Unforgotten: Heart-pounding Sequel

Review*:

Title: Unforgotten

Series: Unremembered #2

Author: Jessica Brody

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Publication Date: February 25th, 2014

Format: Hardcover

Genre: YA; Sci-Fy; Romance

*The Following blurb and Review will contain spoilers for Unremembered

Blurb:

After a daring escape from the scientists at Diotech who created her, Seraphina believes she is finally safe from the horrors of her past. But new threats await Sera and her boyfriend, Zen, at every turn as Zen falls prey to a mysterious illness and Sera’s extraordinary abilities make it more and more difficult to stay hidden. Meanwhile, Diotech has developed a dangerous new weapon designed to apprehend her. A weapon that even Sera will be powerless to stop. Her only hope of saving Zen’s life and defeating the company that made her is a secret buried deep within her mind. A secret that Diotech will kill to protect. And it won’t stay forgotten for long.

My Thoughts and Reflections:

After initialing reading Unremembered I requested this from my local library.  Unremembered had left my craving more from the story, in a good way (not a cliff hanger sort of way).

We open the story in what should be a state of serenity and a dream come true; Zen and Serephina have made it to 1609, and they can finally be together.  Obviously things end up not going as planned, but I was surprised by the problems Sera and Zen were having even before Diotech and Zen's illness become present.  Sera struggles to hide her abilities when doing farm work, and also had troubles adjusting to Medieval times.

We see very little of Sera and Zen's romantic relationship in Unforgotten.  In the beginning there are implications of Zen wanting to "teach" Sear something that they haven't done before.  However, the majority of the book Sera is on a mission to save Zen, so there really isn't much time for "learning".

The plot of this book brought in new aspects that I wasn't expecting; Sera is sent on a literal  journey to uncover a secret in her mind that Diotech desperately needs.  A secret that Sera desperately needs too.  

There were other surprises along the way, but I felt like they challenged Sera's character in a nice way.   Sera comes across as an immature character at a first glance because she is so unaware of some any things.  Yet, if you pay close attention, you can watch her retain everything that happens around her.  She responds to each challenge and interaction along the way in a new, mature way.  

More secrets are uncovered in Unforgotten, but we never get all the answers.  A third book is on the horizon, to continue (or perhaps end?) the saga of Seraphina: The Lab Created "Perfect Girl"

Conclusion:

I really appreciated the direction Brody took the story in.  No clichés, no disappointments.  Looking forward to an exciting third book.

Dust Jacket Ramblings:

I don't love this cover, but I don't think that it's bad for the book.  A kiss is a major plot point, and think that this cover sort of embodies that, but I think that there are possibly alternative ways to capture the story.

P.S. Sorry that my review was kind of short, I was trying to avoid spoilers!

Unremembered: A Gripping Sci-Fy Drama

Review:

Title: Unremembered

Series: Unremembered #1

Author: Jessica Brody

Publisher: Farrar Struas Giroux

Publication Date: March 5th, 2013

Format: Hardcover

Genre: YA; Sci-Fy; Romance; Mystery 

Blurb:

When Freedom Airlines flight 121 went down over the Pacific Ocean, no one ever expected to find survivors. Which is why the sixteen-year-old girl discovered floating among the wreckage—alive—is making headlines across the globe.

Even more strange is that her body is miraculously unharmed and she has no memories of boarding the plane. She has no memories of her life before the crash. She has no memories period. No one knows how she survived. No one knows why she wasn’t on the passenger manifest. And no one can explain why her DNA and fingerprints can’t be found in a single database in the world.

Crippled by a world she doesn’t know, plagued by abilities she doesn’t understand, and haunted by a looming threat she can’t remember, Seraphina struggles to piece together her forgotten past and discover who she really is. But with every clue only comes more questions. And she’s running out of time to answer them.

Her only hope is a strangely alluring boy who claims to know her from before the crash. Who claims they were in love. But can she really trust him? And will he be able to protect her from the people who have been making her forget?

My Thoughts and Reflection:

I picked this book up at my old library a couple of days ago.  I had just renewed my library card and hand't seen their new addition space yet.  Needless to say, the library is even more beautiful than it was before.  So of course, in my excitement, I had to grab some books.  I had a little more time to browse than I sometimes do, and when I saw this title I knew I had to check it out.  

Unremembered has sort of been on my radar since it was released, but I'd never gotten around to buying a copy or borrowing it from any library.

The night I cracked it open I had just finished one of my books for school and was feeling slightly burned out.  I planned on only reading a few pages to determine if it was worth my time, but the next thing I knew I was half way through the book!

Unremembered was utterly addicting.  I was fascinated by the story world, sucked in by the mystery and the funny characters.  Jessica Brody spent a lot of time making even the details stand out; that's why I remember the distinct personality of the nurse that Seraphina has at the very beginning of the book.

It's hard a first to really get Seraphina as a protagonist, because she doesn't even know herself.  However, as she goes about the book and has some self discovery, the reader picks up along the way too.  I liked Seraphina as a character, because despite her nativity and lack of social grace she never was completely stupid or ignorant in any situation.  She was always observing, and that made her feel much more realistic.

The plot of this book focuses mostly on dissevering who Seraphina is, and eventually we come to realize that it's not what we thought at all.  I was impressed by the science aspect and how surprised I was as the book was concluding.  I also liked how even though this book was sort of centered around romance, it wasn't at the same time.  It was very balanced.

The ending was a cliffhanger of sorts, but not at all unsatisfying.  I immediately requested the sequel from the library though!

Conclusion:

This riveting piece of science fiction will appeal to mystery lovers and romantics alike; keeping everyone on the edge of their seats as you travel on a journey with Seraphina and Jessica Brody.

Dust Jacket Ramblings:

I like the symbolism in the cover of this book; the blurry face of the girl representing the loss of her memories (including who she was).  I like that the title script incorporated some of the science aspects of the book.  This cover was far from incredible, but it was very fitting to the story.

Unraveling: Creepy Sci-Fy Thriller

Review:

Title: Unraveling

Series: Unraveling #1

Author: Elizabeth Norris

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Publication Date: April 24th, 2012

Format: Paperback

Genre: YA; Romance; Sci-Fy, Thriller,

Rating: ✎✎✎✎

Blurb:

Sixteen-year-old Janelle Tenner is used to having a lot of responsibility. She balances working as a lifeguard in San Diego with an intense academic schedule. Janelle's mother is bipolar, and her dad is a workaholic FBI agent, which means Janelle also has to look out for her younger brother, Jared.

And that was before she died... and is brought back to life by Ben Michaels, a mysterious, alluring loner from her high school. When she discovers a strange clock that seems to be counting down to the earth's destruction, Janelle learns she has twenty-four days to figure out how to stop the clock and save the planet.

My Thoughts and Reflection:

I won a signed copy of Unraveling a while ago, but as per usual never got around to reading it.  I made a vow a couple of weeks ago to not go to the library until I'd put at least a semi reasonable dent in the books I own but haven't read yet.  I've done pretty well, except as you know have since contributed to the books I own but haven't read yet pile (Powell's Extravaganza).  Anyway, so I went into Unraveling pretty much blind.  I'd seen it floating around the blogsphere since before it's release, but hadn't even read the blurb.

We open the book with a completely irrelevant quote from Robert Frost.  And from is most widely known poem too.  I'm not even going to go into the details about how I feel about this.  I think that you get my drift.  So, moving on, page one.  A clock at the top reads 24:00:14:32.  It's obviously a countdown.  (A little side note, I really liked how the numbers faded from left to right, signifying the movement of time, I assume).  We're already not off to the best of feet (foots?) but then it just gets worse.  The first sentence is about a guy.

Maybe I'm picky, but when I start a story, yeah I want to know about the situation that our characters is currently in, but mostly I want to know about them.  How they are feeling, what they are thinking about.  Anyway, I have to sit through several painful pages where our protagonist Janelle goes on and on about his guy Nick.  Quickly, that scene ends and move onto the scene where Janelle, our protagonist dies.  Then she wakes up.  Now the fun begins.

After the painful beginning the book moved at an exciting pace.  Janelle's interesting family dynamic, (although just the tiniest bit cliché) is introduced.  FBI dad, bipolar mom, younger brother that she practically has to raise.  All of that aside, the addition of the neighbor best friend Alex the colleague of her dad who practically lives with them were nice touches.  Thankfully, Janelle moves on from the weirdo and pretty much unnecessary character Nick.  Janelle is much more focused on on the guy that she is pretty sure brought her back to life.

After a while though, the book just starts to get weird.  The concept of the alternate realities and the radiation poisoning doesn't fit together like this magic puzzle as I assume Elizabeth Norris imagined.  The ended was downright bizarre.  So many unneeded things happened, and the last few pages felt over crowded.

Despite how much the plot and other details irked me, I was really fond of the way that Elizabeth Norris portrayed all of her characters.  They all felt so real to me, and it was fun to see how balanced the secondary characters were too.  Ben and his crew of friends were my favorites!  Their friendship dynamic reminded me a little of Gansey and his crew from The Raven Cycle series by Maggie Stievfater.  The romance in this book wasn't completely absent, but it didn't over take the story either.  It wasn't quite as balanced as it should/could have been, but it was ok.

Janelle isn't the normal heroine that we see so often in YA.  She was flawed, she was human, and she worked with other people to meet her goals.  I hadn't realized it before, but there isn't lot of team work in all of our dystopias and other YA books. Interesting…

My favorite relationship was the friendship that Janelle had with her neighbor Alex.  It was so refreshing to have a guy-girl friendship so strongly presented in a book where there is zero mention of romance between them.  I kept waiting for a love triangle, but it never came.  Thank god.

Conclusion:

There were a lot of things that irked me about this book, but all of that aside, I was really impressed with Elizabeth Norris's characters, and probably will be perusing the sequel.

Dust Jacket Ramblings:

I don't even think that you should get me started on how much I dislike this cover.  It almost prevented me from picking it up.  The models are wayyyyy to cliché and NOTHING like the characters described in the book.  The font is cool and I like the numbers in the background.  I'm not usually a fan of models on book covers, and this book is one of the examples of why.  I do believe that models on book covers can work well, but this is NOT the way to do it!  It summarizes pretty much zero of the story except that there is a girl and a guy in it.  There are a slew more of important characters. Ugh it just is so frustrating! Okay, I'll stop now.