ARC Review: Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan

Title: Unspoken
Author: Sarah Rees Brennan
Publication Date: September 11th, 2012
Genre: YA - Fantasy - Paranormal Romance

"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?" ~See it on Goodreads

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I’d heard soooooo many great things about Sarah Rees Brennan’s writing but I’d never read anything by her before I read Unspoken. And when I read the synopsis several months back it immediately went on my TBR list and I have to say I really enjoyed it and I’ll definitely be picking up more of her books in the future! 

One of the things I loved the most about this book was the absolutely amazing world building. It just completely pulled me in and I was immersed in this wonderfully magical and vivid world. And it has such an effortless feeling to it, it didn’t seem like the author was trying to hard to make the readers experience every detail. I liked the fact that the story was set in a small sleepy town and that it was called “Sorry-in-the-Vale”. I think I loved the quirkiness of the name a tad bit more than is normally appropriate lol. There was also an air of mystery there from the start, and who doesn’t love a well paced mystery?

I really like Kami, she’s quirky, intelligent, daring and just an all around interesting character. I also like that she can be a bit sarcastic (I have a love for sarcasm and snarky-ness lol) I haven’t read about someone quite like her recently so she will most definitely be remembered for a long time. And I could totally relate to some of her more geeky habits/interests, geeks rule right? :p another thing that set this book apart for me was the fact that the parents are actually present and involved! In a lot of YA books out these days the parents are either somewhat unfit or just completely non-existent (as in they’re never even mentioned lol), and usually that doesn’t bug me but it’s a nice change to see parents that are actually around in the story.

And I think if I had to pick one thing I loved the most about this book, it would hands down have to be the humor! Between the dialogue and the banter between the characters, I had so many “laugh out loud” moments while I was reading this book. And I adored the fact that there was some Shakespeare humor mixed in there as well (Shakespeare nerd here), suffice it to say I just thoroughly enjoyed it.

Now as much as I loved this book I did have a few nit-picks, first was the whole love triangle thing. Sometimes I can overlook it, but honestly I just didn’t think this book needed it so that might have taken a little something away from it for me. But the biggest thing I had an issue with would be the ending, I was just completely not expecting that and it left me flabbergasted (is it insanely nerdy that I love having the chance to use that word???)

Those things aside I will still be rushing out to get my hands on book two in this series! This book was an unexpected gem and I definitely recommend it. I’m looking forward to reading more by Ms. Brennan!

4 Stars!