Review: Untold by Sarah Rees Brennan

Title: Untold
Author: Sarah Rees Brennan
Series: The Lynburn Legacy, book #2
Publisher: Random House BFYR
Publication Date: September 24, 2013
Source: purchased
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Free from bonds, but not each other...

It’s time to choose sides… On the surface, Sorry-in-the-Vale is a sleepy English town. But Kami Glass knows the truth. Sorry-in-the-Vale is full of magic. In the old days, the Lynburn family ruled with fear, terrifying the people into submission in order to kill for blood and power. Now the Lynburns are back, and Rob Lynburn is gathering sorcerers so that the town can return to the old ways.

But Rob and his followers aren’t the only sorcerers in town. A decision must be made: pay the blood sacrifice, or fight. For Kami, this means more than just choosing between good and evil. With her link to Jared Lynburn severed, she’s now free to love anyone she chooses. But who should that be?’

Oh, the angst!  The denial!  The sacrifices!

I loved Unspoken...in fact, I think I might have deemed it my favorite read of 2012.  And I was crushed by that ending...hopelessly crushed, as many readers were.  I didn't know if I'd ever be able to pick up the pieces of my wrecked heart after what Brennan did to it.

But the heart is a frail, fickle thing, and as much as I wanted to despise the author for what she put me through in the first book, I also wanted to give her the chance to make amends with Untold, to pick me up and put me back together after the heartbreak I suffered.  Kinda like Kami needed to be put back together.

Many have despaired at the lack of action, the lack of forward movement in this sequel.  And it's kind of true...this book doesn't really serve to advance the story much.  There's a war brewing between those evil sorcerers led by Rob Lynburn and those who wish only to protect Sorry-in-the-Vale.  But it's like the most mild-mannered war ever.  There is a battle scene, and it does get kind of cray-cray, but other than that, the two opposing sides seem almost pleasant toward each other.

This book mostly revolves around Kami amassing an army of her own and preparing them for battle.  She entrusts Rusty and Angela to teach them all self-defense moves.  Rusty.  *sigh*  Kami helps mastermind a plan to aide the magical and non-magical folks alike in disposing of the evil sorcerers' powers, if only temporarily. She even brushes up on her history of the Lynburns and Sorry-in-the-Vale in hopes of discovering some secret that helped destroy the evil Lynburns all those years ago.  Essentially, Kami really takes charge of the situation, but I don't think we'll really see any of this come to fruition until the next book, sadly.

But where others are claiming the story suffers from the banter and quips, I have to disagree.  That was one of the more resplendent qualities in the first book, and I was glad to see that it survived, even if the link between Kami and Jared didn't.  (And boy, do I miss that.)  I guess I'm just really happy about it because after the ending in Unspoken, I was just so afraid that Jared would go missing, as love interests are wont to do in sequels.  But he's there...or at least as present as Jared Lynburn ever is.  And he's grumpy as all get out.

This book is just so damn angsty.  I mean, I get it...after having been able to talk to each other without ever uttering a word, after knowing what each other was thinking for their entire lives, not being able to read each other is really taking a toll on Jared and Kami.  And then there are just so many misunderstandings and things left unsaid and gah...So. Many. Feelings.  And not just with Kami and Jared.  There's the weirdness between Angela and Holly.  And it seems like Rusty may have developed a little crush of his own.  And Ash is steadfastly trying to get out of the friends zone, with little success.  Poor guy can't catch a break, but I guess them's the breaks when you help your crazy dad with his blood sacrifices in order to gain more power.

Maybe this sequel didn't quite live up to my expectations, but those expectations might have been were wholly unrealistic to begin with.  I think this second installment did just what a sequel is supposed to do: built upon a world I've already come to love and entirely cemented my affection for the characters I've grown to care for so completely.  And so, even though I was really disappointed with the cover redesign -- and I mean REALLY disappointed -- I still think this book was awesome.  The series thus far is among my favorites, as is most of what Sarah Rees Brennan writes.


(And I always picture Knives when I think of Kami. :D)

In case you missed it, The Night After I Lost You is a short story told from Ash's POV, and it's free here.

About the author:

Sarah Rees Brennan is Irish and currently lives in Dublin. For a short stint, she lived in New York and became involved with a wide circle of writers who encouraged and supported her, including Holly Black and Cassandra Clare. She has developed a wide audience through her popular blog, mistful.livejournal.com, where she writes movie parodies, book reviews and some stories.

Find Sarah:

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