Review: Entangled by Cat Clarke

The plot:

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. 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 dark secrets, intense friendship and electrifying attraction. (Summary from goodreads.com)

First sentence: "I met Ethan the night I was planning to kill myself."

Cover: One word - beautiful! I absolutely love it.

My opinion: Well, as much as I do like the premise of the story, I didn't like the novel as much as I had expected to. Perhaps I had too high expectations. As I said, I really liked the premise that Grace wakes up somewhere unknown to her and must struggle to get order in her existence, and the first chapter was divine. I also like the trips down memory lane and the unchronological order of the story. I found the characters well-written, especially Grace. Although I wanted to shake her sometimes to make her see her idiotic choices, she felt very real.

So, what did I not like? On a whole, the entire novel was a bit too dragged out for me. It was lots of inner monologue and vivid descriptions. As much as it helped painting a picture of both Grace and the setting, it also slowed the book down. In addition, Entangled is a much darker novel than what I usually read, because it dealt a lot with the darker sides of the human psyche. I might just not be my cup of tea.

And then there was the end. Eh, what? End now? Sorry? It felt somewhat like a Swedish movie. You don't get that you're at the end until the credits show. But, please, it you're interested in the novel, don't let me keep you from reading it, because, after all, there are loads of positive reviews out there too.