really picked up.

Let’s talk about the imagery in this book. Holy beautiful lines, y’all. It amazes me how someone can use words and form a sentence I can feel, I can see, I can physically taste.

This is definitely a character driven book, which I don’t mind. However, I wanted to know more about the death of Link as that is what drew me in to want to read. I don’t know where the actual plot went. I thought I was going to be taken on a journey or discovery: of theirselves, their friendships, Link’s fate. Instead, I got a lot of casual conversation.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I think the characters were fantastic (Neomi had amazing character development and I praise this) but I just longer for so much more.

Thank you Sourcebooks Fire & NetGalley for the gifted copy. This one is out Oct 8th.

Introduction

One summer after the death of teen Link Miller, his friends are left coping with the loss. Coping with the loss of a close friend is hard enough when the passing comes under normal circumstances, but the details surrounding Link's are anything but normal. Link's death was ruled a strange accident, as it was discovered that he had managed to drown in a forest miles away from the nearest body of water.

His friend, Noemi, is the only one that knows the truth. Link drowned in a lake in the forest that only she can find. With this knowledge, coupled with the fact that recently, she's started to receive text messages from a number claiming to be Link, Noemi is finding moving passed her friend's death to be a difficult process.

With the help of her friends, they begin to unravel the mystery surrounding Link's death and in doing so, attempt to move forward together.

Pace

This is a very quiet, and at times, successfully eerie book. It isn't told like a typical teen mystery. There is no dramatic sleuthing. The story is told slowly, and the answer to all the books questions seem to creep up on you, mostly without any over the top dramatic reveals.

This story is told through the points of view of four characters. Three that were Link's friends prior to his death, and one labelled "unknown" I like books that are told through multiple different POVs, but because the story is told through four different ones, the chapters were very short and at times, the change of POV felt unnecessary.

Characters

I didn't particularly like or dislike any of the characters. Although, sometimes they felt flat and difficult to relate to.

Noemi was an especially difficult character for me to like. She is overbearingly controlling of her friends, and she also had a very quick-tempered attitude that was difficult to get passed. Obviously every character needs to have flaws to feel realistic, but being as controlling and as quick-tempered as she is, I had a hard time believing that she would be able to keep many friends, (Spoiler! I also had a hard time believing that, just based on her attitude alone, all three of the male characters would show romantic interest in her).

There was some good representation of different sexualities throughout the story, Noemi is asexual, and Amberlyn and Lyle share a few romantic moments together.

I thought that Lyle and Amberlyn were adorable together and I wish that that relationship had played a larger part in the book. In my opinion they were much more interesting than the central relationship in the book.

The Forest (Big spoilers!)

I enjoyed the concept of "the forest" as a character/being/entity. It was a very interesting aspect to read, although I wish it had been developed a little further. By the time the main characters get to truly speak to "the forest," I believe that there is only 30 or so more pages left. In my opinion, having the characters speak to "the forest" was the most interesting part of the whole book, so I wish that it could have somehow played a larger part. Squishing all of the true interaction to the end of the book felt a little rushed and I was a slightly disappointed.

Conclusion

This book was pretty good, there were some aspects that missed the mark for me but other parts that made the book worth reading. As a warning, there are brief sexual themes, so I would recommend this book to teens who are a little older and who are looking for a read that is a little contemporary while having some mysterious and eerie moods intertwined in it.

The thing that drew me into this book is the premise.  It seems like a fascinating concept, a lake that only some people can find? A mysterious death? Sign me up! I will admit that there is also a bit of the cover buy aspect that drew me in because the cover of this book is absolutely gorgeous.  However, I didn't enjoy this book as much as I really wanted to.

The book is definitely atmospheric and I really liked all the descriptions that were included. The forest was eerie and ominous, and I did really enjoy the feature of the mysterious lake.  I also really liked the characters.  They were well written and the points of view were well defined.  Each character felt really unique, and I liked that it included asexual representation.

That being said, I didn't necessarily love how it all came together.  I feel bad rating this book on the lower end for me, especially since it's in part because I had a different expectation for it.  However, I can't help that that is how I feel.  It was a slowburn of a story and I think I just expected something a little bit different.

The other reason for my lower rating is that I didn't really enjoy the romance that developed between Noemi and Jonas.  They were set up to be potential future step siblings and I just can't really condone a relationship between them.  It's just not something that I enjoy.  However, I liked how Noemi was able to advocate for herself when it came to her asexuality and make characters understand where she's coming from.  I just would have preferred if she had ended up with Gaeten.

However, the book is still worth checking out, and if you're intrigued by the premise you should give it a shot!

We Were Restless Things was a weird and interesting book that follows a group of teens as they deal with the loss of a friend while gaining a new friend. There were a lot of topics discussed throughout this book that will resonate with everyone differently and I think that teens will appreciate that Cole Nagamatsu does not sugar coat these topics because they are "kids".

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

DNF. Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for this early copy! I decided to not keep reading this one, it was not for me. Thanks!

3.5 stars - At the beginning of the novel, I really thought I had stumbled upon a new fave book. Nagamatsu's writing is phenomenal. She is excellent at creating a spooky atmosphere with just her characters. I was super into the fact that this was very character forward, but it soon fell aprt around the 50% mark. The plot of the novel was still pretty solid, but I was a little lost at certain parts because the timeline jumped around a lot. I really liked the representation in here (we have an ace main character (on page!) and a sapphic romance). And while I did enjoy the characters, I feel like only one or two of them were <i>really</i> developed while the others remained unchanged in the novel. Additionally, the love triangle/square that happened in the novel was lackluster and underdeveloped as well (one of the love interests was particularly annoying). All in all, I enjoyed the mesh between weird horror and contemporary and do still recommend this as I think parts of the book just weren't for me!

Unfortunately this did not work for me, it couldn't hold my attention. It was boring, without any obvious direction, the characters were flat and annoying. This was nothing I expected from the blurb which was so promising.

As always, keep in mind that this is my personal opinion and you might have a completely different experience!

First things first: the cover is so pretty! That is why I initially was interested in reading this book. I think the writing was very strong in some aspects and I enjoyed the emphasis on characters since I'm a sucker for character driven stories. But, unfortunately this wasn't for me. A big thing that makes or breaks a book in my opinion is pacing and this book's was just too slow for me. Overall, an okay debut that makes me want to check out Nagamatsu's future work.

I really am not sure what I just read. It was bizarre but I couldn’t stop reading it. It had no plot and yet again, I still could not stop reading it. I found myself skipping over a lot of parts because it just didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. I will say, the imagery is phenomenal. I’m still trying to figure out what this book was about though... 2.5 stars rounded up.

I really liked the atmosphere and the premise of this book. In many ways, it reminded me of the Raven Cycle books by Maggie Stiefvater. It was quick and easy to read and had some good representation in it (as far as I can tell). However, I didn't think the plot came together very well in the end.

We Were Restless Things by Cole Nagamatsu looks and sounds excellent. However, it just wasn't for me. I considered giving it up several times, but once I made it to the 60% mark I figured I might as well just keep going. In a way, it reminds me of The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater, but it does not have anything that makes that all time favorite series of mine work. This is far to slow and boring for me to become invested and very little actually happens. I wasn't interested let alone invested in any of the characters either, and given that it's not a plot-driven story this didn't work for me either. I will say though that I certainly appreciated having the chance to meet another ace character, though. That doesn't happen nearly enough.

“If only you could hold on to light, climb it out of the unknown.”

I’m going to be completely honest and say that I’m not 100% sure I understand what I just read, but I will say that I finished WWRT quietly crying. It’s haunting, magical, and a little bit odd. The writing has this poetic feel to it. Like each line is meaningful, even if you’re not quite sure what exactly it’s meant to mean, it means something. I feel like We Were Restless Things will be a story that people interpret and feel differently. There are so many difficult topics covered, some causally and some deeply, but still touched on and it’s interesting the way I could relate to each character in small ways.

I don’t know what to say about this book other than that I enjoyed it, and it made me feel things. Like my little gray soul kind of shivered reading this.

I don't really know what I think about this book. On the one hand, I enjoyed the writing style in terms of the descriptions and creating a dream-like atmosphere and on the other hand the writing style did nothing to help me feel anything for the characters or what they went through. I was also pretty lost with regards to the passage of time in the book. It takes place over the course of a year but we are rarely clued in on what month/time of year it is, so the character development over time felt very flat.

I really liked the story and the imagination behind the fantasy elements but didn't care for how the characters were portrayed. I enjoyed that some things were left a mystery- many things, in fact. I'd be interested in reading more from this author and hope that the characters feel more fleshed out in their future books.

2.5
I loved the setting and descriptions of the setting, specifically the Lamplight Inn was intriguing in itself. Unfortunately the characters were not as interesting and the pacing really dragged. I think I would of DNFed right at the start if I wasn't so curious about the setting, but it was a hard push to get through the story.

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got a copy of this book through Edelweiss to review.

Story (4/5): I liked this and can understand why people are comparing it to Maggie Stiefvater's books, the writing style is fairly similar. This book has some magical realism in it but really focuses on a group of teens trying to navigate a variety of tragedies, while coming of age in a mysterious, small town in Minnesota.

The story switches POV mainly between 3 characters (Noemi , Amberlyn, Jonas)...although we occasionally hear from a couple other characters as well. We follow them as they try to navigate high school, the death of their friend Link, and the strange mysterious lake that occasionally appears in the woods near town. This is interspersed with excerpts from Noemi's dream journal and portions of the texts Noemi is exchanging with an unknown contact that claims to be Link's ghost.

The story is beautifully written with excellent imagery but it is very meandering. The whole book really isn't about solving Link's death or figuring out the mysterious lake, but the journey our characters take personally. That being said, the mysteries presented are resolved nicely.

Characters (3/5): I felt like all the characters were fairly distant and didn't really engage with them all that well. There is a lot about sexuality (not sex really but more identity) discussed as well; a couple characters discover they are gay and one character explores the fact that she is asexual. Despite their distance from the reader the characters were still intriguing to read about.

Setting (4/5): Being a native Minnesotan, I love the Minnesota setting. The author does such a great job describing the winters and forest settings! The mysterious forest the character ventures in and out of is very atmospheric.

Writing Style (4/5): The writing is very beautiful and has excellent imagery; you really feel and see what the characters are going through. It is a very wandering writing style. We drift in and out of these characters' lives and the story has very little to drive it forward, this is more about accompanying these characters through their lives than solving a mystery. Those who enjoy a well structured story with a clear/linear plot will probably dislike this. It does remind me a lot of Stiefvater’s writing style but is less polished.

My Summary (4/5): Overall I ended up liking this a lot. It’s very lyrical and poetic, and was a nice departure from your standard YA paranormal read. It could have been a bit less meandering and a bit more polished, but I enjoyed the lush imagery and the quiet wandering quality to the story. I loved the magical realism elements and the way everything was resolved.

2.5🌟
We Were Restless Things follows Noemi and her friends after one of their friends is found dead in the woods. There were so many speculation surrounding his mysterious death, whether he was murdered or suicide, or just an accident. So Noemi was trying to find that out, one because she felt somehow responsible for his death.

The cover is so pretty that it caught me right from the start. The synopsis hooked me instantly, so I thought this is the kind of book that I'd like. I didn't realize that this is a fantasy/supernatural story until later. People have mentioned this before, that this book has a similar vibe with The Raven Cycle, but since I've never read the book, I can't attest to that.

I couldn't sum up my own thought after I finished the book. I was still around 60% into the book when I managed to start writing this review. Why? Because I was bored at that point. one thing I love other than the cover is that this book has an ace rep, and this is my first time reading a book with an ace as the main character.

I wish the author would describe their friendship better than this, and I can't connect to any of the characters. And in my eyes, they can't connect with each other, too. Is that make sense? I really thought I'd love their friendship, so that's one big fat disappointment for me.

I got mixed feelings about the writing style. I could be bored in one chapter, not knowing what point the author is trying to make and enjoying it at the next one. Maybe that has something to do with the POV (wait, is it even called a POV when they don't narrate the story themselves?).

Overall, I won't be saying I enjoy the book, but I think people should give this a chance; maybe this is just a matter of preference? Sometimes I dislike something which the majority of people like and vice versa.

Thank you, NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire, for providing me the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Last year, Link Miller was found dead in the forest; the cause of death, drowning. Only problem, there's no body of water in that forest, and no sign of Link being dragged there after dying elsewhere. Authorities ruled it an accident, saying it's possible to drown even in a puddle, but Noemi Amato knows that's not what happened. She knows this because Link told her. Yes, (dead) Link. She's been receiving texts from an unknown number, and the texter claims to be her dead friend.

Jonas Lake has just moved to town to stay with his dad, making Noemi his new housemate (as their parents are together). As Jonas and Noemi start hanging out more, Jonas develops feelings for her that are anything but step-brotherly, but he's having trouble penetrating the walls she's carefully built around herself and the secrets she's keeping. Because it's not just her secret texting with a ghost that Noemi's hiding. It's also the fact that there is a lake in the forest. One that only appears sometimes. And one in which Link drowned.

Nagamatsu's debut novel is imaginative and thoughtful. She presents an interesting balance, at once painting a relatable high school setting that felt very normal and authentic to me, while simultaneously building a forest setting that put me on edge the moment any of our characters entered it. Not scared, exactly, but trepidatious, unsure, uneasy. I would notice my heart start to race, whether or not anything dramatic was happening, and then once something dramatic did start to happen, I couldn't tear my eyes away. There were many points that had me thinking What on earth? What is going on here? and not in a bad way. I enjoyed feeling as unsettled as the characters had to be with the sheer weirdness of it all. I also liked her treatment of the complexity of high school relationships, which often get portrayed as sweet and simple by us adults. Instead, she shows that yes, they can be sweet, but they can also be scary and embarrassing and tender and uncomfortable and complicated, just like adult relationships. LGBTQIA+ relationships are presented here as well, including asexuality, which I don't think I've read about before. While I don't have personal experience with this, she seemed to handle it with care, respect, and authenticity, and I appreciated getting to read about this aspect of this character's life.

This is a big book (over 400 pages) and at times, I could definitely feel its length. It dragged for me in some places. Without going into spoilers, I wasn't totally satisfied with the resolution, either. It felt like there was so much put into the development, and then the execution just missed its mark a tiny bit. Even so, I thought this was an impressive debut in the YA contemporary fantasy genre, and I'll be interested to see what Nagamatsu does next.

3.5 stars

My review will go live on my blog and instagram account tomorrow, and I will be back to update the link at that point.

Beautiful cover, but the story was just ok. It seems like a great premise, but it needed more plot & character detail. I do appreciate the diversity in sexuality, and I love mystery and fantasy. However, I felt the story focused more on romance.