Restless

by Rich Wallace

Book by Wallace, Rich

Genres: Young Adult, Paranormal, Sports, Ghosts, Supernatural, Fantasy, Fiction

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Amira Dryden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Restless by Rich Wallace is a story that you won’t want to put down!

The main character is Herbie, a young teen who is about to start his senior year in high school. He’s an athletic and hardworking young man, playing football and running cross country on his high school teams. He spends his days running, working at the diner with his friends, and chatting online about theories on the universe, the afterlife, and reincarnation. He seems to have it all, as an exceptional teenager with both brain and brawn. Yet he deals with the heavy loss of his brother Frank, who died 10 years ago. Frank tells the story through an omniscient point of view, watching his brother experience life at the same age he was before his early death at 17. One night while running in the local cemetery, Herbie encounters a ghost. Frank has been trying to communicate with Herbie for years, but so far he has not been able to appear to him anywhere but in his dreams.
Who is that ghost Herbie saw? Will Frank and Herbie ever make contact with each other? What happens in the afterlife?

I loved this book! It was a fun and easy read that kept me interested and engaged until the very last page. Herbie is a very interesting and unique character, despite having all the outer qualities of a high school jock, his perspectives and interactions with his fellow teens show that he is not only intelligent but thoughtful. This story touches on many different topics, offering new ideas about death, ghosts, and the afterlife. While using the life of a high school teenager who is also dealing with everything else that comes with this age: sports, young love, social circumstances, sex, and self-identity. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys YA, theories about the universe, sports, and/or has lost someone close to them. My absolute favorite part of this book is that it is also a mystery, with one of the best endings I have read in a while.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

A ghost story for athletic dudes.

I found this book in a little free library after work one day. I was waiting for my ride to pick me up and didn’t have a lot of time to choose a book, so I was thrilled when I found this one because I’m obsessed with ghost stories.

I started to read while waiting for my ride and was intrigued right away, even though it was about a sporty guy. I’m not into sports at all. I do have an open mind though, and thought I’d give this book a shot anyway.

I liked that there are plenty of spooky cemetery scenes and ghost encounters. I like that the story is from the perspective of a ghost. I have to admit that I kinda glazed over the sporty parts just a little bit with detailed play-by-play of the games and workouts/training (but again, I’m not a sports person). I do think it’s cool that a book like this exists for athletes who might like a good ghost story.

The ending was just OK for me, maybe a little abrupt, and I wanted to understand more about why he was stuck here other than that he was pissed that he never got laid or had a connection with a girl lol. And without completely spoiling the ending, it was pretty neat that he discovered something about the “other ghost” that helped him understand himself and find some peace. (If I said anymore than that it would give it all away.)

Overall a decent book, it was interesting enough to read through to the end. If I was more into sports I might really enjoy it.

If you’re a young athlete who loves a good ghost story, this book is for you.

[Josiah Pittman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Herbie, a multi-sport athlete who is able to see ghosts, attempts to connect with his late brother, Frankie, who has been accompanying him since his death. At first glance, I thought that this book would mainly be a horror story, however, while reading it, I was surprised to find a humorous tone as we viewed the world from Frankie the Ghost's perspective. From this, we are able to observe the character development Herbie experiences while trying to connect with his dead brother on Earth. We are told that Herbie used to be "a wise-ass, cigarette-smoking, smacked-around-by-his-father sophomore in high school." (Wallace 8). As the story progresses, we see Herbie turn into a dedicated multi-sport athlete contradicting what he was like in the past. When Frankie sees that his brother is independent, he builds the courage to ascend from the earth and "resolve this thing." (Wallace 158) that he has been contemplating. I recommend this book to any high schooler who is family-oriented since it shows the connection between two siblings who are no longer together.

[Kaimyn S]

as a young person who recently died, she still has questions about her life, she latches on to Herbie, and He finally notices her. Me, I was looking for a ghost story in the library and I stumbled across this book I'm very glad I came across it. Therefore, I really had a wonderful time reading this book because it follows the life of Herbie who lives an interesting from a different perspective. "Herbie is about to enter his senior at Sturbridge high, he is a two-sport athlete and works a job on top of that." The target audience for this book is young adults between the age of 15-21.

[South Brunswick High School Library · Rating 3 out of 5]

Herbie, a high school senior, takes a nighttime trip through a graveyard only to find a spirit waiting. Concerned for the fate of his late brother, Frank, Herbie tries to unravel what happens after death to be sure that the restless spirit isn’t his brother’s.

[Kathy Lavelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would really give this book a 2.5 rating but that’s not an option. I thought this was a fairly quick read. Short chapters, short book and a good topic. Who wouldn’t want to feel a connection with a loved one who had passed away? I thought it was good.

[Amy Gay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would recommend this book for any teen who has lost a loved one. It portrays the deeper connection family can have even between the world of the living and the spirit world.

[Nino · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really good storyline. I love ghost stories so much because the detail and the way they connect it to history is just amazingly set up.

[Mackenzie H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Plot Summary:
An athletic teenager has a special talent that enables him to see things others don't. Not all of the things he sees he wants to, but now he can’t find the thing he's looking for the most. A barrier separates two brothers eager to see each other, know each other is okay, and to reunite a friendship broken by a sad death. Athletic, alive, and physically well but inside he's heartbroken inside, seventeen year old, Herbie and passed brother Frank will stop at nothing to reunite.

Main Characters:
Herbie is athletic, strong, outgoing, sad, and lonely because his brother died and he really misses his brother, Frank. He always wants to impress his coaches. His dad isn’t the best dad. His parents are splitso.
Frank is dead. He died when he was a kid, but his spirit still remains on earth. Frank cares about his brother and his family. Frank is Herbie's brother that has passed. He still watches over his family and even tries to communicate.
Eamon Connelly is also dead. His spirit is more capable of communicating and interacting with humans. He was a drunk who died in a crazy way. He and the quite lively, Herbie, have a few strange run ins.

Key Issues:
Two brothers have been separated for years and are on the brink of finding each other again. The only difference this time is that one is dead and one is alive. Read this suspenseful book to find out how two inseparable friends find each other after years of searching, hoping, praying, and having faith.

Other Information:
I rated this book 4 out of 5 because this book was very unpredictable and interesting. It was a little confusing at the beginning but then the author continues on the confusing topic making it more clear to the reader. This book surprised me at many different spots because I had no clue what was going to happen next. I think this book would be best for a more mature reader because of its language and one of the main characters is a teenage boy of course. This book might be interesting to people who are curious about the afterlife or if you are just in to sports. This book makes you think about like after death. It introduces new theories about heaven, hell, and the "waiting room" to heaven. This book talks about a boys experience as a spirit and about different spirits' capabilities to converge their energy into form that are visible to humans. This book tells us that different spirits or peoples' energy after they die varies greatly. Each spirit that is put in the "waiting room" to heaven has to learn something before they can pass to heaven. If the person already has done great things in life and learned several lessons they are able to go straight to heaven because they no longer have a purpose on Earth, unlike the energies that still have to learn. This book was a great book with unique views on the afterlife.

[Austin]

I read the book Restless by Rich Wallace. It was a very interesting book. The main character's name is Herbie. He is a brave young boy that is trying to figure out who he keeps on seeing when he goes into a graveyard at night. Herbies older brother passed away and he is trying to figure out a way to talk to him. He thinks the man he keeps on seeing in the graveyard might have to do with it. He is also a very athletic kid he plays football and runs cross country. He also has a job at a diner. He is very organized and good at planning things he knows how to use his time wisely. He is a very wise kid he has a lot of things going on in his life and he figures out ways to push through and get things done. His older brothers name is Frank and he is the one that is pretty much telling the story. Frank is trying to figure out a way to talk to his little brother. But he is having trouble because he is a spirit and he can't figure out how to communicate with Herbie. Frank sounds like a very nice boy he is always talking good about his brother. He is a very positive guy he is A spirit that is trying to communicate with his brother and after ten years he still can't figure out a way to but he doesn't give up. There are a lot of parts in the book that will give you goose bumps but there are also parts that are nice and relaxing. There are also some romantic parts. The author does a good job of making the book easy to understand and easy to read. He puts a lot of detail into the story. Rich Wallace did an amazing job of writing the book is the point of view of Herbies brother that passed away and is a spirit. Some chapters are a little confusing but in the next chapter he explains it and then it all comes together. It is a very unique book it is pretty cool to read a book that is in the point of view of a spirit. He does such a good job it's almost like an actual spirit wrote the book. He does a good job of making you feel like you are watching what you are reading because of how much detail os in the book. Rich explains exactly what is going on and does not switch things up too fast. He sticks to one topic and doesn't go back and forth from thing to thing. He is very good at staying on one topic and does a very good job at switching topics.

[Jake · Rating 3 out of 5]

Restless by Rich Wallace was a very interesting book that brings up the topics of spirits, ghosts, and what happens in the afterlife. It is obvious that Rich Wallace believes in some kind of afterlife, specifically reincarnation. I feel that this book is his way of expressing his thoughts on the afterlife, which he believes is there, and provoking the same thoughts that he must have had at one time.

In just about every way, I enjoyed Restless. Like with every book I read, I’m impatient at the beginning and just want the plot to get moving to the good stuff. Restless was not an exception. Although the beginning of every book starts out slow, it took me awhile until I was hooked. But once I got reading and got in a groove, I finished it in one sitting, since it isn't very long.

The main thing I enjoyed about Restless was that it provoked a lot of thought outside of the plot. While I was thinking about what might happen with Herbie and Diane or trying to figure out the connection between Eamon and the Herbert brothers, but I was also pondering my own thoughts about what happens after we die. Since I am a very inquisitive person, this idea of the unknown about death stuck in my mind. It made me want to read more and find out about what the author’s opinion is on the subject.

I would recommend Restless to everyone, especially if you are the type of person that wants answers to the unanswerable. Also, it’s not like this book will greatly interrupt anything you have going on because it is a short read.

[Brandon McCarthy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought Restless, by Rich Wallace, was an interesting book. However, that’s about the nicest thing I have to say about the story. It is a ordinary chapter novel. There are three main parts, first when we begin to meet the characters, and get to know them. Then the plot is introduced, the climax, and the conclusion. Normal spacing and font choice, nothing really unusual. The main character Herbie, I quickly found out was a ordinary, almost boring character, who has a quality for attracting ghosts. When I chose this book to read, I was hoping for a scary read that would help keep me entertained throughout the quarter. For example, there is way too much detail on Herbie’s personal life. There are literally two whole chapters about him playing football. I thought that was odd, especially when the first few pages of the book made it seem like a great ghost story.The first sentence in the book is-I've been thinking about the undead. Although there are some livelier moments in the latter part of the book, about Herbie unable to stay away from the graveyard, hoping to take an attractive, yet dead girl home is a little creepy. There is also an emotional part of this book, Herbie talking to his brother Frank’s soul in the graveyard. Frank died of cancer, and he was just 7 years older than Herbie. All in all, I was really disappointed, this was more of a story, with ghosts on the side, than a real ghost story.

[Bodie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book written by Rich Wallace was a great book. It always made me want to read more. Whenever I got the chance I would read this book. I read it and sometimes didn't want to stop reading it but it was late and I had to. The book really makes you feel like you are in these situations. I really liked it and wish there was a second one. It makes you wonder what's going to happen next. This book was just an amazing book and I would recommend this book to anyone. If you mystery books then you will like this book. I liked it so much that I wouldn't play video games until I read this book for at least 20 minutes or more.

This book is about a boy named Herbie. This story is told by Herbie's brother that died when he was 17 years old from cancer. Herbie was about 6 years old when Frank his brother died. In the short amount of time they were together they were like best friends. Herbie decides to play football and run cross country in high school to prove he is an athlete. In the mix of all this sports stuff he is curious about what goes on in the local cemetery. He thinks that he is being haunted when he goes to the cemetery and some how he thinks there is a after life on Earth. His brother Frank knows the answer. Read the book and find out if there is a after life on Earth or if it's all in Herbie's head.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Herbie is an athletic, normal teenage boy who is being haunted. More exactly, there are ghosts around and after stumbling into one at a cemetery, he's able to see them more than more. Two ghosts in particular: the ghost of his brother Frank, who died at about Herbie's age 10 years ago (and who narrates this tale) and another ghost far older.

Okay, so for some reason I felt like there was going to be a possession happening in this story, from the jacket copy and how the ghosts seemed to feel throughout most of the book. They seemed jealous of Herbie and his physical prowess and his budding relationship with Diane. But in the end, this ended up being entirely a metaphysical contemplation of what happens after we die and energy and where it goes. I guess I was a little disappointed that the whole story ended with the ghosts "moving on" and nothing super creepy happening. Oh, well.

Parental advisory: some language, and sexual discussions.

[Steph · Rating 1 out of 5]

I would have liked this better had it not had so many sexual references in it. I know high school boys talk about and think about and even participate in sex, but I don't care to read that point of view. It wasn't graphic or terribly detailed, but more than I like. I finished the book because it's a tiny one and I thought I would give it a fighting chance. I did like Herbie's relationship with his dead brother, I liked that the story was told by the brother, and I liked that once he had had an encounter with a ghost, he could then see both them and colorful auras around people, that was interesting, but it wasn't fleshed out very well. I think the author had some good ideas, but didn't know how to use them. It's obviously a book written for teenage boys, but it's sort of dumb and I can't imagine my teenage sons enjoying it.

[Santo]

Restless by Rich Wallace is a very interesting mystery book. The subject is the book is Herbie a 17 year old teenager trying out for cross country and the football team. I would recommend this book to mostly boys that are in middle school or even in highschool. This book has a great ghost story to it but you'll have to read it to figure out more.

Summarization
The book Restless is basically about a boy named Herbie. Herbie is a 17 year old teenager facing his parents divorce but also trying to figure out if he can play football and run cross country in the same season. He lives in a small town in Pennsylvania. The big mystery in this book is to try to figure out why his brother died and what ghost is haunting him.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here is a ghost story for the high school sports fan. We have all seen stories of living people peering into the shadow world of the dead, but this is told through the eyes of the dead peering into the world of the living. Frank died too young, just a teenager, and there is something holding him to this world. He has his little brother Herbie to watch over, sure, but there is more, and it probably has something to do with that angry spirit who is stalking Herbie through the graveyard every night.

[Wendy Holliday · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd give this a 3.5 if I could. It was an interesting and original take on the typical 'ghost' story. I read it all in about 2 hours one insomnia night.

I thought the transition between when Herbie couldn't see Frank to when he could was weirdly without a blink on Herbie's part. I think the ending could have had a little more closure, especially with how much Frank talked about how 'unfulfilled' he felt.

[Summeralism · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. I mean WOW!

Have you ever wondered about the afterlife? Or reincarnation? If you have, this is a great fiction for you!

For those of you who have not, it will definately broaden your thoughts about a relative lost. It will leave you pondering their whereabouts and convince you that your inner energy will create a connection.

Also a cute love story and hope, strength and family bonding gravitate this individual and his daily routine.

[Tammi · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a young adult ghost story, but not the creepy, scary type. I really liked the ideas of the afterlife that the author presented. I was disappointed in how abruptly the book ended. I think he could have went a bit farther with the story. I will say this is the first ghost story I've read with a sports theme! Overall, if you want a quick read with an interesting theory on the afterlife, this book may be a good choice.

[Carl Sivels · Rating 3 out of 5]

Restless is a story about a brother and his dead brothers relationship past life. He is an athletic young high school kid with alot going for him but has a special gift nobody else has he can connect with the dead. overall i thought this book was a big dissapointment, didint connect with the characters, didint get deep enough into the story, and wasint a scary story about ghosts but more of a afterlife story

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book failed to totally draw me in, I also went in looking for scary horror writing. I finished the book because it was short and wanted to give it a chance to improve. If I would have read about it before reading, I might not have read it.. I still enjoyed it enough to recommend it for it's genre but it really wasn't my type of book.

[Tia · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring. No character development. Not worth your time. How this book's in a K-6 elementary school where I work is beyond me. Lots of swearing and a few inappropriate references.

It's not a scary ghost story, but rather about a boy's relationship with his dead brother and how he's pondering the afterlife and whether or not his bro can hear or see him, and if he's in limbo right now.

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first, I assumed the restless ghost was Eamon. Then when I was about halfway through the book, I thought I had this big revelation when I thought, 'No... Frank is the restless one.'
At the end, it all came together. Literally.

This is one of those books that make you think.

[Jen · Rating 1 out of 5]

This started out with a big bang and quickly faded. I was disappointed with how the plot developed. The book hooked me with the beginning and then built too quickly. More details were needed. It left me feeling like I had missed something.

[Jacob Fowler · Rating 4 out of 5]

this story is about a football team. They have ghost encounters that gives them super powers on the football field. I think this story really makes it seem like something like this can really happen in real life.

[Jarret Stoner · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book gives a good prospective on life after death. It was very interesting read if i do say so my self. It was a little inapropriate throughout the book, but i still think that it is worth reading... just dont read it outloud in front of little kids.

[Tito · Rating 5 out of 5]

it is really exiting

[Manda · Rating 5 out of 5]

really really loved the knowledge behind it, and the relationships, and the authors insight on what happens after we die. Also the whole tidbit about auras was something i never realised until now.

[Amy Egbert · Rating 1 out of 5]

The bad language and overwhelming sexuality in it totally ruined this book for me. I wasn't a fan.