Review: Unspoken

Book: Unspoken
Author: Sarah Rees Brennan
Series: The Lynburn Legacy #1
Release Date: September 11, 2012
Publisher: Random House Books
Pages: 370
Source: publisher
Links: Goodreads | Amazon | Amazon CA | The Book Depository | Chapters
Stars: 4/5

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?

(summary taken from Goodreads)

MY THOUGHTS:  

There's "bizarre" and "different," and then there's this book... which is probably the best of both! I loooooooooooooooooooooved it so much! 

Unspoken is one of those books that make you slap your forehead and wonder why you hadn't read it earlier. I couldn't stop grinning, yet at the same time, I couldn't breathe when it got intense. It kind of has the feel to it of Beautiful Creatures — small town, fantastic cast, feared magical family, and rich gothic mystery — except I liked this much, much more! 

Kami and Jared make up a totally unorthodox pair that I seriously LOVE! ♥ They've never met before (they used to believe that the other was imaginary), but they've been able to talk into each other's minds since birth. People look at them strangely for stopping randomly to laugh at inner conversations, but Kami and Jared don't care. They've been best friends since forever, and they're like two halves of the same whole.  

And when they do finally meet, it's so realistic! They don't know what to be at first (Friends? Girlfriend/boyfriend? Enemies?), but I promise your heart will go for a wild ride. 

It's not just the romance that's so different from what I'm used to, but the characters themselves. Kami (witty teenage journalist extraordinaire) is strange and she knows it. But there's no angsty outcast drama here! She still has wonderful friends and a wonderful family despite her strangeness. And Jared... Jared is a leather-jacket-wearing bad boy who'd move heaven and Earth for Kami. My heart broke for him, ached for him, shone for him.

The wit is off the charts! Kami has such a smart mouth and the kind of reckless brain all reporters are born with; the banter had me cracking up constantly. Sarah Rees Brennan is a mastermind at creating a dynamic story filled with wonderfully unique characters, NONE of that hair-pulling cliche drama, and ALL of the intenseness of a great mystery.  

Brilliantly witty and fantastically strange, Unspoken is an amazing novel that brings everything we've been looking for in YA without even knowing it! With a hilarious cast, smile-inducing dialogue, and a mystery that turns pages on its own, this book is sure to be a stunner! :)  

BUY or BORROW?: This book was buy-worthy the moment Kami cracked her first joke! I want to own this for all of its hilarious one-liners and originality, and you should too! ;)

-Mimi