Unspoken by Sara Rees Brennan Series: The Lynburn Legacy #1
Published by Random House Books for Young Readers on September 11th, 2012
Genres: Paranormal Mystery, YA
Goodreads
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?
Before you start with all the cussing and yelling at me for giving this book a low rating please hear me out.
Unspoken was a book I literally counted down the days to. I wanted this book almost as bad as Onyx (and believe me I had an actual timer on my phones home screen for that one) but where Onyx left me shaking on the floor going through what felt like heroine withdrawals (only an assumption) Unspoken did not have that effect on me. The entire idea of a girl who has an “imaginary friend” who turns out to not only be real but also belong to a family of crazy powerful (view spoiler) did crazy things to my brain. Then I actually started to read Kami and I loved her sense of humor and her determination.
In the beginning.
It could just be the way I was raised but I am a strong believer in the whole don’t go lookin for trouble phrase my Granny says on an everyday basis. I mean, yes I thought it was cool she wanted to be a journalist, a person delivering truth to the masses. I DID NOT think it was cool going after what she originally thought were Sadist. I look at it like this. Ok so you find mutilated animal bodies in the woods; that’s creepy, sick and twisted. Oh now you want to find out who is doing this sick and twisted animal torturing? Ok fine if that’s what you want but answer me a question. Once you find out who is doing this and why then what? Do you expect to go back to your normal life on the school paper? Do you expect to not have the person or persons coming after you for revenge? Do you think that the person who tortured and killed this poor animal has any problems with doing the same to you or your little brothers?
Maybe my logic is off, maybe I think too deeply about things. But when you have all that to lose it just doesn’t seem like the smartest plan to go all balls to the wall on this story. Because that’s what this is for. A STORY.
Moving on to what bugged me next. Angela. I understand her parents are never home and she may be neglected but if I had to hear that she “hates all people one more time I was going to seriously loose it. The first hundred or so pages I read it bugged me but I thought “Hey it’s ok Octavia. She will learn that it’s ok to trust some people. She will learn that all men aren’t sex obsessed idiots. Be patient”. Unfortunately that revelation never came. So sadly I had to endure 374 pages of “I hate boys” and “everything takes too much effort”. I feel sorry for her when the real world says “We hate you too”.
Next I just want to skim through the plot. Crazy original, lots of suspense, decently thought out, and while it wasn’t perfect to me it was still ok. Now that I have mentioned the good about the plot let’s get into the bad. It dragged at times. I’m not sure if it was supposed to be suspenseful or informative but a lot of the book was drawn out and at times I felt like there was too much back story. The climax; while set up appropriately was like a hike through the woods to see the Grand Canyon when you could have driven. If you like the outdoors let me try it this way. It was like deciding you were too hot in your house in the dead of January when it’s -8 degrees outside and instead of turning down the heat you put the air on. Yes you get the same end results but you took the back country long route to get there. I’m still unsure as to how I felt about the whole big town secret and the explanation between Jared’s and Kami’s connection but I do know I’m not satisfied. I know, I know! It’s only the first book it goes deeper, more things happen, you have to let it build! But the first book is also supposed to grab you and say look at me! I’m not perfect! I have holes! But got-dammit I make it worth it to grab book two!
The plot, the characters, the town in general and especially that damn cliff-hanger didn’t make me think for even a nano-second that book two would be better. It could be my fault. Maybe I built this book up into some big-amazing-better-than-life-best-book-ever kind of deal. A request that’s too big for any book to fill. Or maybe the book just wasn’t that good. I doubt I will read the second, but it may be what other people long to read. A twisted and overly complicated mystery that while original, was completely unsatisfying.
