Book Review: Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan (#RocTBF2016)

I read Unspoken because the author in attending/ presenting at the Rochester Teen Book Festival next month and I am on a mission to have read at least one book by each author who attends by at that date.

Click here to learn about my mission.

Click here for the Rochester TBF web page.

Here's part of the Goodreads summary, the whole of which can be found here: 

"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."

THIS REVIEW IS NOT SPOILER FREE!

Ok, You have got to realize from the description that Kami is going to meet, in person, the person who belongs to the voice in her head, right? I mean, what is the story if it isn't that? So let's get that out of the way. The voice is real. But the real questions are about the mystery that surrounds the family who sparks such awe and fear in the rest of the town. And why is Kami somehow connected to a boy that she's never met?

So we've got all this mystery and then we have all this teen angst, irritability, and impassivity. There's a little bit of a Twilight vibe and a little bit of a Beautiful Creatures vibe. Unspoken falls somewhere in between the two. It's much better written and has a better story than Twilight. And the characters are much less annoying than in Beautiful Creatures. But that may be because we hear less of the annoying boy's point of view in this one. That is to say that the boys in both Unspoken and in Beautiful Creatures are  are annoying, not that all boy's POVs are annoying...

Anyway, I enjoyed this book despite the fact that it reminded me of a book I really could barely tolerate. It's got lots of the same elements in these paranormal romancy things. Kami is a girl who has goals and a bit of an attitude but is also trying to do her best. There's a bit of a love triangle with one guy who's a bit too possessive and one that "just wants what's best" (gag). The teens are trying to work out how to care about each other through all the awkwardness, and who can't relate to that? But, luckily the plot, the mystery, and the magic were enough to overshadow some of the same- old- same- old.

I'm interested to see where the story goes from here. And more importantly, what the characters learn about themselves and how to handle love in the process.

A biracial main character and LGBT (discovered during the story) get this one a #WNDB sticker.