The Quiet Unraveling of Eve Ellaway

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Pub Date 25 Feb 2025 | Archive Date 4 Feb 2025
Left-Handed Mitten Publications | Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members' Titles

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Description

All Eve Ellaway wants is to escape to college, start a life of her own, and finally sever the connection to her twin sister Gen who disappeared when they were babies. Because while the rest of the world moved on from the kidnapping, Gen’s still very much alive at home.

Most families would grieve their missing child. Some families might create a shrine for their lost daughter. But the Ellaways are not most families.

Every night, Eve pretends to be Gen to protect her mother's delicate grasp on reality — dividing her life, her stories, and her dreams so there’s enough for two sisters. Eve’s forced to maintain her father’s lie to ease his guilt over Gen’s disappearance, but is she sacrificing the last threads of her identity and any hope for a normal future?


As the lies propping up Eve’s life start to crumble, she no longer knows what she wants. But Gen does, and she’s ready to take it. 

All Eve Ellaway wants is to escape to college, start a life of her own, and finally sever the connection to her twin sister Gen who disappeared when they were babies. Because while the rest of the...


Advance Praise

"Hooyenga's prose is sharp and lovely, even when describing not-so-lovely things, and she drops clever tidbits throughout the story that make Eve's relationship with her mother—and with Gen—riveting. This is truly a one-of-a-kind novel with an unforgettable ending."

— The BookLife Prize

"Prepare to lose sleep — Eve's story will keep you up late into the night as you question both her reliability as a narrator and the people around her."

— Kellie M. Parker, author of YA thriller Thin Air

“From the amazing premise to the last shocking twist, Melanie Hooyenga’s The Quiet Unraveling of Eve Ellaway is an emotional roller-coaster ride you will not soon ­­­­­forget. Simply terrific!”

— Alan Orloff, author of the Anthony and Agatha-Award winning YA thriller, I Play One on TV

“An emotional riptide from beginning until its shocking end, Hooyenga’s deep-dive into one young woman’s disturbing upbringing both haunts and horrifies.”

— Heather Levy, Anthony-nominated author of Hurt for Me and This Violent Heart 

"Hooyenga's prose is sharp and lovely, even when describing not-so-lovely things, and she drops clever tidbits throughout the story that make Eve's relationship with her mother—and with Gen—riveting...


Available Editions

EDITION Paperback
ISBN 9798330430468
PRICE US$15.99 (USD)
PAGES 300

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Average rating from 22 members


Featured Reviews

The Quiet Unraveling of Eve Ellaway follows the life of Eve, a teenage girl whose twin sister was kidnapped as an infant. This alone is enough to challenge even the strongest teenager, but Eve has the extra challenge of having to live inside her mother's delusions. When her twin was kidnapped, Eve's mother had a mental breakdown and cannot see reality. So, Eve has the heavy burden of being both twins for her mother, taking on two personalities with all of their hobbies and differences until Eve's own reality begins to shatter.

Hooyenga carefully and delicately approaches the nuance around mental illness and captures the voices of teenagers at those all important crossroads of their lives. She does it while finding slivers of humor in all the dark places. The Quiet Unraveling of Eve Ellaway will unravel you until you're questioning what is real, what is imagined, and what's the farthest you'd be willing to go to find yourself.

Huge thanks to the author, publisher, and netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this fantastic novel.

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HOLY COW!!! This was absolutely amazing and wonderfully written!!! I cannot explain how much I loved this book!

I love the development of Eve and watching her unravel was insane in the absolute best of ways! The way the trauma was portrayed and tied into the mental health diagnosis was such a change because so many people do not realize how those two can be entwined together.


*I received a free ARC from NetGalley*

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This is an emotional rollercoaster ride with an unreliable narrator that made me constantly question who she really was. One likeable, popular twin and one self-isolating, self-depreciating twin--who, if either, was our storyteller?

This novel explores mental health in ways that felt authentic and often brought out so much anger from me at what was happening to Eve as well as what she believed was the right choices to make.

The twists were ones I never saw coming and I even gasped out loud at the first major twist and had to reread the second one because it was unbelievable and heartbreaking.

This novel will stay with me for a long time. Thank you to the author and NetGalley for my early digital copy for an honest review.

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