Review: Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan

Title: Unspoken (The Lynburn Trilogy #1)
Author: Sarah Rees Brennan
Pages: 370 pages
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
Published on: September 11th 2012
Source: Bought from Fully Booked
Buy the book: Amazon / Barnes and Noble

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 from Goodreads)

Review:

I cannot express how much I love Unspoken. Trust me, this review is absolutely transparent compared to what I am feeling right now. I am completely overcome with emotion and as soon as I had finished reading Unspoken, I just knew that I needed to immediately write a review as soon as I got home from school, so here I am now.

The world Sarah Rees Brennan has created in Unspoken is both terrifyingly violent and astoundingly beautiful. The people of Sorry-in-the-Vale all have important roles to play and in the end, you really don't know who you can trust. This book was so perfectly written that each page only made me fall more in love with it. There were parts where I couldn't stop myself from laughing out loud and there were times where I found myself wanting to tackle the characters in the book.

Kami Glass is easily one of the coolest heroines I have ever read about. She's this perfect mix of sarcastic, funny and very vulnerable. Kami has had to live her whole life sharing her mind, and her heart, to a voice in her head named Jared. One of the things that really made me love Kami so much is that she literally never lets anyone bring her down, she likes to get her way no matter how crazy and outrageous it might be. She's absolutely witty and so bright without ever becoming that really cliched heroine who always knows everything, Kami Glass has made an impression of herself and trust me, I will never forget about her.

The story pretty much starts with Kami writing a story about the return of the Lynburn family. Kami just burns with fire of a natural-born journalist and seeker of truth. The Lynburn family was the founding family of Sorry-in-the-Vale and along with the return of the Lynburn family came very gruesome deaths that ranged from forest animals to teenaged girls. Kami's former life of normalcy is completely shattered when she meets the Lynburn boys, specifically Jared Lynburn who she immediately realizes is the boy she's been talking to ever since she was born.

Jared and Kami's relationship had me literally gripping the edge of my seat and flipping the pages as fast as I could. There was so much tension between the two since they really didn't know how they should be acting towards one another, especially since this was the first time ever that they'd seen each other physically and they'd never thought that the other might actually be a real person. I wanted so much to happen between Jared and Kami but I really enjoyed the pace Sarah Rees Brennan had set for them. It was slow yet you could really feel the longing they had for each other and the fear of what would happen if they did pursue the connection between them. You can also really see the protectiveness that Jared has for Kami and that the bond that they share pretty much makes up who they are and if they lose the other, they lose a huge part of themselves.

Kami asks for her friends help to solve the mystery of the death of the animals and the girl. You can really see the loyalty between Kami and her friends (Angela; her extremely beautiful yet world-hating best friend, Holly; her newly acquired friend, Ash; Jared's cousin (also a Lynburn), and Jared; Kami's most trusted friend.) This is where so many things will unravel, you will see shocking secrets get revealed and you will realize that there are so many things happening that you may not have noticed before.

Though I admit there were parts that were pretty predictable for me, I still couldn't help but be thoroughly shocked. As I was reading the book, I ended up just randomly bursting to tears during my AP (History) class and during lunch with my friends. It was so heartbreakingly beautiful and the way Sarah Rees Brennan presents you this "surprise" will definitely leave you awe-struck and very dumb-struck. Sarah Rees Brennan creates a world with vulnerable yet insanely strong characters and little towns that carry way too much secrets than any town has a right to. Unspoken sucked me right into Sorry-in-the-Vale and trust me when I say that I don't plan on ever leaving. Unspoken easily one of the best books I've read this year and you will NOT regret getting this book.

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