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Nov. 13th, 2014 08:13 amI really enjoyed Unspoken when it came out, so I waited until the trilogy was finished in order to zoom through a reread/first read of Untold and Unmade.
To recap, the premise: Sorry-in-the-Vale is a peaceful English town with a DARK SECRET! The Lynburns are the deeply dysfunctional local gentry who've just popped back in after twenty years abroad, possibly with SINISTER MAGIC POWERS, MURDEROUS IMPULSES and DESIRES TO RULE! Kami is the plucky teenaged journalist who is determined to EXPOSE ALL, mildly hampered by an inconvenient psychic soulbond to the youngest and most dysfunctional Lynburn! It's Sarah Rees Brennan, so everything is very quippy interspersed with periods of extremely intense emotion!
You probably know already if this is the sort of thing you like. In addition to a devotion to quips and a high level of joy in lampshading EXTREME GOTHIC TROPES, here are some other things that I like about the series:
- Kami has parents and a family, and increasingly they are involved and do things! (Kami's dad is wonderful and I have a deep emotional attachment to him. I do feel sort of bad for Kami's mom because while I appreciate her storyline I think she is literally the only person in the books who never gets to make a single clever quip. Sorry, Kami's mom!)
- families in general! lots of people having emotional arcs to do with weird complicated families that are nonetheless there for each other in important ways, mostly
- Kami's angry friend Angela whose anger is wonderful to me
- Kami's less angry friend Holly whose emotional self-confidence arc is wonderful to me
- and Kami herself, who is a nonstop bundle of terrifying energy and whom I love!
- generally a sense that the story takes place in a community where people know each other, and various people are affected by the EVIL GOINGS-ON! in different ways, and all of those people are important, not just the protagonists
- the B-plot romance is lesbians!
There is also a lot of complex love polygon soulbond-festooned relationship drama, which teetered frequently on the verge of being too much for me but usually managed to pull back into something non-annoying just in time.
( Slightly spoilery thoughts on this )
Also a lot of people die! I will admit I was not expecting quite so many people to die and was effectively sad about their deaths. Depending on who you are, this may be a bug or a feature.( More spoilers )
To recap, the premise: Sorry-in-the-Vale is a peaceful English town with a DARK SECRET! The Lynburns are the deeply dysfunctional local gentry who've just popped back in after twenty years abroad, possibly with SINISTER MAGIC POWERS, MURDEROUS IMPULSES and DESIRES TO RULE! Kami is the plucky teenaged journalist who is determined to EXPOSE ALL, mildly hampered by an inconvenient psychic soulbond to the youngest and most dysfunctional Lynburn! It's Sarah Rees Brennan, so everything is very quippy interspersed with periods of extremely intense emotion!
You probably know already if this is the sort of thing you like. In addition to a devotion to quips and a high level of joy in lampshading EXTREME GOTHIC TROPES, here are some other things that I like about the series:
- Kami has parents and a family, and increasingly they are involved and do things! (Kami's dad is wonderful and I have a deep emotional attachment to him. I do feel sort of bad for Kami's mom because while I appreciate her storyline I think she is literally the only person in the books who never gets to make a single clever quip. Sorry, Kami's mom!)
- families in general! lots of people having emotional arcs to do with weird complicated families that are nonetheless there for each other in important ways, mostly
- Kami's angry friend Angela whose anger is wonderful to me
- Kami's less angry friend Holly whose emotional self-confidence arc is wonderful to me
- and Kami herself, who is a nonstop bundle of terrifying energy and whom I love!
- generally a sense that the story takes place in a community where people know each other, and various people are affected by the EVIL GOINGS-ON! in different ways, and all of those people are important, not just the protagonists
- the B-plot romance is lesbians!
There is also a lot of complex love polygon soulbond-festooned relationship drama, which teetered frequently on the verge of being too much for me but usually managed to pull back into something non-annoying just in time.
( Slightly spoilery thoughts on this ) Also a lot of people die! I will admit I was not expecting quite so many people to die and was effectively sad about their deaths. Depending on who you are, this may be a bug or a feature.
( More spoilers )
