Entangled by Cat Clarke

Entangled
by Cat Clarke
Publisher:  Quercus Publishing Plc
Pages:  372
Source:  Self Purchased
Available as of January 6, 2011
Where to buy: Fishpond

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.

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

A story of dangerous secrets, intense friendship

and electrifying attraction.

Rating:

My Review:

This book has been siting on my to be read list since the day it was released, but I could never find it in store.  It took me ordering it online from a website I had never heard of to get this book and I'm thrilled I finally got to read this amazing story.  Cat Clarke did a wonderful job crafting a novel full of suspense that kept me turning the pages.

Grace is a seventeen year old girl who has ended up in a very sterile looking room. She has no idea how she got there.  All she remembers is preparing for her suicide and going to the park.  Her plan fails when she sees a guy on the swings and walks over, planning to get him to leave as quickly as possible.  She begins talking to him and soon finds herself not wanting him to go.  Then it all gets hazy. She wakes up locked in the white room with a comfy bed, a desk with forty-seven pens and three reams of paper, a chair, and a bathroom.  The guy from the swing is there, holding her captive but always bringing her three square meals a day.  He never lets on to the purpose of her being there or if she will ever leave.

The main characters played off each other well and I felt as if I was right there looking from the outside in.  Grace is outgoing, reckless, persuasive, and a flirt. She overcomes a lot throughout the novel when she finally begins to understand the purpose of the white room.  Sal is the ultimate best friend.  She cares so much for Grace and is always there when she needs her, but she is unwilling to give her details on some of the most important things in her own life which frustrates Grace more than anything else ever has.  Nat, Grace's boyfriend, is accepting, kind and caring even after he learns her darkest secrets.  The boy on the swings, Ethan, isn't very talkative, but is always pushing Grace to understand even though she has no clue what he is talking about. 

Entangled was a great read!  What I liked most was the set up of the book.  It is kind of written like journal entries, but flashes between the white room and her past.  I also enjoyed the amount of internal dialogue.  It helped to understand how Grace felt about the events of her life that she is trying desperately to forget. 

The suspense was amazing and once I got about half of the way through, pieces of the puzzle started falling into place.  I began making guesses about how the book would end.  Most of my assumptions were correct, but I liked how the story began to unfold at an even quicker pace at the end.  It was like getting to the point in a race where you can begin to see the finish line up ahead and you run faster and faster until you blaze across the line and try to catch your breath.  I actually started pulling the book closer to my face. 

There was mild profanity throughout the book with some talk of issues such as suicide and self-mutilation.  Overall, this was an amazing read and I recommend Entangled to anyone who wants to dive into a book that will leave you dying to know what happens next.

This book satisfies one of my books for the 2012 Completely Contemp Challenge.