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Das Kalte Herz Der Schuld (2011)

by Anna Jarzab(Favorite Author)

3.85 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

3570307670 (ISBN13: 9783570307670)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

cbt

review 1: Every time that I give a low rating to a YA mystery it hurts me inside. It's not just that I occasionally feel bad about telling authors that their years of work produced nothing worth reading (Doubly so for All Unquiet Things, a book which took about six and a half years to finish), it's also a slap in the face of my optimistic outlook on YA literature, which I believe has the potential to be serious and interesting if half the authors would stop writing shallow wish fulfillment and start taking cues from the other half. I'm not asking you all to write stories about terminally ill cancer patients coming to grips with their own mortality, but I am asking that you stop putting your fantasies into your stories. Maybe I'm an old prude that demands all YA literature be de-sexu... morealized because it's corrupting the youth, maybe I've never had a romantic relationship in my life and paper isn't an acceptable substitute, or maybe I get the feeling that you just can't fantasize about your dream boy/girl and write a good story at the same time. I bring this up because All Unquiet Things, despite the fact that it ultimately fails, is at least a step in the right direction. There wasn't a point in the book that struck me as fetishistic or wish fulfillment. The only romance in the book is built up and peters off logically (I assume. As you remember, I've never been in a romantic relationship). The author is totally dedicated to writing the story and if nothing else I applaud Anna Jarzab for that. I also like the noir overtones, though in my opinion it could have done with less.See, even though I love Humphrey Bogart and am a huge film noir fan I still consider Chinatown to be the best example of a noir movie rather than, say, The Maltese Falcon because the latter suffers from problems related to coherency (Though to its credit little else negative can be said about the film). The story is told mostly in info dumps, which don't always stick when you're just listening to them and the plot is labyrinthine enough to warrant a trip to wikipedia should you wish to fully understand the story unless you're particularly used to memorizing expository speeches. You could transfer that technique to paper and it would at least be easier to understand, sure, but do you have any idea what that would do to the pacing?All Unquiet Things is told in two parallel stories, past and present, with two different narrators telling different parts of the present story and different parts of the past, alternating between the two (stories) every couple or so chapters. The problem with this is that the past story never comes to anything besides what we are already witnessing. We're shown the past so that we can understand context for the present, so an entire half of the story ends up being a glorified info dump.The story is too unfocused. It could have done with one less narrator and, if Anna Jarzab insisted on keeping the past story intact, arranging the events in a streamlined chronological order so the past events don't feel like exposition.It would also have been helpful for the characters to shut up once in a while. They speak either in snark or pure exposition, both of which become tiresome after a while, and neither of which provide the sharp wit that good film noir dialogue is known for. There's little subtlety to be had in All Unquiet Things; a considerable blow against almost any book but a near fatal one against a mystery novel.To its credit, the book does get marginally better as you go along, but the first one hundred pages are such an odyssey that it's hardly worth picking up this book, which regardless of my complaints is still one of the best YA mystery books I've ever read (Pure mystery, mind you. Mystery without supernatural, sci-fi, or other such elements).Anna Jarzab's book is a step in the right direction. No wish fulfillment and a focus on the solving of the mystery aspect are two trends that I hope to see more in the YA mystery subgenre but I'd like to see it realized a bit better.
review 2: All Unquiet Things by Anna Jarzab is a young adult fiction book. It is a murder mystery which takes place in California at Brighton Day School. Neily is the main character and is a genius for his age. He meets Carly in 8th grade when he switches to Brighton Day School for a more challenging curriculum. The moment Neily and Carly met, they were inseparable. That is until Carly's cousin moved to town, Audrey. Audrey started clinging on to Carly and having her hang out with the more popular yet troublesome kids. Soon after, Neily started to see Carly's personality change; not just because her mom recently passed away but also because of bad boy Adam Murray. Carly abruptly leaves Neily for him because she wants change. Neily is devastated and becomes depressed and confused. A couple months later, Neily walks down to the bridge where Carly and him used to go to all the time. As Neily approaches the bridge, he sees something along the side of the road. But it isn't something, it's someone, Carly, and she has four bullet wounds to the chest. Fast forward a year later from the tragic incident of Carly's death and this is when the book starts. Neily still can't seem to get over the fact that Carly has been murdered. He still can't seem to understand that Audrey's father, of all people, could have done such a thing. Neily returns to school and as he goes to class, notices that Audrey has returned too. They start spending more time with each other and realize that Audrey's dad might not have killed Carly. They team up to try and dig up the past in order to solve the mystery of Carly's murder.The tone of this book was stunning, especially since this was Anna Jarzab's first novel. The structure of the book played a big part because Neily and Audrey both had their own chapters. I could tell the different personalities of both characters in the different chapters. This book was beautifully written. All Unquiet Things was unlike any book I've ever read. I would recommend this book to readers who are interested in fast-paced books and not afraid of the truth. This book may sound depressing because it's a mystery about a teenager's death, but it isn't at all. Go ahead and check it out. What have you got to lose? less

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