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.

I want to thank NetGalley, SOURCEBOOKS Fire and author Cole Nagamatsu for providing me with an ARC of this novel.

I cannot believe that this is a debut novel! This is for sure going to be a new and important voice in the YA genre. I found the writing within the pages to be enthralling and quite captivating. The characters reflected many backgrounds, sexualities, and personalities, and that was superbly refreshing. This isn’t as spooky as I was hoping for, but overall, it was still an awesome read. The ending will stay with you. Gorgeous cover art as well!

Thank you to those named above for allowing me to read and review this ARC!

I love the idea of this book - a dead boy is found in the woods, having "drowned", with no water in sight. The story begins months after Link's death and centers on his friends as they move through this new reality while incorporating Jonas, the new-to-town guy, into their circle. There's magic and mystery, and the ending will stay with you for quite awhile, but while the writing is beautiful and captivating, the character development leaves a lot to be desired. Jonas, for example, is practically a non-character - there to move the plot along, but not much else. If he had been removed from the story, it wouldn't have made a difference. The other characters are a bit more complex and kept me interested in the plot's twists and turns.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for and eARC in exchange for an honest review.

We Were Restless Things follows people left behind by a tragic drowning of Link Miller. Noemi, his crush and one of his best friends: she works through Links mysterious death. It's so mysterious because Link was found miles from the nearest body of water. Noemi is receiving text messages from an unknown number claiming to be Link. What secrets could Noemi be keeping that could help solve this mystery? We also follow Amberlynn, Link's sister as she gets to know more about Noemi to feel still connected to a piece of her brother. Jonas, newcomer to town, has moved in with his father and his girlfriend, who just so happens to be Noemi's mom. Jonas learns how to blend into this small town while still leaving and impression on those who he finds impressive. What will be uncovered as we follow these characters throughout the span of a year and what is hidden in the woods?

I adore everything about this book. So many sexualities, backgrounds, and personalities are represented here that you cannot walk away from this story without connecting with ATLEAST one of the delightful characters. They very much act their age, in they are wishy washy with each other at times, but what teenager isn't at times? The pacing is excellent for a story that takes place over a year's worth of time! Often you have a drawn out novel that covers just a few days or even weeks. I really appreciated that the author and her characters took their time to process their emotions/connections in a healthy way.

My one teensy itty bitty gripe about this book is that once the twist is revealed it just doesn't give me enough time or even backstory for me to connect with it like I did the rest of the characters. This caused me to feel a little cheated out of a great opportunity, but overall I found it still an enjoyable bit of the story.

In conclusion, five enthusiastic stars from me, I will be recommending this book to anyone that will listen. I highly recommend this story for anyone 13 and up as these characters do explore themselves (nothing graphic) and some of the subject matter is a little intense for younger readers. I'll be looking to pick up a copy when this gem comes out and hope you'll do yourself the favor of doing the same.

A contemporary read that follows a group of kids dealing with their grief following the mysterious drowning of their friend that leans more to the journey one makes to overcome such a loss and less about the forest that has the power to take it from you.

“We were Restless Things” sees Jonas in a new town and living in the shadow of the boy who was recently found dead in the woods behind his house. When his pseudo step sister brings him out to the lake hidden within the trees strange things start to unfold inviting more than just these two back into the embrace of a force that has no desire to let them leave.

I came into this looking for a creepy sort of read that saw this menacing presence lurking in the woods that could kill those who ventured too far and unfortunately this was not that book. Instead we have an almost year in the life type book that follows those closest to Link and how the manage to deal with the fallout of his death and the guild they all share for not doing something to prevent the inevitable.

When we did get to the more fantasy elements it was interesting and something I really wish we would have gotten more of but sadly they only face this sort of oddity a couple of times before the big “showdown” which is more sad than it is scary and I never really understood why it was happening despite the little insights we did get but that’s something I’d have to explain at a later date as to avoid spoilers.

My biggest issue was the dynamics between Jonas and Noemi on the surface they were fine but the whole idea of practically being step siblings was never going to work for me and once she had a very personal conversation with him about her desires vs his I though okay maybe this will be it and we can move on because it’s almost immediately brought up again with another character who I felt handled it better but then we went right back to Jonas and it just felt gross to me and maybe I’m in the minority but I think it’s too weird to support.

Overall this isn’t a bad book but it definitely isn’t what the synopsis makes it out to be so if you’re looking for a thriller or dark fantasy you’ll be a little disappointed but if you don’t mind a taste of both with a spin of the steps of grief this will work great.

**special thanks to the publishers and netgalley for providing an arc in exchange for a fair and honest review**

I tried several times to start this novel, but just couldn’t seem to get myself enthralled in it. I did not care about the characters. And it seemed too little of a far fetched to be believable. I regret that I had to put it down because I just could not get into the story.

Haunting and breathtaking, We Were Restless Things is a murder mystery wrapped in a YA book wrapped in a noir horror novel. When a young man drowns inexplicably on dry land, the young Noemi and Jonas struggle to make sense of the tragedy and uncover what really happened. Throw in a secret mystical lake, a budding friendship, and a town with too many secrets and you've got yourself a real banger of a novel! I loved the sympathetic characters, the horror-esque setting, and way (no spoilers!) everything finally came together. I highly recommend this novel to those who enjoy murder mysteries with a fantasy-edge.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.