From debut author Cole Nagamatsu comes an atmospheric contemporary fantasy about three teens coming of age in the wake of a mysterious death.Last summer, Link Miller drowned on dry land in the woods, miles away from the nearest body of water. His death was ruled a strange accident, and in the months since, his friends and family have struggled to make sense of it. But Link’s close friend Noemi … Amato knows the truth: Link drowned in an impossible lake that only she can find. And what’s more, someone claiming to be Link has been contacting her, warning Noemi to stay out of the forest.As these secrets become too heavy for Noemi to shoulder on her own, she turns to Jonas, her new housemate, and Amberlyn, Link’s younger sister. All three are trying to find their place—and together, they start to unravel the truth: about themselves, about the world, and about what happened to Link. Unfolding over a year and told through multiple POVs and a dream journal, We Were Restless Things explores the ways society shapes our reality, how we can learn to love ourselves and others, and the incredible power of our own desires.A great pick for readers who want: YA contemporary books with touches of YA fantasy Modern ghost stories and fairytales Young adult LGBT books with an asexual character
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This is a hard review to write. This was a very long book. And at first, I wasn’t quite sure if I’d be able to really get into it. So I went and checked the reviews on Goodreads to see what other people were thinking. It seems a lot of people weren’t the biggest fans of it. As I kept reading it did get better. I think that third person often takes a bit for me to get into. But if the writing is good and the story is good, then I can get into it and continue and enjoy it. There was a lot of uniqueness in this one. A lot of really cool imagery and settings. I think it is important that there was a asexual character in it, and reading about her and how she felt about things was really interesting.
Definitely a unique book. I gave it 3.5 stars, because of the interesting aspects and that even after that beginning, and how long it was, it kept me reading and interested every time I picked it up. Not sure how often I would recommend it to students unless I knew they were big readers and wanted to read things like that, so that’s why it got a lower rating.
If only you could hold on to light, climb it out of the unknown.
I’m going to be completely honest and say that I’m not 100% sure I understand what I just read, but I will say that I finished WWRT quietly crying. It’s haunting, magical, and a little bit odd. The writing has this poetic feel to it. Like each line is meaningful, even if you’re not quite sure what exactly it’s meant to mean, it means something. I feel like We Were Restless Things will be a story that people interpret and feel differently. There are so many difficult topics covered, some causally and some deeply, but still touched on and it’s interesting the way I could relate to each character in small ways.
I don’t know what to say about this book other than that I enjoyed it, and it made me feel things. Like my little gray soul kind of shivered reading this.
We Were Restless Things is one of those novels that linger in the balance of love or hate. It has an interesting premise, following a summer where a boy drowned on dry land, nowhere near water. Link’s death is due to a lake in the forest that moves, a lake that is very much alive and interested in Noemi Amato who knows it murdered her friend Link. How? Link has been texting her from beyond the grave. Elements such as that hook the reader in, but the characterization within the story, it leaves room for more development.
The magical realism that comes alive in the forest takes center stage in the story. Nagamatsu gives the forest a voice of its own, and that voice, it verges on terrifying. There are times where the reader is pulled in by the fantasy and magic of the forest, but Nagamatsu is fantastic at making sure that something is unsettling about it. It is a great way to build this almost sinister atmosphere to create tension throughout the story.
The voice of the character falls flat for most of the novel. Noemi is the central character as the one with the most substantial connection to the forest and the lake. It is excellent that Noemi is asexual and there is an impactful line where she says, “There are no romances about people like me.” The line is terrific, explaining much about her personality, but it still does not give her voice the vitality to match her vibrant description.
Jonas and Amberlyn, well, Amberlyn almost feels like an afterthought of a voice. She is the sister to Link and suspects that Noemi is hiding something, but her POV does not add much to the development of the plot. Jonas feels as though he is an accessory to Noemi. Jonas has a great voice, and well thought out dynamic with Noemi, but at the end of the day, he is forgettable.
Overall, We Were Restless Things is an interesting debut novel, but it could have been better. Beautifully written, with magical realism as an added wonderful element, it only lacks in the characterization.