Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Review: Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan

Title: Unspoken (The Lynburn Legacy #1)
Author: Sarah Rees Brennan
Published: September 11th 2012
Add It: Goodreads
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository

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?
I've read about people having so many mixed feelings regarding this pretty and I must admit that it made me intrigued to know which category won me overthe haters or the lovers. After reading, I can say that it's neither. I honestly didn't hate this book, but I didn't love it either. However, cross my heart and hope to die, I did enjoy it. Let's get down to business and break it down piece by piece.

“Sorry-in-the-Vale, Sorriest River, Crying Pools," said Jared. "Is the quarry called Really Depressed Quarry?” 

The story. Kami is a very ravenous journalist craving for new stories to showcase them in her school newspaper. When the infamous Lynburns return to her hometown, strange things start to happen and Kami feels the strong need to invastigate what's wrong, who these people are and what do they want with her town. After all, the legends don't say a lot of good about them. Then, she discoveres that the voice of a boy inside her head isn't a voice at allit's one of the young Lynburns and he isn't exactly happy that Kami turned out to be real.

My thoughts. I listened to an audiobook and, in my opinion, the narrator did a great job. It was hard to get into at first, but once I got the hang of it, the reading experience became quite enjoyable. She made Kami sound very quirky and exciting, rather than a nosy clueless MC as some of the readers see her. I had heard so-so things, but it's been a lot of time since the book was published so I had mostly forgotten other people's thoughts and it paid off big time! I went into it expecting nothing and I believe that helped me enjoy the book way more. Plus, I enjoyed the humor. Like the quote above, it made me at least smile if not laugh.

I found the town itself to be awesome! Coming from a small town where rumours and small talk are the jazz, it was fun to see how presumtions and rumours can form a story. I also didn't know who to trust since someone was supposed to be behind all of this nonsense what started to happen after the Lynburns returned and I really didn't know who it was. All these different connections among the cast and their relationships are complicated, therefore, it takes a while to grasp everyone's full identity and intentions. I'm usually pretty good at guessing things and predicting the big bad, but the joke was on me this time since I couldn't pinpoint one certain person as opposed to multiple suspects. Also, turns out, Kami and one of the Lynburn boys are tied for a reason and it goes back to wayyyy before they were even born. The history of the Lynburns was my favorite part of the story and I hope it'll be explored to even more depth in the sequel. Oh, and despite the cliché, I'm all for team Jared. Ash is not the one for Kami, that's for sure.

I enjoyed discovering all the revelations and for me it wasn't as bad as some people claim it to be. I agree, it didn't raise to its full potential, but as I've stated before, some of my favorite series haven't all gotten 5 stars for the first book. I will definitely read the sequel and I hope that the Lynburn legacy will be explored to further depth and the villain will create havoc among our beloved characters because it'd be interesting to see who's strong enough to survive, emotionally and physically, and what's next to come.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Meet the author

Website | Twitter | Goodreads

29 comments:

  1. I've been really curious about this book. I've heard some pretty good thing about and do want to check it out. It's awesome when you can't figure out who's doing what :) Great review!

    Janina @ Synchronized Reading

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    1. Hey you! On the contrary, more often than not, I had heard not so great things so I was very pleasently surprised :) I hope you pick it up and I can't wait to read your thoughts, Janina!

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  2. I went into this book without expectations either. Actually, I was hoping it would be awesome, because I love Sarah Rees Brennan's Twitter. I was happy to enjoy it! I agree- learning about the Lynburns was the best part and team Jared ftw! I can't wait to read the sequel. :) Glad you liked it!

    -P.E. @ The Sirenic Codex

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    1. No expectations can make wonders ;) Heh. Yes to the Lunburns! I loved their personalities and background. Team Jared? High five, girl! I can't wait to read the sequel either :)

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  3. I've honestly not considered reading Unspoken, and I'm not sure why. It's so great that you were able to enjoy the audio, I'm so iffy w/those, depending on the narrator. I'm glad you enjoyed Unspoken enough to continue the series!

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    1. I loved this audio. It's probably what made me enjoy it that much. Audios can go wrong too, though.. I've stumbled upon some very bad ones -.-

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  4. I was never really interested in this series and I'm pretty confident that I made the right choice not wanting to read it from your review. Books that you neither love nor you hate are always the worst to review, but you wrote a wonderfully balanced review.
    I'm glad that you enjoyed it overall though, Siiri.
    Lovely review!

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    1. I know, right? They're a trouble to write since I really don't know what to say. It was a decent read :) Thanks, babe!

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  5. I'm with you Siiri, some of my favorite series have started out rocky as well. I almost like it that better way, if they start out AMAZING, then I have such high expectations with every book that I usually end up just a touch disappointed, but if each book improves upon the one before it, then I find myself fascinated. Can't wait to see what you think of book 2!

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    1. Just like Mara Dyer started with a 2.5, I'm hoping that this will continue to be amazing. I'm a bit scared thanks to Sam's review, but I'm still so excited :)

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  6. I have heard also mixed feelings about this one and it's been on my to-read list for a while. I must read it. Honestly the fact that this book was unpredictable and I want to read it for that reason alone. I love the sound of that town and I think I'll read this one but I'll lower my expectations. Great review Siiri :)

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    1. I hope you give it a try so we can chat and compare our thoughts :) It was quite unexpected in many ways for me and I really enjoyed the parts that I didn't predict beforehand. Thanks, hon!

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  7. Hmm. How interesting - I've seen this book around, but like you said... there's haters and lovers of it. Maybe I'll read it some day! I'm sorry that it didn't reach the full potential, and that you didn't like Ash. Kami sounds like an interesting character, though! Awesome review, girly!

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    1. I hope you enjoy it, Megan :) Ha, well.. Ash just isn't the guy for Kami ;) Thank you!!!

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  8. I read this as ARC and I loved it - I didn't think it would be that good, but thinking back, I probably overrated it. I think I was blindsided by the fact that I had read something different from my usual reads at that time.
    Great review, Siiri.

    Glass @ Way Too Hot Books

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    1. Yayyy. I think that a lot of my ratings depend on my mood and what I've read before/after (don't usually write my reviews right after I finish a book) and um.. sometimes I'm a bit more biased that way, so I get how you feel. Thank you, Glass!

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  9. I think I loved Kami's humor the most in this story. It's been a while since I read this so I can't remember why Jared and Kami had their connection. You'll have to spoil me on Goodreads, Siiri and remind me, lol. :) I'm totally Team Jared too and I hope we don't have a big love triangle because from what I remember, Ash wasn't a huge factor. Am I right? Wonderful review! :)

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    1. Haha, yes to this! I just.. 3 star reads are always so easy to forget since you don't exactly hate them, but don't love them either. Team Jared ftw, baby! I do recall some sort of a love triangle, but you can tell that there is absolutely no way that Ash and Kami are meant to be lol. Thanks, Rachel!

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  10. I do remember liking the humor in this one but overall I was kind of bored with it. It was different from what I was expecting I think my expectations were fairly high, too. It's been a while though so I don't remember very well what I did/did not like about it. It does have a lot of mixed opinions for sure! Great review, muffin!

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    1. I loved the humor. I was a bit bored in some places, but overall I enjoyed it. I probably wouldn't have if it hadn't been for the audio which I really liked. Thanks, Giselle!

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  11. I'm glad that you were able to find a decent read in Unspoken Siiri, I read the novella before this book and was intrigued in giving this book a go too, but just never had the time. I also love it when you go into a book with no expectations at all but end up leaving with a brilliant reading experience. I think I need to do this in the future with all my books! I hope you end up enjoying the next book just as much! Lovely review Siiri! :)

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    1. If you own a copy already, definitely try it. Since you're British yourself, you'll probably enjoy the humor even more than I did lol. I really liked this piece of work and I hope you enjoy it too if you decide to give it a try someday. Thanks, babe!

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  12. I haven' t read this one yet, because I'm so fearful of the cliffhanger everyone has talked about! I think at this point I will wait until the series is fully published to read it. But I really like that you were unable to guess the "bad guy." I almost always guess right too, so I love that this author was able to stump you in this story. I'm also glad to hear that you bought Kami's character and didn't find her annoying.

    And I often end up falling hard for series that started off with lower ratings. I agree, the books can definitely get better. Sometimes it's the final book that makes me love the entire thing. I hope your experience with book 2 is even better than this one!

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    1. You haven't? :O Of all the people, I thought you most surely had. It sounds like your kind of read, but I'm not sure if you'd enjoy it. The premise is totally something like you'd enjoy though. Oh, gosh, yes! I'm usually always right, but not in this case and it was so refreshing. I had my guesses, but I wasn't sure in any of my options.

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  13. I'm glad you enjoyed this overall, Siiri! I really liked it too, though I think SRB's sense of humour played a part in that. There were a lot of lines that made me grin. I'm looking forward to seeing what you think of the sequel! I didn't like it as much as this one, but I thought it was an okay read overall. I hope you enjoy it. :)

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    1. You know, you kind of scared me with your review what with all that relationship drama. I still can't wait to read it and spend more time with Kami and the rest of the cast. I love SRB's humour, too. It's fun and quirky and so not cliché which I'm everglad for :)

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  14. Sounds like it is worth a read, and the humor def intrigues me

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  15. Hahaha. It's probably because of the covers. They're rather similar ;) I hope that it will. Sam's review of book #2 kind of scares me, but I'm still everexcited ;)

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