REVIEW: Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan

            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?

There are 99 reasons to love Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan, and most of them revolve around the protagonist, Kami Glass. Not only is Kami a strong, independent girl who don’t need no man, but she’s the knight in shining armor to not one but two damsels in distress. She’s a sass-a-frass of a girl with the wit repertoire of Loki from Supernatural. She’s a badass girl, and her best friends are too.

Angela and her brother, Rusty are the new kids to town. They’re not let in on town secrets, but they’re fine with that. They don’t care for gossip or social interaction. They like naps, and Rusty teaches self-defense. Rusty has taught Angela and Kami to be the badass girls they are today. Holly, on the other hand, is a bit of a natural badass. She drives a motorcycle and all the boys flock to her like bees to honey. Angela and Holly bond over their mutual distaste for boys and their boyish ways. It’s clear that they are absolutely in love with each other!

Along with her two best friends, Kami’s gang includes two damsels in distress. These damsels are none other than Jared and Ash Lynburn of the infamous Lynburns. I mention the gang members because they really make the story interesting. I love the cast of characters in Unspoken. I didn’t know a supernatural, gothic romance would have such a great cast, but it really does! I really didn’t know that it was going to be such a powerful and savvy females novel.

Aside from the characters and roles they had, the plot was amazing as well. There aren’t a lot of stories in YA that I’ve seen that involve imaginary friends. I think that’s probably something more prevalent in middle grade where kids are actually shifting out of having imaginary friends. It was great to get to read something dealing with such a theme. I loved it, and I think Brennan really handled the problems that would arise from finding out your imaginary friend is real quite well.

I’m incredibly excited to sink my fangs into the rest of the Lynburn Legacy. I can’t say that I found too many cons in the first book of the series. I really hated Jared’s mother, but I think that was the point. The one thing that stuck out to me as odd was how much Jared and Kami were one. Now, let me get to the point before you tell me how that’s the point.

Kami is such a strong character and Jared is too. Clearly there was the question throughout the book about where one person ended and the other began. Jared knew everything about Kami, but Kami really never knew a lot about Jared, and it felt obvious how different they were. Yet, Uncle Rob kept mentioning how their bond made them basically the same in a way. It might have just been something Rob had to say to get his way, but it’s odd to think that some of Kami’s personality is there because of Jared. I wonder if that will make Kami’s character read a little differently in the next book, and I don’t really know if I want that but shouldn’t that be the case? Odd.

That’s the only con I have, but it could just be my imagination.

XOXO Tia