Book Review: We Were Restless Things by Cole Nagamatsu (2 stars)
Jonas arrives to live with his father after being expelled from the high school in his mother’s city. His father’s live-in girlfriend has a daughter his age named Noemi. Noemi and her friend group end up taking Jonas in as one of their own and Jonas quickly learns that they are recovering from the loss of one of their close friends named Link. Link was found drowned outside the forest close to Noemi/Jonas’ house. His death is considered suspicious due to the fact that there are no water sources around. Noemi is receiving text messages from an unknown number who claims to be Link whenever she goes into the forest, which he says is dangerous. What is going on in Shivery?

I found writing the summary for this story to be tough as there is just a lot going on which echoes into the fluency of the book. It seemed to me like the author would pick up a plot point and then bury it underneath an overlapping idea. I just couldn’t really get into it as the story doesn’t really focus on Link’s mysterious death for the majority which is what drew me to the book to begin with. It explores sexuality and coming of age themes as Noemi and her friend group struggle with adolescence. Jonas and Noemi end up developing a romantic relationship and I just couldn’t figure out where the parents were??? They never seemed to clue in and it seemed as though these teenagers were free to do as they wish even though they live in the same house as Jonas’ father and Noemi’s mother. The forest takes a backseat to the other plots which made the fantasy element seem hastily thrown together. Thanks to @sourcebooksfire and @netgalley for this ARC.

Thanks to the publisher for providing an audio review copy of We Were Restless Things.

I am lost. Not because the the plot was confusing because I know what happened, I guess I'm just confused about why this story was told this way. We Were Restless Things is a multiperspective, but Noemi's honestly the only perspective that matters. The other perspectives pretty much repeat all their important experiences to her anyways. The opening is intriguing, the ending was okay-ish if a bit forced and cheesy, but the middle was a mess. We switch pretty plotlessly from perspective to perspective and just when you think "oh! This is a book about people! There isn't a plot" but then the plot goes "surprise, a lot of things are happening right now."

I recognize this is a messy review, but this was also a messy book. I'm not really sure what else to say.
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I'd like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy. This was done in exchange for an honest review.

The cover of this book is gorgeous, and I was drawn in by the premise. Unfortunately, the slow pacing and under-developed characters made me not want to continue on, and so I DNF'd it.

I felt like there was a promise of an intriguing storyline, and it didn't deliver. Instead, it is just a solid wallow into nothing with an awkward romance that made me uncomfortable. <spoiler> I could have really gone without a step-sibling romance. It's a trope that I will always take a hard pass on. </spoiler>

Unfortunate, but there is promise in the author's writing style. Hopefully, future novels will improve where this one lacked.

Well this book was just not for me. I had an audio copy, and that could have been part of the problem. I really struggled with the narration. The whole thing felt terribly slow. I didn't really like most of the characters, which caused me to be really disconnected. I might try this again in book form and see if it works better for me.

Thank you for my gifted copy of this book.

Unfortunately I didn't enjoy this book as much as I wanted to, the narrators voice didn't work for me at all and it ended up being a hinderance to me enjoying this book to its full capacity. It's a shame because the story itself is promising and has the intriguing premise and foundation but didn't deliver.

An innovative and unique debut;; contemporary fantasy and coming of age story. The asexual representation was new for me and very interesting to see unfold throughout the novel. Complex characters and intricate world building. Atmospheric and spooky,
Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to review this book, voluntary review and all thoughts are unbiased and my own.

An interesting concept but I wasn't completely in love with this story. I liked the atmospheric style but I wanted more depth with the plot and the characters.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."
This was an interesting and engaging read. It definitely has unexpected twists and turns. I didn't love the ending, but overall it was a good read.

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher RB Media in exchange for an honest review.
I am going to be relatively kind to this book because I think I realised fairly early on that it wasn't for me. Because it was an audiobook, I didn't DNF but I'm not sure that was the right decision. We Were Restless Things is the story about a group of friends who are dealing with the fact their other friend drowned on dry land. There is some magical realism stuff but mostly it seems to be character-focused stuff, which would be fine if the characters were interesting or compelling. I can honestly only remember details about Noemi and Jonas, and I didn't particularly like either of them.

I really really don't like the romance in this book. Noemi is asexual and some aspects of that are portrayed very well, but I am uncomfortable with the fact she is narrated as being very flat and emotionless. Maybe it reads different in the text but I didn't like the association between asexuality and emotional flatness as, while sometimes the case in real life, this is also the stereotype I see most in the media. That aside, the romance is with her step sibling and that's the part I really hate. Sure, they meet as teenagers but I dislike the fact that two teenagers in fiction can't meet and have a platonic relationship, especially when a romantic one is pretty inappropriate. She even uses the 'stepbrother' label to push him away when she's worried about her asexuality which...gross.

Honestly that's all I have retained about this book sadly so I can't say much more. There seemed to be some good magical realism/ghost type stuff but those moments seemed very infrequent. It's a shame because I think this book could have been great if the characters were a little more distinct and interesting. Having said that, if you enjoy magical realism then you will probably get a lot more out of this than me. I was hoping for a Raven Boys-style conversion for me but alas that wasn't to be.

Overall Rating: 3/5 stars

I loved the narration for this book. This story itself was very well done, having a strong plot and relatable characters, and the narration took this to the next level. I appreciated that there were two narrators to Vicente make and female aspects, it helped get you into the main characters heads. My one criticism would be for the speed at which this audio book plays. To me, a listening speed of 1 should be what it would sound like to have a book read aloud in a classroom. A normal speaking voice. This audio book is much slower than that in a 1 setting. It comes across as though the audio has been intentionally slowed. But that is an easy fix as the speeds are adjustable. This was very enjoyable.

This book is about a boy who drowns where there is no water, and his friends who are left behind after his death. And there's a distinctly spooky bent to it, but it's not a ghost story.

Noemi was a bit one-note, and for a character who says she's not broken (re: orientation) has a weird way of showing it. This is not a criticism of people who don't experience sexual attraction, but there's a very clear *othering* in Noemi's character. She's kooky and quiet and strange etc, Not Like Other Girls, and it kind of undoes any progressive aspect about her. Frankly, had there not been a long conversation about the sex she is willing and unwilling to have, followed by a weird sex scene, it would have been a lot less gross.

I really liked the mystery aspect of the story. The ethereal nature of the woods was really appealing and the descriptions there were great. I could feel the threats.

The narration was fine. Sophie Amoss was great. Tom Picasso's different characters were a bit difficult to differentiate, and his Noemi voice was very affected, but not many men can successfully do female characters.

All-in-all, this is very atmospheric and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to be a little creeped out but ultimately satisfied.

I received a copy of this audiobook for free from NetGalley, RB Media, and Recorded Books in exchange for an honest, voluntary review.

This book was... Boring. There was a lot that happened outside of the scope of the story (ie before the story starts) and neither of our main characters is necessarily willing to talk about those events. I think it was meant to increase tension / provide a bit of mystery. But really it just fell flat because it kept the characters from communicating and kept the reader from understanding the deeper motivations of the characters.

Combined with two audiobook narrators who have relatively flat affects (who are thus unable to clearly differentiate between POV characters / characters in dialogue), I had a hard time keeping up with shifts in the story and latching onto the differences between characters. Jonas is both passive and possessive (what?) and Noemí is obstinate and opaque, giving us one character who doesn't make sense and another we can't even get to know, even from inside her own head.

I think this might have been a better experience with the physical book / ebook rather than on audio, but I don't think I would have been truly engaged either way.

A huge thanks to NetGalley, Cole Nagamatsu, and RB Media for providing me with an audio-ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

Wow. I honestly didn't know what to expect going into this book, but it intrigued me with the cover and the premise. It was definitely a ride and I liked it a lot more than I would have guessed. The characters in this book were fascinating to me and I loved watching their story unfold, though it was a slower story. This wasn't an action-packed story by any means, but it was perfect to listen to on audio. The description throughout was so vivid, I could actually envision what Noemi was dreaming and loved seeing her recreate her dreams with her friends in the forest.

There was Ace representation in this book and I feel like it was done properly, I loved seeing that discussion, It was such an important, powerful moment.

Jonas was a great character as well and I loved the dynamic he and Noemi created for themselves.

The story had a decent pace, though I will say the only thing that makes it not earn an additional star is that things wrapped up a little more nicely than I would have wanted. It was a good read though, and the perfect slightly spooky story for this time of year.

We Were Restless Things by Cole Nagamatsu is a very unique novel.

Link drowned in the forest not near any water. Nobody can explain this strange accident. Noemi knows what really happened. Noemi knows there is a lake in the woods that only she can find. Noemi starts receiving texts from an unknown number claiming to be Link. Noemi with Jonas, her housemate, and Amberlyn, Link’s little sister, uncover what happened to Link.

We Were Restless Things took me a while to get into, but once I got into it I was hooked. This is a very unique story. There is the mystery of what actually happened, the complicated relationship between the characters and so many revelations. One of the characters is asexual, which is a topic that isn’t usually discussed. I found this very interesting especially being in that character’s head.

We Were Restless is told from multiple points of view which really added to the story.

I listened to the audiobook. Sophie Amoss and Tom Picasso did a good job narrating. At first the narration seemed pretty dry, but as the book went on they used more emotion so I enjoyed the audiobook. I think based on the story I would’ve preferred it not in audiobook.

Thank you NetGalley and Recorded Books/RB Media for We Were Restless Things.

In all honesty, the best part of this book was the asexual representation. Noemi questions her sexual identity and has a really amazing conversation addressing such. I think these types of questions and conversations need to be normalized in stories, especially when it comes to young adult, so that is my positive takeaway from this book.

The rest of this book is just a trainwreck and not in a good way. The pacing of this story is painstakingly slow (which is saying something considering I was listening to this one at 2x speed) because this is a character driven novel. I am typically all for character driven novels but outside of Noemi, the other characters are just not particularly interesting.

I also alm not a fan of the whole step sibling love story, so I was not invested in that plot line with Noemi and Jonas. The summary makes it seem like Jonas is simply a roommate that Noemi ends up becoming interested in, but they are in fact step siblings, so their love story was just not for me.

Thank you to Recorded Books and Sourcebooks Fire for providing a review copy. This did not influence my review. All opinions are my own.