Joelene Reviews: Sarah Rees Brennan's - "Unmade"

Aurimere House has been lost and with it the boy that Kami loves, Jared Lynburn. With Robert Lynburn demanding a human sacrifice for the winter, it’s up to Kami to find a way to stop him before it’s too late.

While the town of Sorry-in-the-Vale cowers in fear, Kami and her friends search for answers from the past. Not knowing enough about sorcerers, sources or the bond between them, Kami hopes that the story of the famous source Matthew Cooper and his sorcerer Anne Lynburn will help. Her trusted friends, Angela, Rusty, Holly and Ash will stand by her; but if they’re to find the information they need, they’re going to have to go back to Aurimere.

Thus starts the final book in the Lynburn Legacy trilogy. Battle-lines are drawn, the town is caught in the middle of what promises to be an epic struggle and through it all the dread question hangs over everyone’s heads – Who will be the sacrifice?

Now, I loved Unspoken in pretty much every way. Brennan isn’t exactly plot-strong, and I’ve yet to see a compelling villain from her, but every other aspect of her writing is so brilliant that it tends to blot out any weaknesses. Untold slipped a little. The characters still sparkled like the gems that they were, the dialogue was still hilarious and snappy but the plot lacked too much. Kami was trying to pull her resources together to fight the big bad, she just wasn’t succeeding. There weren’t even the little successes that we could applaud before a larger failure – on her part at least, different story for Jared.

I figured it was just middle-book syndrome. It happens. There’s even a name for it, so I guess it happens a lot. I was expecting everything to iron itself out when it came to Unmade.

I wish I could say it did. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t the worst book in the world, but it felt as though it had been force-written under a looming deadline. The ideas were there, but it was as though the book merely skimmed the surface of the important ones rather than jumping right in. The characters were more like uncut gems than the polished pieces they were in the previous books. Everything was rushed except the romance, and the romance should have been pared back a great deal.

It’s not that I don’t like Kami and Jared’s relationship. The ending of Unspoken destroyed me. I had to wait months for the next book, and to this day I think it was a vile act to treat faithful readers that way. The thing is, with Kami and Jared, less is more. I don’t need them to be spelling out their feelings for each other on every second page. Put one of them in danger and let me see how the other reacts and that’s pretty much worth all of the declarations in the world.

Ultimately Unmade felt rushed. Too much emphasis on certain things, not enough on others, as though Brennan didn’t have the time to edit it as she usually would. There were still moments that sparkled like Unspoken and the potential was there; however, Unmade just didn’t quite meet it. That said, Unspoken is still a novel that I would – and do – recommend to anyone.

Unmade – Sarah Rees Brennan

Simon and Schuster (September 23, 2014)

ISBN: 978857078117