Entangled by Cat Clarke

Entangled by Cat Clarke
Buy Entangled by Cat Clarke at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Teens
Reviewer: Robert James
Summary: Despite being rather predictable and having unsympathetic characters, Entangled is engaging and holds the reader's attention as we try to find the true, hard-hitting story of Grace's imprisonment by the mysterious Ethan.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 256	Date: January 2011
Publisher: Quercus
ISBN: 978-1849163941
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The story starts on day three of Grace's imprisonment by a kidnapper. She's been given pen and paper to explain her recent actions, including falling in love with her boyfriend Nat, the ups and downs of her friendship with Sal, her self-harming, and her attempted suicide. As we learn more and more about Grace's life, the one thing we're never quite sure of is where the mysterious Ethan, her kidnapper, fits into things…

Well, that's the idea, anyway. To be honest I found it incredibly easy to work out most of what was going on here which slightly dulled my enjoyment of the book. That's not to say it's a failure by any standards. Cat Clarke has a great writing style which is extremely powerful, especially when dealing with difficult subjects like self-harm and Grace's suicide attempt, and Grace herself is a compelling if deliberately not particularly likeable character. However the predictability did stop me from getting completely entangled (sorry, couldn't resist the bad pun!) in her world, and I found Nat and Sal to also be fairly unsympathetic characters, leaving me reading about a bunch of people without caring too much about what happened to any of them.

I'm sounding more negative that I feel about the book here, I've just realised – as mentioned Clarke has a fantastic writing style, with some brilliant lines. A swirly bit of tattoo peeped above her waistband, and I didn't even want to think about where it might end. being one of my favourites. I can also imagine that those readers who didn't work out what was happening in advance, as I did, would have found the ending genuinely shocking and impressive and I know from reading other reviews that there have been plenty of people who fall into that category.

Overall I'm not convinced enough by the book to recommend it as strongly as many reviewers are doing, but readers looking for a hard-hitting novel dealing with difficult topics should definitely at least consider Entangled. I certainly look forward to reading more of Cat Clarke's writing, although I can't help hope that the next book features at least a couple of slightly more appealing characters.

I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to The Bookbag.

Further reading suggestion: For those looking for strong subjects dealt with by excellent authors, Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson and Sara's Face by Melvin Burgess are must reads.

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