Unspoken

Author: Sarah Rees Brennan
Series: The Lynburn Legacy, #1
Publisher: Random House
Release Date: September 11, 2012

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?

Sarah Rees Brennan brings Gothic romance kicking and screaming into the twenty-first century with a heroine who can take care of herself, a boy who needs to be saved, and the magical forces that bring them together and tear them apart.

Witty, insightful, and definitely not one to mess with—these words can describe our main characters here perfectly. From Angela, Kami's best friend who hates everyone, to Jared's aunt Lillian, who thinks she's the queen of every blade of grass in Sorry-in-the-Vale, each are entirely likeable characters with kickass attitudes. I just want to applaud Unspoken for its excellent cast, complete with caring, non-absentee family and friends. Bonus points given for having a non-offensive portrayal of Asians and LGBT characters, with main roles to top it off!

"In love. That's how it sounds, doesn't it? His heart is my heart, nobody can ever take him away from me, I keep him in here!" [Kami] thumped her breastbone, so hard it hurt. "People say stuff like that but they don't mean it: they mean they're in love. All except me. I mean it." 

Kami and Jared have no secrets. Their minds have been latched together since the day they were born. For Kami, Jared was her imaginary friend, one she cherished and refused to let go. For Jared, in a household where he was hated and abused, Kami was something more. When he would get sick every fall and be confined to the space of his bed, she was there. When his father would beat him and his mother after drowning himself in bottles of alcohol, she was there. When he ran away from home and was forced to live on the streets because he had nowhere else to go, she was there. When his mother wrongly sent him to jail for killing his father after he decided to come back, she was there. Kami was his steady beacon of light that kept him sane in the darkest of times.

But given their unique and impossible circumstances beyond their control, how can you tell if they are more than friends and actually in love? Despite having learned to "build walls" between each other, it's a constant struggle to keep all their thoughts and emotions from slipping past it. Which ones are hers and which ones are his? What if it's none of theirs at all and just an unfortunate downside to their connection? Without their mental link, would they have been something special? Only time apart can tell.

If they could only bring themselves to sever the connection.

Or more importantly, survive long enough to stop a certain murderous sorcerer in town.

Ms. Brennan deliberately uses almost every trope expected of the young adult genre, and turns each and every one of them on its head. The characters may be shaped from cookie-cutters, but I love it when an author is able to make them grow beyond theirs. Unspoken isn't afraid to show the dark side of Sorry-in-the-Vale, its residents, and the secrets they keep. It isn't afraid to poke fun at the absurdness of some personas and situations as well.

"A leather jacket," Kami said as he shrugged into it. "Aren't you trying a little too hard to play into certain bad boy cliches?"

"Nah," said Jared. "You're thinking about black leather. Black leather's for bad boys. It's all in the color. You wouldn't think I was a bad boy if I was wearing a pink leather jacket."

"That's true," Kami said. "What I would think of you, I do not know. So what does brown leather mean, then?"

"I'm going for manly," Jared said. "Maybe a little rugged."

"It's bits of dead cow; don't ask it to perform miracles."

However, its brand of humor was sometimes a problem for me. My biggest complaint is that I wished the characters were more serious in situations that, well, demanded it. The first part of the novel is filled with many silly, one-liner jokes that are more often out-of-place than humorous. I can't help but feel they even go too well. Take a look at this particular quip from Kami's father. Note that this is the first thing he says while visiting Kami in the hospital after she was attacked and nearly killed by an unknown assailant.

"Kami, I know all the other kids are throwing themselves down wells now, but your mother and I have a firm policy of no danger sports until you're eighteen."

Although I haven't liked Unspoken as much as I'd wanted, being just before the line of love, I've gotta admit Ms. Brennan has a talent for weaving together her mysterious, hilarious, frightening, adorable, and heart-breaking scenes. She also has a talent to keep me not guessing at all. I had absolutely no idea who was causing the murders of Sorry-in-the-Vale. Rare, since I'd like to think I'm an excellent arm-chair detective since I have at least one suspect in mind, which is almost always the culprit. The romance takes a backseat in this murder mystery. All-in-all, I would definitely Unspoken for anyone's shelves.