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October 22, 2012

Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan Review

Title: Unspoken (The Lynburn Legacy #1)   
Author: Sarah Rees Brennan    
Publisher: Random House 

Release Date: September 11, 2012
Received: Bought 


Summary:  Kami Glass loves someone she’s never met . . . a boy she’s talked to in her head ever since she was born. She wasn’t silent about her imaginary friend during her childhood, and is thus a bit of an outsider in her sleepy English town of Sorry-in-the-Vale. Still, Kami hasn’t suffered too much from not fitting in. She has a best friend, runs the school newspaper, and is only occasionally caught talking to herself. Her life is in order, just the way she likes it, despite the voice in her head.

But all that changes when the Lynburns return.

The Lynburn family has owned the spectacular and sinister manor that overlooks Sorry-in-the-Vale for centuries. The mysterious twin sisters who abandoned their ancestral home a generation ago are back, along with their teenage sons, Jared and Ash, one of whom is eerily familiar to Kami. Kami is not one to shy away from the unknown—in fact, she’s determined to find answers for all the questions Sorry-in-the-Vale is suddenly posing. Who is responsible for the bloody deeds in the depths of the woods? What is her own mother hiding? And now that her imaginary friend has become a real boy, does she still love him? Does she hate him? Can she trust him?
 


Review:  I've been having trouble writing this review. Not because Unspoken was sub-par or just okay. Which is when I usually have trouble writing reviews. No the reason I am having trouble is just the opposite. Unspoken is amazing and I don't know if I can adequately convince you of its awesomeness.

Let me just get it out there that Unspoken is AWESOME and I cannot be held responsible for the amount of fangirlyness that will be in this post.

Kami is a great main character. She is resourceful, loyal, and curious, all things I look for in a good protagonist. As for the rest of the characters they are awesome as well. Each one brings their own brand of snark and hilarity that really made me feel as if they could be real people from a real town. Holly and Angela are my particular favorites especially because they don't have that girl-on-girl tension with Kami that is a central point of antagonism in many other books. They are Kami's friends and they are willing to put up with her eccentricities because they love her. Unspoken has a rather large cast of characters but Sarah Rees Brennan had made it so you will fall in love with all of them and yearn to know more about them.

Speaking of the town, Sorry-in-the-vale is gorgeously written. I want to book a trip and go, Sarah Rees Brennan has created a place that while filled with magic is a place that I can totally see existing. It is almost a character in of itself, it adds so much to the story and I cannot image Unspoken taking place anywhere other than Sorry-in-the-Vale.

I really liked how the whole voice in her head thing was handled, I think it was mature and not ridiculous like it could have been. It was central to the conflict without taking it over. There were other people involved and how it came about was really interesting to me. 

The plot of Unspoken is great. It is paced well and Sarah Rees Brennan constantly brings up little things that seem insignificant but are really very important. As for the climax, I was pleasantly surprised. It was not completely what I thought it was going to be and I cannot wait for the next book.

As for the ending... It is terrible and not okay by any stretch of the imagination. But it is not a cliffhanger so that is good.

Basically you should go buy Unspoken. And if you ever have the chance to meet Sarah Rees Brennan DO IT. She is hilarious and so nice. I had the chance to meet her at the Austin Teen Book Festival and she was one of the nicest authors I met that day. Even if she takes pleasure in making people cry at her books. Also the odds that she will stand on a chair are high.


Lets be honest it is a 6/5

1 comments:

  1. I have issues with writing about books that I absolutely loved too! I have this book sitting next to my bed and I am so looking forward to it! I am glad to hear that yet another person absolutely loved this novel! That makes me really excited to pick it up later this week! And I get to meet Sarah this weekend at YALLFest in Charleston! I am so excited!!

    ReplyDelete

Hi! I love getting comments, I will try to answer all of them time willing!