Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan- Review

 

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? (goodreads.com)

So this is an older book and it emerged on my radar when I was looking for an author to do another Skype chat at my library. Although we had a small group last years chat with Marissa Meyer was great. So I found a list of authors who'll do Skype chats for free (theoretically) and I went down the list to see what names I recognized. I hadn't read any of Brennan's books but I knew that I knew the name for some reason, so I bought this book on my Nook and I wasn't dissapointed.

First, I really like that the book took place in England, I felt like it gave the town a cloak of mystery, but I have to say that my favorite part of this book was the dialogue. My speech patterns and those of Kami as basically identical (which may not be a great thing because she's like 16 and I'm about a decade older than that). I've read books that I've liked but there has always been something off about the character like their annoying habit of trying to save the world alone, or throw themselves in the face of danger, or their too helpless, or too fearless. Basically I just can't imagine a real person doing what they characters in the book did. That's wasn't a problem in this book. Kami and her friends could have been any group of teens that walked into my library, minus the mind reading thing.

The story was quickly paced and there was just enough suspense to keep you reading, but not too much that you said "Screw it" and went to read spoilers on Goodreads. I don't want to give to much away, so I'm just going to say read it, it's not like it's going to take you very long. 

Minor irritations... Kami, I really think you made the wrong decision. I understand how difficult it probably was being around Jared, but I think you too it too far. For the love of all that matters in this world, open up you mouth and communicate with the man. (That's what I would have said to her if I was in the book... but I wasn't.)

I look forward to reading the second book but I was so worked up over and slightly annoyed by how the first one ended that I don't know when I'm going to be able to manage it.