For What It's Worth


Thursday, March 14, 2013

Review: Unremembered (Unremembered #1) by Jessica Brody


9791892When 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?

From popular young adult author Jessica Brody comes a compelling and suspenseful new sci-fi series, set in a world where science knows no boundaries, memories are manipulated, and true love can never be forgotten.~ Goodreads

Review:
This is the hardest book to review because there are big several twists and turns that I don't want to spoil for you.

So here’s my slightly cryptic review lol

Unremembered starts off with a very promising premise. A young teenage girl wakes up as the lone survivor of a plane crash. She has no name, no past, no memories. She's known only as Violet because of the striking color of her eyes.

This was my favorite part of Unremembered as Violet can't relate to anything. She doesn't even know what a TV is. A simple thing like a grilled cheese sandwich is a foreign concept to her. She really is starting from ground zero and I felt just as lost as she did, grasping for clues. I was completely hooked. All kinds of possibilities were going through my head.

Unfortunately the answers, at least some of them anyway, led to several overused (especially recently) tropes. Brody handles a few of them better than most writers but I had a strong sense of deja vu while reading this book. 

Then all of a sudden came yet another awesome twist that pulled me right back in only to leave me so confused that I had to keep re-reading several passages to make sure things were adding up right. I'm still not sure if they did. I have questions that just weren't answered. Not in the - "oh this is the first book and we need to see how it plays out over the series" way either but in a way that left gaping holes in logic for me.

I hate to knock this one because I really liked the fast paced writing style. It's the one thing that kept me going rather than DNF'ing it. I just felt like I never fully connected to the characters. The romance was sweet but very intense without us really getting to know why exactly. The romance became the most important thing to the plot and I didn’t believe in it so it’s hard to feel too attached at that point.

The one thing I outright did not enjoy was the villain. He is definitely a bad guy but he's also the type that talks diabolically…at length…over several pages…about what he's going to do and how we got to this big showdown. I would have rather seen it all in action than be told.

Final thoughts: Cool premise, and if you haven't read several similar stories in a row it would be a fun surprising story. But I did and I think it tarnished how I viewed Unremembered. I’m reluctant at saying exactly what those books were because I don’t want to spoil this book for anyone.

If you are a fan of sic-fi, conspiracies, epic, true love and plot twists give it a shot. Here is the Goodreads review page for the book. The ratings are all over the place so just because it didn't work for me, it doesn't mean it wouldn't work for you.

Author: Website | Twitter | Goodreads
Source: ARC received from Farrar, Straus, & Giroux for my honest review
Buy the book! Unremembered

25 comments:

  1. Haha, you seem to have specialized in books whose reviews need to be cryptic. You know what I mean ;). But once again, you sure know how to do it.
    This book has been on my TR list for a while, then someone on Goodreads royally spoiled it for me without warning. But I'm not sure I'd have read it anyway, because from some reviews I got the impression it was romance-driven a lot. Also, I read the first chapters online, and whereas the lead is supposed to ignore many things, her vocabulary is rich enough despite of that, and she seems to be at ease with most of the stuff that surround her. It sounds like a contradiction to me.

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    1. The romance is actually very important to the plot so it doesn't push the main plot aside but I just didn't believe in it the way I should.

      IMO - she packs too many different ideas into one book. It's headed one way then takes another turn. It probably works better for people who like those twist and turns but it felt disjointed to me.

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  2. Thos book sounds awesome, but it's a shame there's hot a lot of follow through. And ooh! Plot holes stink! At least the pace kept you going. Great review, Karen!

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    1. It has a lot of great ideas. My friend loved it. She thought it was a tad predictable but just went with it. I think my problem was reading so many similar stories recently.

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  3. I have this and am trying to fit it in. I'm a little weary of amnesia books, but now you've got me curious….


    Jen @ YA Romantics

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  4. Great review! Thanks. This book is definitely on my rader.

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  5. Hmm, I think I know where you're going, even if you're being cryptic. It's kind of like last year, when every other book was about a freaking mermaid or before that, an angel. I'm reading a lot of contemps that are the same, so I'm trying to mix it up with everything else and this is one sort that I'm staying away from, mostly because I think I'd be like you with this one, unable to really connect. I have to applaud you for sticking with it and taking one for the team. lol Great review, even if you were being cryptic, you gave me enough info to know this one's not for me. :)

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    1. I hate to ruin the whole plot for people who might be interested in reading it but it's VERY similar to at least three other books I've read recently.

      She adds several twists and that's why I stuck with it because I couldn't guess where it was going and I liked that aspect of it. Unfortunately for me it made things even worse lol

      I have to stay away from too many NA titles. Love them but at the moment they are all following a similar formula and it gets old.

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  6. How weird - the idea that even a sandwich is foreign. That's a really hard concept for the author to pull off. The book sounds very intriguing but it sounds like not everything was able to get pulled together. Still curious.

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  7. I am sorry that it didn't work for you and yes there are many other books just like this one . The romance made it work but yes still had more questions too .

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  8. Aw, sorry it wasn't all you wanted. i agree there are several others out now that seem similar.
    Brandi @ Blkosiner’s Book Blog

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  9. You are cryptic and I am tooooo curious. Still not the book for me

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  10. I think I would end up feeling the same way. You hit on not connecting to characters. I like to connect to my characters. So, I'm not sure it's for me. Might try it by library booking it one day...

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  11. I have ran into the deju vu thing before and it is so weird because (at least for me) I spend part of the story then thinking about where I had read that type of story again. :(

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    1. It's happening too much lately! I read the exact same story 4 times in the last two months. It happens though when you read as much as we do.

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  12. Hmmm...how disappointing that this book was apparently so similar to others and yet still so full of holes that it was a disappointment. I've had my eye on this...still cvan't make up my mind if I should pick it up.

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  13. I enjoyed reading this review. The synopsis sounded so good and I was disappointed when you described it. The whole thing with the villain seems like a huge cliche too...you know like at the end of every mystery show when the killer stands there with the gun explaining his evil plan.

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  14. Well done on not giving anything away. totally intrigued by your cryptic review I'm hoping our library will be able to get hold of a copy of this.

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  15. I know what you mean about this one being like a lot of book you've read this year so far! I felt the same and in my review i was going to mention it but i was just scared of ruining it for so many poeple! I ended up really liking it though, it was a nice take on the "done before" plot
    Lily

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    1. I think Brody did that particular twist the best out of all the books I read - what ruined the book for me was the second twist. (near the end) I ended up too confused lol

      THis was a hard book to review!!!

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  16. HRM! I think I'm going to skip this one. The premise sounds intriguing but it also sounds like heaps of other novels. I'm curious about the twists but not curious enough to read it? That kind of villain you described is one I'm not really fond of. :|

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    1. I hate deterring anyone from a book just because I didn't like it but it just didn't work for me. I would check out a few more Goodreads reviews first. It seems to be love it or hate it on there.

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  17. I did enjoy this one, but totally agree about the bad guy. I too would rather see the action than be told about it!

    - Jessica @ Book Sake

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  18. I haven't read anything by this author yet and I might put this one off because it doesn't really sound that unique.

    Thanks for the great review, sorry this one didn't completely work for you.

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  19. This definitely has a very interesting plot. That's a bummer that there were holes left in the story for you, and that you didn't connect with the romance aspect. And thanks so much for your spoiler-free review! Spoilerphobes like me are always happy to find bloggers who abstain from including spoilers in their reviews! Great review!

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