Entangled

by Cat Clarke

Real, compulsive and intense: Cat Clarke is the queen of emotional suspense. For fans of Paula Hawkins, Gillian Flynn, Megan Abbott and Jandy Nelson.

Seventeen-year-old Grace wakes up in a white room, with table, pens and paper - and no clue how she got there.
As Grace starts writing, pouring her tangled life onto the page, she is forced to remember everything she's tried to forget: falling hopelessly in love with Nat, and the unravelling of her friendship with her best mate Sal. But there's something missing. As hard as she's trying to remember, is there something she just can't see?

Grace must face the most important question of all.

Why is she here?

A compulsive thriller of dangerous secrets, intense friendships and electrifying attraction.

• ISBN10: 1849163944
• ISBN13: 9781849163941
• Publish Date: 4 May 2017
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 5 March 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Hachette Children's Group
• Imprint: Quercus Children's Books
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 256
• Language: English

Reviews

[celinenyx]

Wow. It's been ages since I've read a book that packs such an emotional punch. Entangled isn't just a jab in the gut, it's a full-frontal assault that just keeps on going.

The worst about it, I think, is that the book is often quite humorous and sarcastic in tone. At the same time, troubles are boiling away below the surface. Grace wakes up and finds herself in a white room with nothing but a bed, a table, and writing materials. As she continues to write what happened leading up to her captivity, she slowly uncovers thoughts, feelings, happenings that she would rather forget.

To be very honest, I did not enjoy Entangled. Halfway through I decided to read something else, because it was just too heavy for me. I could not digest all that it describes, and I needed a break. It is a testament to Ms Clarke that I did pick it up again and finished it. I'm not entirely glad that I did. Unlike The Bell Jar, an equally bleak book, Entangled does not offer any kind of comfort, not even of the coldest sort.

Could've known, with this kind of opening sentence.

I met Ethan on the night I was planning to kill myself.

* Trigger warnings: suicide, graphic self-harm

[Leah]

Enjoyed it but it left me confused. Who was Ethan?

[Jo]

'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 table, pens and paper - and no clue how she got there.

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. As hard as she's trying to remember, is there something she just can't see?

Grace must face the most important question of all. Why is she here?
A story of dangerous secrets, intense friendships and electrifying attraction. From Amazon UK

When I received this book for review, I was extremely excited. Not only did it sound brilliant, but I've met Cat Clarke - she came along to the book bloggers meet up back in May, and is active enough in the blogosphere that many consider her "one of us". But I was also worried. What if I didn't like it? I pride myself on my honest reviews, but how could I possibly be negative about a book someone I know wrote. It scared me.

Fortunately, I was hooked from the very first page. Why was this girl locked in a room? Will she ever get out? What is her abductor planning? But after a while, I worried some more about negative review writing as it looked likely. I did not like Grace. She was too much of a typical teenager; she was loud and brash and had didn't seem to have a nice word to say about anything. She really wound me up, and I kept wanting to tell her to shut up. Yet I couldn't put the book down. Her circumstanced were just too strange, and I needed to know what was going on.

As the pages turned, my feelings towards Grace changed. As I got to know her better, understood her better, I liked her more - even if she did/said things that still annoyed me. But her story was so intriguing. The secrets, the strange behaviour. I read and read and read. Since I've started work, it has taken me well over a week to finish a book, but I was so caught up in Grace's story, it took four days. And now I'm finished, and I can really only say... wow.

The plot is just fantastic! Such a great way to tell a story, having Grace write it all down almost like a journal. The twist is just awesome, I didn't entirely see it coming. I had theories and assumptions, but they weren't completely correct, and I was just blown away with the actual outcome; just why Grace was abducted. But the story of all that happened before she was abduted really touched me. I laughed, I cried, I sympathised, I fell in love, I got mad, I had fun. It was just fantastic!

In total, there were seven characters in the book, but the three main ones are Grace, Sal, and Nat. Sal is Grace's best friend, and as nice enough as she seemed, I never really liked her. Not that I disliked her, I just didn't feel I knew her well enough to base an opinion on. Grace is the narrator, so we only know what she tells us, and as she's writing months after most of the events happen, so we don't get every detail. We don't need every detail, I just didn't feel enough of a connection to Sal to like her, though there was enough for me to care what happened to her.

Nat on the other hand you couldn't ask for me detail on. And I think I might just have to say, move over every other fictional guy I've ever read about, I have a new fic-guy to have a lit crush on. It's like Clarke crawled into my head, saw who my perfect guy would be - well, pretty much - and put him in her book. He was just so lovely! He was just awesome! The only thing I can complain about really, is not having enough conversations with him about nothing. They're not necessary for the story, but I would have enjoyed them!

Then came the end. Oh my god, the end. When everything fell into place, and we knew what was what. Some of it I was hoping desperatly wouldn't turn out like I thought it would, but it did, and there were tears, and a whole lot of anger. And the actual end! Simply amazing, but I wish it hadn't ended there! I wanted more! What happens next, Cat?

Entangled is simply fantastic! I loved it! I want to pick it up and read it over. I want to climb into the pages. Seriously, this book is just amazing, a stunning debut, and if you don't get yourself to a bookshop in January and grab yourself a copy, well, I suggest you go see a doctor. Another to add to the list of favourites. I can't wait to read whatever Clarke brings us next!

From Once Upon a Bookcase - YA book blog