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And Then Everything Unraveled

A Delia Truesdale Mystery by Jennifer Sturman

And Then Everything Unraveled by Jennifer Sturman

Review: Jennifer Sturman's 5th novel, but her first for young adults, And Then Everything Unraveled, introduces Delia Truesdale, a surfing loving California Girl enjoying the summer. That is, as the title says, until everything unravels. Delia's mother is dead, or so the public thinks.

Delia, on the other hand, knows that her mother is too organized to disappear for no apparent reason. Delia fights everyone she knows, arguing that her mother is still alive and in danger and that they must find her. Nobody listens. Instead of helping her, they send her away to live with her two aunts, one a posh snob the other a "downtown bohemian", who bicker with each other on the future for the child. When sent to a rich school, Delia can't figure out how she's going to find her mother when a guy enters the picture. Now her life gets even crazier as she can't figure out whether or not to focus on the guy or finding her mom. Nobody is what they seem … and then everything unravels.

This book was very interesting. I felt the mystery solving part of it was way too underground. Most of the book was about how wacky Delia's social life is and about this guy at school. Some readers, boys my age, couldn't care less about how cute the guy was. I wanted to know whether or not she was making any progress finding her mother in this mystery. I wanted to know where her mom was, whether she was in Argentina or Antarctica. Sure, the rest of it, such as the imagery and the creativity, was excellent but the content of the mystery was minimal. Also it seems that the author is going to have a second book in the series, or maybe a sequel, because it ends in a very abrupt manner.

And Then Everything Unraveled is average book. As a mystery, it wasn't much of one. The other aspects of the book, however, were right on. The group that would enjoy this book would be late middle school to early high school girls. Boys would find the boyfriend-girlfriend relationship stuff boring and uneventful.

Special thanks to Alex Nauert for contributing his review of And Then Everything Unraveled.

Review Copyright © 2009 — Alex Nauert — All Rights Reserved
Reprinted with Permission

Location(s) referenced in And Then Everything Unraveled: California

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And Then Everything Unraveled by Jennifer Sturman

And Then Everything Unraveled by A Delia Truesdale Mystery

Publisher: Point
Format: Hardcover
ISBN-13: 978-0-545-08722-3
Publication Date:
List Price: $16.99

Buy the Book (purchase options)

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Page Author: Lance Wright
Site Publisher: Mysterious Reviews

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