Review of Unraveled by S.X. Bradley

Cover links to amazon

Description (from amazon)

Sixteen year old math whiz, Autumn, spends her days reading about serial killers and dreaming of becoming an FBI Profiler. She never dreams her first case will be so personal. Her world is shattered when she comes home from school and discovers her murdered sister’s body on the living room floor. When the initial evidence points to a burglary gone wrong, Autumn challenges the police’s theory because of the personal nature of the crime. Thinking that finding the killer will bring her family back together, she conducts her own investigation using her affinity for math and forensics, but her plan backfires and her obsession with the case further splinters her family.

When her investigation reveals the killer is someone she knows, Autumn offers herself up as bait and sets a dangerous trap to unmask his true nature and to obtain a confession for her sister’s murder.

14+ for brief violence

My Review

For the most part I really enjoyed this YA Murder Mystery, it was quite fast paced and the developing romance was really sweet, it also makes a nice change to have such an intelligent main character. 

That being said there were a few elements that pulled me out of the story. At times I felt the language was too formal for a group of teenagers (no matter how intelligent), and the constant references to Autumn's amazing math's skills became a little annoying after a while, making her came across as quite pretentious. These are all issues that could be fixed during editing.

This is the author's debut novel and overall I think she shows a great deal of promise and I wouldn't hesitate to read more of her work in the future.


I give Unraveled 3 out of 5 stars.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

My Rating System:

1 star: I will never post a 1 star review because this means it was so bad I couldn't finish it, and I don't won't publicly rate a book I haven't read all the way through.

2 star: I may have liked the story but it was badly written or it may have been a boring story well written. Something about it kept me reading but I didn't enjoy it.

3 star: A good, enjoyable read. If the description appeals to you I'd recommend reading it.

4 star: A really good book that I thoroughly enjoyed and may even read again. I will want to read other books by the same author. Highly recommend.

5 star: Reserved for books that blew me away and whose characters I can't get out of my head. These are books that I will definitely read again, possibly several times. If I read an e-book version I may even have to go buy a hard copy for my shelves. Why are you still here? Go read this book right now.