Unspoken (The Lynburn Legacy Book 1) [Hardcover]

Sarah Rees Brennan (Author)

Book Description

Release date: September 11, 2012 | Series: The Lynburn Legacy (Book 1)

A modern, magical twist on the Gothic Romance and Girl Detective genres, this book will appeal to fans of both Beautiful Creatures and the Mortal Instruments series. Reviewers have praised the take-charge heroine and the spellbinding romance.

Bound together. Worlds apart.

Kami Glass is in love with someone she's never met—a boy she's talked to in her head since she was born. This has made her an outsider in the sleepy English town of Sorry-in-the-Vale, but she has learned ways to turn that to her advantage. Her life seems to be in order, until disturbing events begin to occur. There has been screaming in the woods and the manor overlooking the town has lit up for the first time in 10 years. . . . The Lynburn family, who ruled the town a generation ago and who all left without warning, have returned. Now Kami can see that the town she has known and loved all her life is hiding a multitude of secrets—and a murderer. The key to it all just might be the boy in her head. The boy she thought was imaginary is real, and definitely and deliciously dangerous.

"A sparkling fantasy that will make you laugh and break your heart." --Cassandra Clare, New York Times bestselling author

"A darkly funny, deliciously thrilling Gothic." --Kelley Armstrong, New York Times bestselling author

"Readers will laugh, shiver, and maybe even swoon over this modern Gothic novel." --Melissa Marr, New York Times bestselling author

"Breathtaking--a compulsive, rocketing read."--Tamora Pierce, New York Times bestselling author

"Captures the reader with true magic."--Esther Friesner, author of Nobody's Princess

"A laugh-out-loud delight." --Publishers Weekly

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Exclusive Short Story: The Spring Before I Met You

Holly Black is a best-selling author of contemporary fantasy, including The Spiderwick Chronicles.

I had the privilege of reading this story many months ago and swooning over it almost as much as I swooned over Unspoken, the first book of Sarah Rees Brennan's gorgeously crafted modern gothic trilogy. Sarah's writing is incredible in that she is able to write these witty, lush scenes that have you smiling along until suddenly, in a single sentence, she reaches out to break your heart.

This story introduces us to one of the main characters of Unspoken, Jared Lynburn. Seeing him as the broken, dangerous, closed-off teenager that he appears to be from the outside allows us to anticipate all of the insight we'll have into his character when we get inside his head--which we will, since he's the heroine's "imaginary friend."

I enjoy the contrast of Jared's loneliness in the rough streets of Hunters Point/Bayview in San Francisco and the small, strange English town Jared is headed toward, and the girl he is about to meet. But most of all, in this story, I enjoy Jared himself, a character who is a study in contrasts--pushed to such extremes of despair and fury that he's truly capable of anything and yet capable of vast kindness, gentleness and humor.

Download The Spring Before I Met You by Sarah Rees Brennan [PDF]

From School Library Journal

Gr 7 Up-Aspiring journalist Kami lives in Sorry-in-the-Vale, a sleepy little town in the English Cotswolds. The school year's just started and she's already achieved a major coup-after sweet-talking the administration into letting her start a school newspaper, she convinces her best friend, Angela, to partner with her. They promptly set up shop in an empty room, dub the glorified closet "headquarters," and start sniffing out stories. The out-of-the-way arrangement works well. Gorgeous Angela prefers to be away from the ogling eyes of others and Kami, well, Kami has not kept it a secret that she talks to a boy's voice in her head, a fact that doesn't make her the most popular girl in school. When the Lynburns, the "ruling family" in town, return to their home after 17 years away, Kami is able to get to the bottom of the many secrets swirling in the air. And when the boy in her head appears in the flesh, her own story intertwines more and more tightly with those of the Lynburns and of the townfolk. The cover aptly describes Unspoken as a "gothic romance," but it has equal parts fantasy and supernatural rolled in, all emanating from the somewhat mythical forest around the town. While the rush of overly witty, pithy banter rolling from Kami's lips can be a tad much at times, Brennan molds a likable and independent heroine. Most importantly, the cliff-hanger ending and depths left untrolled will keep readers guessing and wishing for book two. Fans of Maggie Stiefvater's "Wolves of Mercy Falls" books (Scholastic) need look no further for their next series.-Jill Heritage Maza, Montclair Kimberley Academy, Montclair, NJα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Age Range: 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers; First Edition edition (September 11, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9780375870415
• ISBN-13: 978-0375870415
• ASIN: 0375870415
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1.3 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (147 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #65,270 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Sarah Rees Brennan was born and raised in Ireland by the sea, where her teachers valiantly tried to make her fluent in Irish (she wants you to know it's not called Gaelic) but she chose to read books under her desk in class instead. The books most often found under her desk were Jane Austen, Margaret Mahy, Anthony Trollope, Robin McKinley and Diana Wynne Jones, and she still loves them all today.

After college she lived briefly in New York and somehow survived in spite of her habit of hitching lifts in fire engines. She began working on The Demon's Lexicon while doing a Creative Writing MA and library work in Surrey, England. Since then she has returned to Ireland to write and use as a home base for future adventures. Her Irish is still woeful, but she feels the books under the desk were worth it.

The Demon's Lexicon trilogy is her first published work.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Gothic novel for modern times August 22, 2012

By Liviania VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Kami Glass is not your average girl reporter. For one thing, the school paper didn't exist until she made it exist. And the other reporter is her best friend, the lazy and beautiful Angela, who didn't realize what Kami was doing until it was too late to escape her plans. Then a couple of juicy stories fall into her lap. The Lynburns return to Sorry-in-the-Vale and teenage Ash shows up to headquarters asking to be the paper's photographer and thus perfectly placed to be interviewed about his family's secrets. And fellow student Holly comes to Kami with a tip about a murdered animal on the side of the road.

Then Kami's imaginary friend shows up in the flesh.

The blurb claims that "Sarah Rees Brennan brings the Gothic romance kicking and screaming into the twenty-first century," and I can't disagree with that. She delivers not one but three awesome heroines who use their variety of talents to get in and out of trouble. The boys - the Lynburn cousins - are pretty great too. They aren't perfect characters - even Kami has her faults. But most of them are pretty good about trying to be better when their faults are addressed. And there are secrets around every corner. Even innocuous old ladies have secrets! There's plenty of that Gothic steaminess to go around too. There are lots of potential couples, including a lesbian one, but of course it is never just as easy as liking someone. Especially not when you're in high school and everyone has secrets.

But don't go thinking UNSPOKEN is stuffy. It is, in fact, hilarious. Take the following passage:

"We're going to die." Something else dawned on her. "And where is your shirt?"

"Let me explain," said Jared. "I had just gone to bed, like a reasonable person, when you decided to get tossed into a well like a crazy person. And then it was a matter of some urgency to reach you. You're lucky I tripped over my jeans on the way out the door."

"You leave your jeans on the floor?" Kami asked, horrified. "You're messy on top of everything else? This day just keeps getting worse." - p. 56, ARC

There are very few people in the cast who don't enjoy a good joke, and that includes the adults. (One major exception is town matriarch Lillian Lynburn, who might deign to raise her eyebrow in contempt when she hears a particularly fine jest.)

The end of UNSPOKEN comes rather abruptly. The plot does reach a climax and everything - that's my pet peeve and you know I'd be angrily ranting if it didn't. But the ending does remind you that yes, UNSPOKEN is the first book in the Lynburn Legacy and things are not going to end all tied up with a bow. But for those who don't deal with long waits well, you might want to wait to read UNSPOKEN until the next book is out. I haven't had my heart ripped out and stomped on so thoroughly since Holly Black's WHITE CAT.

Either way, I recommend you read UNSPOKEN eventually. It's a funny tale of derring-do, intrepid reportage, young love, magic, and human sacrifice. Just like they used to write 'em.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny, charming and epically readable August 28, 2012

By H. Millay

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

This is a fun, breezy, often hilarious story about murder, magic and imaginary friends come to life. It's not perfect, but it gets MAJOR bonus points from me for the following:

1) I read it in one sitting. This is unusual for me, as I am not one of those gifted speedreaders who does this all the time like it's no big deal. When I read a book in one sitting, it generally involves the skipping of meals, the missing of appointments, the complete and utter neglect of friends and family, etc. So a book has to be pretty compelling for this to happen.

2) Upon finishing the book, I was so enraged I threw it across the room. It didn't actually make it all the way across the room, as my arm was asleep from lounging in one position for 900 hours, but I did try. The book ends on an infuriating, heart-breaking cliffhanger (the kind that makes you perfectly willing to gnaw off a limb to get the next chapter), so if this sort of thing bothers you, you might want to wait until more books in the series are published and available. But I kind of love it. Any book that draws me in and makes me care THAT MUCH is pretty special.

The premise is brilliant and refreshingly original: the main character, 17-year-old Kami, has had an imaginary best friend her whole life who exists as a voice in her head. Then he shows up in the flesh as the new kid at school. HUZZAH! Awkwardness, incredulation, and general insanity ensue. It turns out sorcery is involved, and Kami and her crew set out to solve the mystery of their sleepy little town.

Kami is a great protagonist - funny, clever, charming - and her friends are pretty well-developed for 'secondary' characters. They all have their particular secrets and quirks (and to some degree, their own storylines). It's a bit of an ensemble cast, really, and in that sense reminds me of Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments series. One thing that I both loved and hated is the overwritten, over-the-top dialog (think Gilmore Girls). Kami & co. are the most witty and articulate teenagers on the planet, which often had me laughing out loud (and definitely kept me turning the pages), but this sort of thing can be annoying if you think about it too much (especially if you think about your own 17-year-old self and start worrying that you were a tedious, toungue-tied troll). As for the romance, I think the author handles it very well. There is no instalove, no desperate/repulsive co-dependency, and Kami is incredibly thoughtful and mature in her thinking on this matter and in the decisions she makes (and yet the romantic storyline is still OMG TO DIE FOR).

My only real complaint about the book is the ending (not the cliffhanger specifically, but the last 50 or so pages). The supernatural aspect of the story is never fully fleshed out, and it gets particularly murky and confusing towards the end. I found the whole thing to be a bit convoluted, and I hope it gets ironed out in the subsequent books (which of course I will be reading, likely in single sittings). Highly recommended for all fans of supernatural YA/romance!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Imaginative novel with humor and twists galore, but drags a little in the middle September 25, 2012

By Christina (Ensconced in YA) TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Kindle Edition

Ever since the Demon Lexicon series, I've been a Brennan fan. And I loved Team Human (she teamed up with Justine Larbalestier). So I knew at some point, I'd be picking up this book.

Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan is about a girl named Kami who has an imaginary friend named Jared in her head who has been there since birth. She's a teenager now, living in a place called Sorry-in-the-Vale, but still hears him. She also is a self titled high school reporter and has been investigating some strange events occurring in the town. Once that boy becomes a real life person, she suddenly has more than she asked for, and her town is not what it seemed.

There's a lot to like about this book. It has the same quirky humor that I've grown to love in Brennan's work, and laughed out loud several times. There are some terrific characters. My favorite was Holly, a girl who has only hung out with guys to this point because she developed way too early to the jealousy of the rest of the female population. There's also Angela, the best friend, who for some reason is always sleepy. There are some great twists near the end of the book, which made my four star rating a reality. I definitely wasn't expecting some of them, and they kept coming.

That said, the middle of the book was a struggle for me. I felt like a lot of it was filler and that I was repeatedly told as the reader (and as Kami) that I didn't know anything and shouldn't know anything. When the secrets were revealed, I wasn't quite sure why they had been secrets in the first place. It just seemed like cruel and unusual punishment to keep these things from Kami. Some of the characters were pretty two dimensional, including Jared's family. I guess this is a trilogy, but I'd like to see more hints of development before heading into two more of these books.

I'll be honest. I didn't like the ending. It just seemed to be placed there for the purpose of making people eager to pick up the next book, and it actually did the opposite for me. I think I'd like to see what happens to the characters so I may still read the next one.

Overall, an imaginative, humor and twist filled novel, with some great characters, but dragged in the middle.