I'm actually getting page views. . .?! This is awesome. Well, there hasn't been anything to comment on. Until now! Here it is, coming at you, my first review. Check out it's place on the Book Spectrum to see what I rated it, or read through to the end of the review.
Title: Unspoken
Series: The Lynburn Legacy
Author: Sarah Rees Brennan
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
Publish Date: September 11, 2012
Pages: 370
ASIN: 0375870415
Source: Library
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? (From the book flap).
That summary's a little bit hefty. In fewer words: Kami has an "imaginary friend". Turns out he's not so imaginary. Also, Kami's sleepy little English town turns out to a haven for a sorcerer family, the Lynburns. They left town twenty some-odd years ago, and are now returning, much to the chagrin of the townspeople. Kami comes to find out that the voice inside her head/her imaginary friend, Jared, is one of these sorcerers, and she doesn't know how to feel about that. Or him. Or his hotter cousin. People die. Angst is had.
Personally, I thought Kami was a great protagonist. She has a good head on her shoulders, and a sense of humor, which is pretty much what Sarah Rees Brennan is known for, her humor and her pro-feminism. All of the character, are really
characters, with distinct and realistic personalities. Take Kami's best friend Angela: she is lazy, aggressively so, and she isn't shy about letting the world know that she hates everyone. Her brother, on the other hand, is passively lazy and very laid-back; Rusty doesn't let anything get under his skin. I could go on—everyone has their own personality and everyone is able to hold their own. That's one of the best things about the book. There is one flaw with that, though: Sarah Rees Brennan is funny, as I've already mentioned. But sometimes I think she's a little too funny for her own good. At times, the more serious characters, like Jared, or his hot cousin Ash, would randomly pop some really hilarious, corny one-liner (this book thrives on really hilarious one-liners), and while it made perfect sense, one couldn't really appreciate the comic value as much as one would had it come from another, less serious character's mouth.
The plot, I thought, though I don't really pride myself on being a great judge of plots, was good. It didn't have the seamless flow that some other books I've read in the past have had, but overall, it made sense. The action was seemed a little bit forced at times, to me—I think this series is a tad bit more relationship-based (which I don't mind—they sat around for half of
Pride and Prejudice, and it's still one of my favorite books) than action-based, with all the relationship drama, the issue of loyalties, the
complete betrayal at the end, which you may or may not see coming, and subject of good and evil. That's just my opinion, though. Amongst all that, there was a pretty steady "who-dunnit" thing running, and with that came answers, plot-thickening, lies, truths, everything that is expected in a good book. It was well-paced, overall, and the drama to action ratio was sufficiently balanced.
I couldn't really figure out what genre this was. I mean, it has some romance, and some action, it deal with magic and supernatural, but none of those particularly define the book for me. I think the label "romance is a bit misleading. Initially, after seeing "romance" I was expecting Kami and Jared to get together. They didn't. Far from it. I felt some romantic tension brewing, but if they do get together, it won't be until book three. That being said, I still found their relationship complicatingly, frustratingly wonderful and fascinating, as well as their history together, which wasn't really elaborated on. I'm not really sure if Brennan was leaving room for the mysterious aspect, or if there really wasn't much more to things; it was hard to tell. Either way, I'd love to see more of that in the next book. As for the other relationships in the book, none of the others really stood out, though Kami's relationship with hot Ash is clearly a set-up for cousin-rivalry/love triangle. In my opinion, it's an Edward-Jacob, Peeta-Gale situation—it's clear who's going to win. (Or it was clear to me from the beginning. Either that, or I have psychic powers and I just predicted which guy was going to get the girl).
Overall, I thought it was a great book. It quickly became one of my all-time favorites. I'm not sure if it was circumstance—I hadn't read a good book in
forever and I was pretty much hopeless until this came along—but either way, I just love the concept, and the beginning completely drew me in, and the momentum from that was enough to propel me the rest of the way through the book. Unfortunately this is the first in a trilogy, a trilogy that has just started. So here I am, sat here, waiting for the release of book two,
Untold. Lovely name. That comes out September 24th of this year, and I am currently trying to get my hands on an ARC. Hopefully that will happen, but even if it doesn't, I will definitely be reviewing that.
My Verdict: Go buy this book, borrow it from the library, steal it (well, maybe don't do that). Get your hands on it. It's funny and just great in general.
Book Spectrum Rank: Purple
Please leave some comments! Hopefully I did okay, being that is my first review. Thanks for reading!
