“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.

I don't really know what I think about this book. On the one hand, I enjoyed the writing style in terms of the descriptions and creating a dream-like atmosphere and on the other hand the writing style did nothing to help me feel anything for the characters or what they went through. I was also pretty lost with regards to the passage of time in the book. It takes place over the course of a year but we are rarely clued in on what month/time of year it is, so the character development over time felt very flat.

I really liked the story and the imagination behind the fantasy elements but didn't care for how the characters were portrayed. I enjoyed that some things were left a mystery- many things, in fact. I'd be interested in reading more from this author and hope that the characters feel more fleshed out in their future books.

2.5
I loved the setting and descriptions of the setting, specifically the Lamplight Inn was intriguing in itself. Unfortunately the characters were not as interesting and the pacing really dragged. I think I would of DNFed right at the start if I wasn't so curious about the setting, but it was a hard push to get through the story.

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got a copy of this book through Edelweiss to review.

Story (4/5): I liked this and can understand why people are comparing it to Maggie Stiefvater's books, the writing style is fairly similar. This book has some magical realism in it but really focuses on a group of teens trying to navigate a variety of tragedies, while coming of age in a mysterious, small town in Minnesota.

The story switches POV mainly between 3 characters (Noemi , Amberlyn, Jonas)...although we occasionally hear from a couple other characters as well. We follow them as they try to navigate high school, the death of their friend Link, and the strange mysterious lake that occasionally appears in the woods near town. This is interspersed with excerpts from Noemi's dream journal and portions of the texts Noemi is exchanging with an unknown contact that claims to be Link's ghost.

The story is beautifully written with excellent imagery but it is very meandering. The whole book really isn't about solving Link's death or figuring out the mysterious lake, but the journey our characters take personally. That being said, the mysteries presented are resolved nicely.

Characters (3/5): I felt like all the characters were fairly distant and didn't really engage with them all that well. There is a lot about sexuality (not sex really but more identity) discussed as well; a couple characters discover they are gay and one character explores the fact that she is asexual. Despite their distance from the reader the characters were still intriguing to read about.

Setting (4/5): Being a native Minnesotan, I love the Minnesota setting. The author does such a great job describing the winters and forest settings! The mysterious forest the character ventures in and out of is very atmospheric.

Writing Style (4/5): The writing is very beautiful and has excellent imagery; you really feel and see what the characters are going through. It is a very wandering writing style. We drift in and out of these characters' lives and the story has very little to drive it forward, this is more about accompanying these characters through their lives than solving a mystery. Those who enjoy a well structured story with a clear/linear plot will probably dislike this. It does remind me a lot of Stiefvater’s writing style but is less polished.

My Summary (4/5): Overall I ended up liking this a lot. It’s very lyrical and poetic, and was a nice departure from your standard YA paranormal read. It could have been a bit less meandering and a bit more polished, but I enjoyed the lush imagery and the quiet wandering quality to the story. I loved the magical realism elements and the way everything was resolved.

2.5🌟
We Were Restless Things follows Noemi and her friends after one of their friends is found dead in the woods. There were so many speculation surrounding his mysterious death, whether he was murdered or suicide, or just an accident. So Noemi was trying to find that out, one because she felt somehow responsible for his death.

The cover is so pretty that it caught me right from the start. The synopsis hooked me instantly, so I thought this is the kind of book that I'd like. I didn't realize that this is a fantasy/supernatural story until later. People have mentioned this before, that this book has a similar vibe with The Raven Cycle, but since I've never read the book, I can't attest to that.

I couldn't sum up my own thought after I finished the book. I was still around 60% into the book when I managed to start writing this review. Why? Because I was bored at that point. one thing I love other than the cover is that this book has an ace rep, and this is my first time reading a book with an ace as the main character.

I wish the author would describe their friendship better than this, and I can't connect to any of the characters. And in my eyes, they can't connect with each other, too. Is that make sense? I really thought I'd love their friendship, so that's one big fat disappointment for me.

I got mixed feelings about the writing style. I could be bored in one chapter, not knowing what point the author is trying to make and enjoying it at the next one. Maybe that has something to do with the POV (wait, is it even called a POV when they don't narrate the story themselves?).

Overall, I won't be saying I enjoy the book, but I think people should give this a chance; maybe this is just a matter of preference? Sometimes I dislike something which the majority of people like and vice versa.

Thank you, NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire, for providing me the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

<i>Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire & Netgalley for an advance copy. My thoughts are always my own and are not influenced by the receiving of ARCs.</i>

2.75 stars

Congratulations to this book for its originality. It kept me guessing until the very last moment. While I did find it very unique both plotwise and in narrative style, it didn't completely work for me, and I'll try to explain why without going into spoilers.
I'm not well-versed in YA mysteries so I wasn't going into this with a pre-formed idea. I'm still unsure whether or not that worked to my favor. This was a very introspective book, which is to say that we followed a lot of characters and their feelings about situations and there weren't very many action-packed moments. It is a slow book. Maybe this is why I spent about 75% of the book wondering about the genre. Is it fantasy? Is it not? I liked the journey of not knowing.
However, this narrative style had its disadvantages. The main one I can pinpoint is one of the main characters, Jonas. Had I received this as a critique writing partner, I would have advised Nagamatsu to cut this character completely. Maybe if we hadn't been inside his head and the book was written in a different style, it would have worked, but the way it was, Jonas was boring and his whole character revolved around another character. To me, it seems like he would have been easily substituted by Gaetan who actually had an interesting storyline and would have made the book more interesting.
One of the great things about this book that I think must be pointed out and praised was the diversity included. We have a female-female relationship with possibly bi characters but unspecified, and one of the main characters is asexual, which brought on a lot of conversation about asexuality between characters. The way the author handled this conversation might not have been the most polished of ways and might make some upset or uncomfortable but to me it felt completely realistic. Keep in mind that while I identify as asexual we (asexual people) are not a monolith and are allowed to have different opinions.
One other thing I want to address is that this book has a main relationship between potential step-siblings. That in itself didn't bother me, but it felt unnecessary because it wasn't discussed very much. At one point there is a comment about how their parents won't get married because they "don't believe in it" and that's it. It felt weird to read about something like that without having the characters have a proper conversation about it and without the parents ever finding out.
Finally, the last thing I want to mention is about the ending, so if you don't want to know anything about it, please skip this paragraph. I thought the climax of the book was resolved way too swiftly. The scene where the "villain" makes a whole speech, a monologue really, of its wrong ways cheapened the book a bit for me.
All in all it was a nice read, even though I know it will not stay in my mind for long.

Last year, Link Miller was found dead in the forest; the cause of death, drowning. Only problem, there's no body of water in that forest, and no sign of Link being dragged there after dying elsewhere. Authorities ruled it an accident, saying it's possible to drown even in a puddle, but Noemi Amato knows that's not what happened. She knows this because Link told her. Yes, (dead) Link. She's been receiving texts from an unknown number, and the texter claims to be her dead friend.

Jonas Lake has just moved to town to stay with his dad, making Noemi his new housemate (as their parents are together). As Jonas and Noemi start hanging out more, Jonas develops feelings for her that are anything but step-brotherly, but he's having trouble penetrating the walls she's carefully built around herself and the secrets she's keeping. Because it's not just her secret texting with a ghost that Noemi's hiding. It's also the fact that there is a lake in the forest. One that only appears sometimes. And one in which Link drowned.

Nagamatsu's debut novel is imaginative and thoughtful. She presents an interesting balance, at once painting a relatable high school setting that felt very normal and authentic to me, while simultaneously building a forest setting that put me on edge the moment any of our characters entered it. Not scared, exactly, but trepidatious, unsure, uneasy. I would notice my heart start to race, whether or not anything dramatic was happening, and then once something dramatic did start to happen, I couldn't tear my eyes away. There were many points that had me thinking What on earth? What is going on here? and not in a bad way. I enjoyed feeling as unsettled as the characters had to be with the sheer weirdness of it all. I also liked her treatment of the complexity of high school relationships, which often get portrayed as sweet and simple by us adults. Instead, she shows that yes, they can be sweet, but they can also be scary and embarrassing and tender and uncomfortable and complicated, just like adult relationships. LGBTQIA+ relationships are presented here as well, including asexuality, which I don't think I've read about before. While I don't have personal experience with this, she seemed to handle it with care, respect, and authenticity, and I appreciated getting to read about this aspect of this character's life.

This is a big book (over 400 pages) and at times, I could definitely feel its length. It dragged for me in some places. Without going into spoilers, I wasn't totally satisfied with the resolution, either. It felt like there was so much put into the development, and then the execution just missed its mark a tiny bit. Even so, I thought this was an impressive debut in the YA contemporary fantasy genre, and I'll be interested to see what Nagamatsu does next.

3.5 stars

My review will go live on my blog and instagram account tomorrow, and I will be back to update the link at that point.

Beautiful cover, but the story was just ok. It seems like a great premise, but it needed more plot & character detail. I do appreciate the diversity in sexuality, and I love mystery and fantasy. However, I felt the story focused more on romance.

WE WERE RESTLESS THINGS is a dreamy and strange contemporary fantasy story that isn't quite like any YA fantasy I have read as of late. There have been comparisons to Gaiman in various reviews, and I think that's an apt comparison to be sure. However, it's an apt comparison to his works that I, personally, don't really connect to. While I liked the setting of Shivery, Minnesota, and I liked the character of Noemi quite a bit, the fantasy elements didn't quite work for me. It felt like we were slowly shifting towards these elements early on, but with a lot of tangents that were, while beautifully written, meandering and hard to focus on. By the time we did get to some of the creepier and more concrete elements of the fantasy questions at hand, I'd already kind of lost a bit of interest. For me the strongest aspect of this story was definitely Noemi as she works through her guilt about Link's death, and her new feelings for Jonas, and how they line up when she doesn't necessarily want the same things from a relationship that he does. But even then, that wasn't really enough to bolster the rest of the story in my eyes.

WE WERE RESTLESS THINGS will definitely work for some people, and I will give it credit where it's due in that it has lovely and strange imagery going for it. But overall it didn't really connect for me.

"...the days I didn't see you at all, but I knew you were still out there, and I was so glad that you lived in Shivery and in the world and in my life..."

I was really excited to be provided this arc that was part mystery and part fantasy. It's a true contemporary fantasy, in that it had mild fantasy elements but reads like a contemporary for 95% of the time. The writing is pretty, if odd at times. Toward the start of the book there's a description of kissing so long "her mouth tasted like raw chicken looked" and I just have no idea what that means. But in other parts of the novel, especially sections discussing dreams, the writing is very pretty.

I'm not going to give you a synopsis, cause you're on Goodreads already, you know what this book is about. I will say that I could have done without the fantasy element of this book--but that's a massive part of the novel, Julie...yeah, I know. But, there was a lot going on in this novel without the fantasy element and it distracted from where I wanted to be.

"He kissed her because she made him feel seen and significant, and he wanted her to feel the same way but didn't know how else to do it."

This book has an ace main character who is in a romantic relationship and there's a lot of discussion about what that means for them and their partner. I am not ace and so I cannot speak to the representation but I loved the on-page representation and discussion. There's also an f/f relationship with POV characters that I can appreciate. A lot of the discussions that take place are important, aka toxic masculinity, male insecurity over body image, sexuality, loss, grief, unrequited feelings, betrayal, guilt, etc. All of these are dealt with in ways that I found to be thoughtful but again these are not things I've lived through so take that with a grain of salt.

It was a 3.5 stars read but it fell flat in the whole fantasy aspect of the novel and some of the ways the characters spoke to/didn't communicate with one another. Still, I can see this being some people's perfect brand of fantasy/contemporary mash-up.

CW: loss of a sibling, suicide, self-harm, grief, domestic abuse, child abuse, abandonment by parent, obsession/stalking, bullying, and physical violence.
Heavy topics: the death of a friend and sibling, abuse by a parent, abandonment by a parent, homelessness, sexuality (exploration and discussion of).

Thank you netgalley for The opportunity to read and review we were restless things
I loved the writing. and i thought the Fantasy and mystery Elements went really well together I Finished it in one setting. Can't wait to what else this author writes!

2.5 stars
I thought this would be more fantasy, but it was surprisingly contemporary and the mystery around Link's death and the magical lake seemed to take a back seat to the relationship drama. Because of this, I felt like the plot was so slow and wanted more of the creepy things going on. There are ghosts and dreamed up creatures and people dying, why didn't we focus more on that?

Noemi is difficult to relate to, she almost comes across as neuro-divergent because of her difficulties socializing and relating to others, but that's never addressed. She can be too blunt and hurts people's feelings a lot. I did like that she wanted to protect her friends and went to lengths to do so.

Jonas was kind of a boring character. He just sort of exists, he gets bullied but doesn't stand up for himself, unless he totally loses it and gets expelled from school. He also invades Noemi's privacy more than once and tries to act like a 'nice guy'. I didn't think he and Noemi were good together and their drama was boring.

I think we really missed out on Amberlyn and Lyle's relationship, only seeing small glimpses of it. They were cute together but got little page time. I also would have like Gaeten to be more involved, he's probably the most complex character of the book.

The mystery and magic had a lot of potential, but sadly wasn't the main focus. The ending seemed resolved too easily and I wanted more of creepy Link and his ghost. There were also creatures that we didn't learn about that I think would have been cool.

This burned too slow and didn't focus on what I wanted it to. I did appreciate the LGBTQA rep and how asexuality was explained.

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

DNF

Unfortunately, I just can't get into this book. I'm not connecting enough with the characters or the writing, but I'd definitely like to give it another try someday because I'm intrigued by the mystery and the lake.

We Were Restless Things features a grieving and bewildered Scooby Doo type friend group with a new-comer set off on discovery. The diverse characters all bring a different element to the plot while not being typecast. There is a romantic trope intertwined with the narrative. It is portrayed with a slight twist, because of that I wasn’t completely disturbed.

Although there are many point of views, the center stage surrounds itself with Noemi. Pieces of her intricate dream journal are found throughout the book. Not only does it play into the plot, but it reveals more to the reader. A creative way to Noemi’s psyche without being told outright, especially since she is reticent.

Cole Nagamatsu’s imagery had its roots gripping me. I could almost hear the breeze rustling the tree leaves and feel the lupine flowers gliding across my finger tips. The setting is far more contemporary than expected sprinkled with fantasy elements which I adored. In doing this, the atmosphere played more to my attractiveness of the suspense and lingering questions about the plot. The only consequence is that it results in an overly slow burning plot which could feel exasperating at times. Every couple chapters, one can find a grammatical error but it is not excessive. With that being said, I did still feel myself being pulled to continue onward and tremendously enjoy this work overall.

Thank you to NetGalley, Sourcebooks Fire and Cole Nagamatsu for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book is difficult to describe.

I was truly lured in by the gorgeous cover and the premise of the story. The idea of a strange lake that appears and disappears in the middle of the Minnesota woods; the idea of the body of a high school boy found in the woods, dead by drowning with no lake in sight; the idea of a possible ghost sending texts to his living friend ... all of these things sound like the makings of a really fascinating read. And yet ...

There are definite nuggets of "fascinating" in this book, to be sure. I felt myself wavering between intrigued and bored, with "bored" ultimately winning out. The book seemed to almost be two books Frankenstein-stitched together. The teenage relationship elements felt really teenager-y. I felt I was reading "Eclipse" without vampires or werewolves, just drama. What makes this book better than that, though, is that it fully embraces the exploration of queer relationships. This story includes two girls becoming interested in one another, in addition to very long and fraught discussions about asexuality and what sex means to a relationship. I almost couldn't believe I was reading this in some chapters, and reading about a ghostly figure, a disappearing lake, a creepy lighthouse exploration in another!

In addition to frank discussions about sexuality, there is a heavy overtone of grief for the whole of the book, owing to Link's death and the impact that left. There is also a brief mention of physical and emotional abuse by a parent. And there is mention of self-harm.

Grief, asexuality, lesbian relationships, self-harm, abuse ... AND ghostly lake creepiness. Perhaps this is much like Maggie Stiefvater's books, as I seem to recall reading one and having many of these elements show up. As it is, these types of reads just aren't for me.

2.75/5

I honestly had no idea how to feel, or even piece together my thoughts once I had finished this. On one hand, there were elements that I really enjoyed, and would even go so far as to say I loved. On the other, there was so much here that put me off that it was impossible for me to fully be immersed.

The magical aspects of the book- the lake and everything that comes with it- was wonderful. It was easily the best part of this novel. Strange, unsettling at times...it was exactly what I wanted and had expected. Unfortunately, the parts involving the lake were few and far between.

Most of the book felt like filler. A lot of wandering around and talking while nothing of relevance is actually happening. And then, there would be parts that made it look like the characters were going to actively pursue then mysteries of the lake but then...not? For some reason? For example, there’s a part where they had a clear opportunity to discover truths but then didn’t take it for seemingly no reason whatsoever other than to extend the page count. And from that point on, the opportunity was a constant and STILL it took them forever to actually pursue it.

None of the characters, apart from Gaetan, who I greatly enjoyed, did much for me. I didn’t dislike them, but I never felt anything. I think this could be in part because many times I was told things about their personalities through the perspective of another character without being shown. One example I can think of off the top of my head is when Jonas is talking about Noemi and says that at school, she goes out of her way to confront bullies, speak to kids who look lonely. And yet, I felt like none of that was ever reflected in any of her actions.

The (of course inevitable) romance between Jonas and Noemi I hated. Hate is a strong word, but it’s the truth. Firstly because I am so over these step sibling type romances, especially when another of the characters says that they look like one of those couples who could be cousins...yeah no thanks. Secondly because some of the things they did together were simply disgusting. Noemi at one point like...fed Jonas a cupcake from her own mouth? DIS.GUST.ING. I have no idea how you even do that, like if it just means she held it there for him using her teeth or like...she chewed and they made out? LET’S MOVE ON because I don’t want to think about that.

The other romance, a sapphic (yay!) romance I didn’t mind. I thought it was cute. Not much to say about it though, since it felt very backseat in comparison to everything else in the book.

That’s another aspect I enjoyed- the representation. Of course we have our sapphic romance, but Noemi is also asexual. I can’t speak on whether this representation is great, but the book talks about it at great length, and Noemi even mentions that this is just her own experience and can’t say whether it applies to everyone else.

While most of the book was boring, the ending was PERFECTION. It gave me everything I had hoped this book would be. Unfortunately it came far too late.

One thing I do want to say unrelated to the actual content is that the cover is amazing. Good job on that front!

This book wasn’t what I expected it to be, which was one more focused on the stranger elements. I’m not sure what type of person to recommend this to. Maybe it’s just one you’ll have to take a chance on and hope it works.

All of us who have been through our teenage years know that just being that age is hard enough. Adding death and a mysterious, evil lake to the mix only makes high school an even more unbearable experience. Yet that’s what Cole Nagamatsu puts in her book, “We Were Restless Things,” which makes for a good read of angst and mystery.
Nothing has been the same in the small town of Shivery since Link died. How he died just wasn’t right — he drowned. In the forest. The only problem is, there’s no lake or river, or really any body of water in the forest. People have come up with a lot of reasons as to how he could have drowned in such a dry place, but Noemi knows better.
Noemi has been to the lake in the woods several times, though it’s a mysterious place. It seems like it has been there for years, yet she only found it recently. Once more, when Noemi tried to show the lake to the police after Link’s death, she could no longer find it. It’s as if the lake itself hides when it doesn’t want to be seen.
The mystery keeps building for Noemi. She keeps receiving texts from Link, even though he is most-assuredly dead. The more she explores the lake, the harder it becomes to leave each time, and mysterious creatures keep appearing in the water. Noemi’s not only going to find out just how Link died, but with the help of some of her friends, she’s going to learn and accept herself along the way.
This book felt like a love letter to high schoolers trying to find themselves and the scary lake apparitions only made it that more enjoyable of a read. One of the bravest debuts I have ever read.

Reviewed by Bailey Day, author of “The Amazing Imagination Machine” by Suspense Publishing, an imprint of Suspense Magazine.

What I Loved: First, we can all just go ahead and say this is a beautiful cover! The lyrical prose throughout the novel was just as lovely. The writing style overall was great - short chapters, multiple points of view that weren't confusing, beautiful illustrations and journal entries. I also loved having a wlw character and an asexual character. 

What I Didn't Love: Here's where we get critical. There was an amazing whimsical/fantasy element to this book but it just wasn't followed through enough for me. It felt very disjointed. For a while you were just reading about average teenagers and then there was a magical lake popping up in the woods. I didn't connect to any of the characters and there seemed to really be a lack of plot.

Overall, I gave this book a three star rating because I enjoyed the writing style and wanted to know what happened to the characters. Although I. was left wanting more, I hope to read more from this author in the future.

This book is thought provoking, omniscient and lyrical.
It takes menial things and gives them such a magical and dream like quality.

The characters are gritty, each with their own traumas and secrets, none of them are perfect or whitty or overly charismatic. They are real. They feel real.

For the most part, it felt like the woods was our protagonist, I have never read a book like this one before, I wanted to know more about the woods, how and why it was created. Why it chose the little girl with wild hair to hold on a pedestal.

We Were Reckless Things is a book unlike any other, cloaked in a dreamy quality, this book will have you engrossed for hours, trying to connect the dots.

This YA novel takes place in a fictional Minnesota town named Shivery. The main characters; Gaetan, Lyla (Lyle), Amberlyn, and Noemi are grappling with the death of Lincoln (Linc), their friend and brother who drown in the woods. The newest person to arrive in town, Jonas, has to filter through the brief mentions of Linc and the reasons why no one wants to talk about the strange circumstances surrounding his death.

I really enjoyed the descriptive writing and world building in this book. The plot moves at a slow pace but I didn't mind that as it allowed the characters to develop and have depth. As they learn to trust each other enough to revisit the woods and work on finding out what really happened to Linc, the plot starts to twist. I wasn't entirely in love with the ending, it felt a little unfinished and yet, I liked that it was left up to me to interpret and sort through. I kept thinking about the woods, the lake, and the bits of us we leave as we go though life. I loved that gender identity and asexuality were represented through positive, empowering characters. Overall, I give this book a 4 star rating. Recommended for fans of YA fantasy and mystery.

Thanks to NetGalley, Sourcebooks Fire, and Cole Nagamatsu for an advanced eBook copy in exchange for my unbiased review.