Naomi gets text messages from a boy who drowned in the woods. What's more interesting is that she believes that it was in the lake that only appears when she looks for it in the woods, causing mystery to surround Link's death.

I was drawn to this book initially by the gorgeous cover and then the description. What a great read with many twists and turns!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

I am going to be brutally honest. This book was a lot out of my comfort zone. This is a book that deals with paranormal activity and mystery, as Neomi deals with Link's death. The books was too long, in my opinion, to accomplish the task of a being a captivating book. I was hooked from the synopsis, but was let down through the lengthy read. Despite trying to force myself to finish reading the book, I simply could not.

When I read the synopsis for this book I was immediately intrigued.
Unfortunately this story just fell flat for me and I hate to say I was disappointed. I felt like this story dragged on it was just a miss for me.

I love the concept for this book - the mysterious death of Link, a teenage boy found drowned on dry land; his friend Noemi certain that the mysterious lake that appears and disappears is responsible; the pursuit of the mystery and the themes. However the writing style and some of the turns of phrase just jolted me out of the story. It was also a very slow start which would have been fine if I hadn't had those issues with the style.

We Were Restless Things by Cole Nagamatsu is a lyrical and imaginative contemporary fantasy novel. This novel deals with death, grief, obsession, abuse, sexuality and many other adult problems. A teenage boy, Link, is found a victim of accidental drowning on dry land. Noemi Amato, the victim's high school crush and close friend. suspects the impossible lake in the middle of the woods that appears and disappears at will is somehow at fault. Lyle, Jonas, Gaetan and Amberlynn, classmates of Link, along with Noemi, must solve the mysterious death before the impossible lake claims another victim.
The story is told from multiple points of view of the various teenager's in the novel. All of the characters are flawed and fleshed out with the combination of beautiful imagery and an intensely creepy storyline. This novel is a realistic tale of teenage angst, anger, wants and desires weaved into a fantastical novel.

The plot of this book is the only strong thing that made me consider continuing to read. The mystery around the person's death definitely had me intrigued. However, the writing was a big barrier to enjoying this story. The author uses the most bizarre figurative language all the time (Example: "kissed until our lips tasted like raw chicken looks") and the character descriptions often seem like the author is trying too hard to make the characters seem edgy. I hardly know anything about these characters' personalities because they're pretty flat.

The premise sucked me in and the story kept me hooked. I had no idea what the next twist would be and was completely along for the ride. A must read!

Disjointed, long-winded, and hard to follow. No emotional connection to characters. Great premise and start, but it never felt like it was actually going anywhere. Did not finish.

I found this book to be quite gripping, it was intriguing and I was constantly wondering what was going on, though I did find it a little confusing and slow at times but I found the ending to be good and well rounded, i recommend this if you like a low key thriller

An ARC of this novel was sent to me by NetGalley for reviewing purposes. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I wasn't a big fan of this book- it fell short in a lot of places for me.

I had a really hard time with this one. I felt like it started off strong, lots of potential with the plot, but the characters fell completely flat. I didn't buy the dialog. It was hard to form a connection with any of the characters, perhaps with the exception of Noemi. Overall, this didn't read as a thriller to me.

Very unique read! I loved the concept of a magical hidden lake! I loved watching the relationships between each of the characters unfold. Usually I'm not a fan of multiple POV books, but this one was done well. Each of the characters had voices that were unique enough for me to realize we were jumping between POVs but not too different as to be jarring. I was happy to see asexuality tackled so well, and believe this is really good representation for LGBT+ teens.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane for YA dreamers. Moving to a new place after a by mysteriously drowns in a forest without any nearby water, Jonas has questions. His sort-of step-sister, Noemi, might have answers, but some things you have to see to believe. Magical realism abounds with first loves, unrequited loves, and dealing with the loss of a friend.

Thanks to Netgalley for a copy of this strange little book. I really wanted to read this book because of its comparisons to The Raven Cycle and I can definitely attest to this being true. It took a little while to get invested in these characters, but I loved them all by the end. I was really the most drawn to Gaetan, who reminded me so much of Adam Parrish that I just wanted to see him safe and happy. I think the book ends in a finite way, but I hope the author keeps it open for at least a sequel. I’d like to read more about the town of Shivery and this odd group of friends.

I got to say the cover to this book is beautiful! Thus story is a fantasy mixed with a murder mystery that involves 3 friends. They embark on this journey to find and obtain clues as to who killed someone. This was a fun book to read.

When I first glanced across the title and cover of this novel, my intrigue was immediately peaked. The cover was ethereal, and the title matched, and all of that was backed up by a summary of a world I wanted to dive right into—and when I dove in, the water was warm, but the further I got, the colder the water became. Metaphor aside, I enjoyed the start of the book, it felt like I was going some place special, and I enjoyed meeting the characters. However, this elation didn’t last. At some point, the characters seemed to flatten out with awkward, unexplained development or never getting any to begin with. The magic. the mystic, the suspense—they all lost their touch as the story slowed down further and further. If anything, I would have loved to see this story longer, to see the characters explored and explained, and I think that would have added to the bit of strange magic we get to see. This novel offered up a strange world, one that I think this story only scratched the surface of—and I’m not looking for an explanation of the strangeness, I’m just looking for more.

After falling in love with this spectacular cover and being intrigued with the promising paranormal, mystical plot, I was sold! I was definitely ready to go blind but in the middle of somewhere my mind screamed; “this is not working for me. This is not for me, this is book! I should break up with it ASAP! I’m slowly dunking into a mud and I cannot move my body!”

Here are the facts: I was one of the most patient readers who are never afraid of long, boring, suffocating reads. But this time I gave up because I had no idea where the story is going or what’s the author’s purpose to write it anyway.

It started like a dysfunctional family’s introduction; Noemi’s coping problem with her step brother, her eerie communication with Link Miller ( they’re texting each other and Link Miller already drowned on magical lake in the woods but the authorities didn’t believe in magic and they decided he drowned in the dry land! ) attracted my attention because anything crazy, irregular, illogical always pick my interest. And Noemi thinks Link is killed and she also keeps another big secret.

So I can hear you ask me what’s wrong with me. Isn’t it crazy enough for my own taste? The story started great but too many boring, aimless, flat characters, their irritating dialogues gave me second thoughts. Instead of Noemi, none of the characters are connectable. And in the middle of somewhere story’s direction lost in the mud or the secret, non-existed lake and drowned like Link Miller. It got slow down, more boring, more nonsense and I felt like I was Alice stuck in a literature Madland with triple sized big letters which try to devour me. As soon as suffocation took the driver seat of my bored to death mind, I finally decided to stop! It was enough!

Let’s stay around %60 of the book I pushed dnf button and I don’t regret it. This is not the story I expected to read and I already lost my patience.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire fro sharing this ARC in exchange my honest review. I wish I could like it more but this time story telling of the book didn’t work with me.

I received this book from NetGallery in exchange for an honest review.

The cover of this book is absolutely beautiful and the synopsis had me very interested. The book started out with moderate pacing but I thought of this as a thriller which typically starts a little slower anyway. The story slowed completely down and was hard to finish. I do believe that the plot was all over the place and it was hard to make sense of reality versus Noemi’s documented dreams. This book is more fantasy than thriller and I picked it up thinking it was more of a YA thriller. I do know that there is a market for this type of book but unfortunately it is not for me.

Boring. Anticlimactic. Annoying.

I initially picked this up because of the stunning cover and beautiful, haunting synopsis. Although I thought the beginning to be slow, I was enjoying myself and was absolutely loving the lyrical prose. I adored Noemi from the get go, and knew almost immediately that she would be my favorite character.

The beginning soon bled into the middle of the novel, and this is where I started to struggle. I found it difficult to stay focused on what was happening, and nothing that happened seemed to mean anything at all. My interest in the story plummeted, and I was utterly confused at what was going on, who was related to who, who liked who, etc. There was no flow or order to events and I found it infuriating.

I decided to make a deal with myself. Since I was enjoying Noemi's character (only her character, by the way, everyone else was boring or mean or obnoxious), I thought that I would see where the story took her. I was originally thinking there would be some queer rep with her, too, and I was so excited! But as soon as I discovered that she was only hinted at to not being completely straight, she got into a relationship that I absolutely hated. I was only going to continue reading if nothing happened to kill her character for me, but alas, that exact thing happened.

I ended up marking this as a Did Not Finish as I know myself and my reading taste and this was not it for me. I don't want to continue reading a book that only has one character I relate to, especially if the said character is in a relationship I find bland, stupid, and lacking any chemistry.

I also went into this book thinking it would be a thriller with themes of magic and overall encompassing a haunting, lyrical tone but I was sorely mistaken. I managed to get nearly 40% through the novel and I could not for the life of me observe any kind of plot, or a raising of stakes or tension or thriller intrigue. I was bored, confused, and could not continue reading as I just knew my rating would continue to crawl lower and lower.

Thank you NetGalley for giving me a chance with this ARC. I do hope that when it's released there are people who pick it up and adore it, for I'm sure it will be up someone's alley. It just wasn't up mine.

This book feels like a dream, mostly due to the excerpts from Noemi’s journal, walks past the lupine fields, and the view of the mysterious lake. The book does a masterful job of combining beautiful imagery with a creepy story line about the mysterious death of Link. What is the scariest is the fear of the unknown lurking in their seemingly small town.

This novel is told in the third person, but every chapter is from the perspective of a different character. What I like is that all of these people have flaws, so they are not only navigating their feelings about their dead friend, but truly trying to understand each other and themselves. Everyone of them is flawed, but they are trying to be better.

I would have liked a more drawn-out conclusion, but overall, I love how unique this book is. I’m an avid YA reader and I can’t think of anything I could directly compare this novel to.