The Unquiet Past

by Kelley Armstrong

Overview

Tess has always been tormented by waking visions that make her question her sanity. When the orphanage she lives in burns down, she decides to face her fears and find out once and for all what is wrong with her. She believes the truth must lie with her parents, and so, armed with only an address and phone number, Tess travels to a crumbling mansion in rural Quebec, where she discovers evidence of mistreatment of mental patients. She also makes an unlikely ally and gradually unearths her family’s sad history—and finally accepts the truth about her paranormal powers.

Part of the SECRETS—a series of seven linked novels that can be read in any order.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781459806580
Publisher:	Orca Book Publishers
Publication date:	09/29/2015
Series:	Secrets , #1
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	264
Lexile:	HL630L (what's this?)
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Kelley Armstrong is the author of the Cainsville Modern Gothic series and the Age of Legends YA fantasy trilogy. Her past works include the Otherworld urban fantasy series, the Darkest Powers and Darkness Rising teen paranormal trilogies and the Nadia Stafford crime trilogy. She also co-writes the Blackwell Pages middle-grade fantasy trilogy as K.L. Armstrong with M.A. Marr. Armstrong lives in southwestern Ontario with her family. For more information, visit www.kelleyarmstrong.com.

Editorial Reviews

"This would make a great read aloud as it would stimulate discussions and questions around mental health and medical ethics. Learning a little about the past in this historical fiction may help students understand the need for effective well-being initiatives today."

Ms. J's Book Reviews 4 School Libraries blog

"Tess’s spunk, determination, and sense of adventure will turn readers into allies immediately. It’s hard not to root for someone who has nothing and is ready to pursue any possible clue at all costs...Armstrong does an excellent job navigating difficult issues, including racism and mental illness...A compelling story that’s difficult to put down."

CM Magazine

"Readers will find the mystery of what was going on at the abandoned house both intriguing and scary. That Tess and Jackson operate so independently will appeal to the age group, too. Bonus points to Armstrong for highlighting the history of mental illness in Canada and Campbell’s despicable treatment of depressed women. Settings of small-town Hope, the restrictive orphanage, the spooky mansion that holds so many scary possibilities and the McGill campus will hold readers’ interest and inspire them to reach for the other books in the series."

Resource Links

"A captivating mystery with strong characters that would be a good choice for reluctant readers."

Youth Services Book Review

10/01/2015
Gr 7 Up—In 1964, a girls' orphanage burns to the ground and its seven oldest residents, each armed with a cryptic clue about her past, are sent out into the world to make their way. Each entry in the "Secrets" series of seven linked YA novels details a different girl's rocky start. In Walters's Innocent, Lizzy is offered a job in her hometown, where she discovers that her father, having murdered her mother, is still doing time in the local prison. Drawn to him despite warnings from her seemingly kind employer, the protagonist discovers a cover-up involving nearly the entire town. Although it gets off to a slow start, this volume delivers some tense moments as Lizzy makes her way through the local web of lies. Armstrong's The Unquiet Past features a creepy supernatural element. Tess's search for the meaning of her waking visions leads her to an abandoned mental hospital, a series of illegal experiments, and a boy who's looking for answers of his own. These installments target reluctant readers with their short sentences, plot-driven events, and light character development. VERDICT Purchase where historical fiction is popular.—Elizabeth Friend, Wester Middle School, TX

School Library Journal

2015-06-29
An orphan with visons seeks her past in a Gothic 1964 Quebec. Sixteen-year-old Tess (for Thérèse) has always wanted to travel, but that doesn't mean she wants to be forced from her home. When the Benevolent Home for Necessitous Girls in Ontario burns down, she's turfed out with a bare-bones clue ("Each of you seven older girls has something from your past," explains the matron, linking this novel to the other six books in the Secrets series). Armed with a disconnected phone number and an address in rural Quebec, Tess braves the train, bothered only by the ghosts she's seen all her life. The address holds no easy answers to either her past or her visions; it's merely a photogenic abandoned mansion, filled with crumbling psychiatry books and long since ravaged by locals. Her investigation of the ruin is interrupted by a hostile squatter, who threatens her with violence. Jackson disbelieves Tess' tale though he refuses to explain his own secrets as a broke, filthy teenager who's exceedingly well-spoken in both French and English—often to the point of irritating pedantry. Tess' visions and their findings in the creepy basement lead her to suspect pulp-novel medical shenanigans, which themselves devolve into a frankly absurd deus ex machina conclusion. Unlike the cackling villainy of the back story, the realistic landscape of racist microagressions that plague Métis Jackson is heartbreakingly matter-of-fact. A compelling mystery unevenly executed. (Historical fiction. 12-14)

Kirkus Reviews