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Wednesday, March 6, 2013

My Thoughts: Unremembered by Jessica Brody

The only thing worse than forgetting her past... is remembering it.

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?


**ARC received from publisher for review** 

Believe it or not, I have not read many books about memory loss. Actually- I don't think that I have ever read a book about memory loss. Which is strange, considering that there are So many of them out there. Again, the fact that I have never read a novel on memory loss is also weird for me as I am kind of fascinated by it. What is more mysterious than not remembering yourself? So, I was really excited at the idea of Unremembered by Jessica Brody. I thought: well here we go, a book about a girl who can't remember where she came from, who she is and has no past. So cool.

Unfortunately, Unremembered fell really short for me. So short, that I didn't finish it. I got to about a hundred pages from the end and had to stop reading it. So yes, My review may be incomplete and maybe I shouldn't even be reviewing a book I didn't finish but here we are. I am not saying Unremembered was bad. However, there were a few things that just did not work for me. Which is sad, because I think Brody had such potential with this book.

Unremembered was really good for the first 175 pages or so. But after that it sort of lost steam. The story started strong with this girl (Violet) being the only survivor of a plane crash. She has no memory of who she is and what she was doing there or why she was going where she was going. Also there is no evidence that she even boarded the plane. No one checked her in, she wasn't on the passenger manifesto. She was this nameless individual. Once in the hospital  no one came to claim her (even though she was supposed to be about 16 years old), she was an orphan. All of this was really intriguing and I so curious to find out what happens. Later on in the book the Violet starts having these mysterious run ins with this boy who claims to know her, who she is and where she came from. But every time you think you might get an answer he disappears again. You would get a little hint of Violet's past, enough to keep you on the edge of your seat.

And then.... at about page 150

Everything is revealed. All at once. That really bothered me. Once I knew what happened and why Violet (who is actually Sera) lost her memory and who the antagonist was and why, I lost complete interest in reading. And all of this happened by about page 175, so I gave it a good twenty-five to fifty more pages to see if things would pick up, but it didn't. And I had to stop reading.

I think I could have kept reading, if the characters had been more engaging and interesting, but they weren't. If you have read my reviews before you know that I prefer books that are more character driven. And the characters in Unremembered weren't great for me. Cody, the foster brother, I thought was a great character. He had personality and spunk and if all the characters in the book would have been written like he was, the story would have done better with me.

I am perfectly aware that my giving up on reading this book means I may have missed some crucial moments that would have blown the whole thing out of the water. But I feel like I gave Unremembered a fair shot. I got well into the story and was over 200 pages in when I felt like I couldn't do it anymore. I understand that these are just my opinions and that others loved this story and that's awesome. It just wasn't for me.

~Happy Reading Everyone!


5 comments:

  1. Awwww sorry this one didn't quite work as well for you as it did me Sara! I agree with you that everything was revealed quickly when the time came, but for some reason that didn't bother me. I was just in the mood for this book I think! Hope whatever you read next is amazing!

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  2. Sorry it fell short for you, unfortunately I have read several other reviews that say the same thing.

    Brandi @ Blkosiner’s Book Blog

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  3. I'm sorry about this!!!
    I've read her books before and found them pretty good but there were stories more on the fluff side, so maybe the tension didn't need to be kept as such.

    anyway, hopefully your next book wil be better

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  4. This one didn't really work for me either. I finished it in no time, and just felt blah about the whole thing.

    I do agree that this book had amazing potential, but the author just did not deliver.

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  5. I am a fan of memory loss stories, but this one doesn't sound so good. It's really not a good sign that you couldn't even finish it. I'm not sure I would've have been a fan of the quick and complete reveal either. And it's hard to connect with a book when the characters aren't engaging, I know. I hope the next memory loss book you read is a better experience because they usually do make for entertaining reads!

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