Book Review: Unspoken

[osprey_archer]

Sarah Rees Brennan's Unspoken! I enjoyed this book very much. Our heroine, girl reporter/detective Kami Glass, lives in the quaint but secretly spooky English village Sorry-in-the-Vale - and I think Brennan did a good job capturing that village feel, the sense that everyone knows each other and that many of the families have known each other for generations, without belaboring it.

(This is especially impressive because Brennan's writing is often about as subtle as a hammer. It's getting less so: neither Unspoken nor Team Human harp on their Themes with the same repetitive tenacity that the Demon's Lexicon books often did.)

Anyway! Curious Kami has realized that there are dark secrets bubbling beneath her apparently idyllic town: secrets that seem about to bubble to the surface now that the Lynburns have returned to their ancestral home.

And Kami has a secret of her own: ever since she was a tiny child, she's been having conversations with a voice in her head, a boy named Jared.

But then she meets Jared in the flesh...

I don't want to give too much away, because I think one of the greatest charms of Brennan's books is her talent for surprising twists. But I will say that one thing Kami and Jared do not do is fall into each other's arms. Jared thinks their mental connection means they're soulmates, but this reflects his own emotional problems: his parents are neglectful when they're not downright abusive, and he's so emotionally cut off from the world that Kami is his only really stable relationship. Even though until recently he thought she didn't really exist.

Kami, who has had a far less traumatic childhood, is doubtful. After all, she points out, they can barely stand to touch each other: it seems to open up the mental connection between them so they both experience an emotional overload.

Their relationship is by far the most interesting one in the book. The secondary characters are a little sketchy. I liked Kami's best friend Angela a lot, with her devotion to napping and general disdain for everyone, and I hope Holly gets more screen time in the next book, because I have high hopes for her. (But I think giving Kami a side love interest was almost a mistake, honestly, because he's just so much less interesting than Jared).

But there is a sense that everyone talks the same way: this very snappy one-liner dialogue, which is entertaining - but at the same time, they all talk that way.

Nonetheless, Kami and Jared's relationship is interesting enough to make such concerns mere quibbles. They're very different in some ways - Kami is sensible and methodical, Jared emotional and impetuous - but they're united in an attraction to danger.

And I think Jared is a good take on the bad boy type. He's dangerous, but he's not dangerous to Kami, which she is uniquely equipped to know because of their telepathic connection.



After Kami cuts away their mindmeld, Jared acts all indifferent to her, which Kami accepts at face value - BUT I think it is perfectly obvious that Jared still totally adores her. After all, Kami is the only stable emotional relationship he has in his life, of course he's not going to fall out of love with her just because they're no longer mind-melded!

But he's pretending indifference because he thinks maybe that will protect her from his evil sorcerer uncle. Naturally, his attempt to protect her by lying to her will probably BLOW UP IN HIS FACE in book two. Possibly in both their faces. I can't wait!

Comments

[anait.livejournal.com]

I'm excited for those sequels too! I didn't consider the angle that Jared's pretending to protect Kami. But of course with him that's probably exactly what he's doing! My thoughts about the ending were that their bond would probably be restored at some point in Book 2 or 3. But that it wouldn't be anything as simple or easy as them then falling into each other's arms. De-mystifying the Telepathic Soulmates trope FTW! \o/

One of the best things about Unspoken for me was that she took that trope, which I've read many times (and enjoyed!), and stood it on its head. I love that her telepathic bond is special and amazing and loving, but also awkward and fraught and sometimes awful. A bond like that would be all those things!

Another thing I love about this book (and SRB's books in general) is that she gives as much weight to female friendships and family relationships as she does to romantic relationships. There are no throw-away characters.

I've read SRB's Untold snippets on her journal. Wonderful; and they point towards the sequels being as good as or better than Unspoken! They feature lots of Angela, Holly, Ash and Angela's brother Rusty. They're all endearing characters, and it seems like she has plenty of room in the next books to let them shine too. :D

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Yes, I bet their bond will definitely be restored - at some point they'll realize that it's the only way to defeat evil uncle Rob. Probably there'll be some unintended consequences, too...

And yes, I loved the way she explored the trope! She didn't take away everything that makes it so idtastically fun (as deconstructions sometimes do), but explored the downside of it too. I wonder if Kami and/or Jared will have trouble dealing with the loneliness now that they can't just reach out with their minds for human companionship.

Yay more Angela and Holly! (I am totally holding out hope for them to get together. Also for Holly to discover a talent for sorcery, which she will of course use for good.) And I hope Ash develops more of a backbone and maybe less of a crush on Kami, because love triangle, ugh.

And speaking of Angela, how much did I love it when she beat up Uncle Rob with her own chains? THIS MUCH. That was epic. It's great that the magical system is not so powerful as to make regular humans completely irrelevant to fighting it: clearly Kami and co. will need to put some effort into developing effective tactics to make that happen.

When is the next book coming out, do we know?

[anait.livejournal.com]

And speaking of Angela, how much did I love it when she beat up Uncle Rob with her own chains? THIS MUCH.

ANGELA!! <3 <3

Untold is set to be released Sept 24. It's nice feel the anticipation of waiting for the next part of a good series!

One more thing. I noticed all the drowned woman imagery as I read Unspoken, and the dependence of the Lynburns on water for their well-being. I wonder if the Lynburns are actually half-human, or not human at all. Maybe they're the Rusalka or Lorelei or Melusine of folklore.

[ladyherenya]

I think my interpretation of Jared's indifference was that he wants to hide how rejected he feels. Which he feels because their telepathic relationship is much more functional than his face-to-face relationship with her, and so he doesn't seem to see the latter as a viable substitute. Hence the reaction akin to a child's "You don't want to play the game with my rules? FINE, I NEVER LIKED YOU ANYWAY".

But I quite like the idea that he's deliberately pretending in order to protect Kami! It's more interesting, and less childish.
Although, given Jared's family and upbringing, I also think it's perfectly understandable if he doesn't deal with his issues very maturely...

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I like your interpretation too! "FINE, I NEVER LIKED YOU ANYWAY" seems like a pretty Jared way of dealing with the world - he seems to go out of his way to be difficult to like, for instance the way that his physical presence always seems so threatening to Kami. It's not just that he's big: he seems to loom.

Maybe he oscillates back and forth between the two motivations. I could see him thinking "I have to protect Kami!" when his better (if still immature) self prevails, and switching to "I NEVER LIKED YOU ANYWAY" when, say, Kami seems to accept his sudden coolness too easily.

One thing I really liked about Unspoken was how complicated the character motivations are, so we might actually see both thought processes play out in the next book. It's so exciting having a series to look forward to!