Monday, November 10, 2014

Review: Unmade by Sarah Rees Brennan

* This review may contain spoilers for the previous books in The Lynburn Legacy series.

Unmade by Sarah Rees Brennan
Unmade (The Lynburn Legacy #3)
By Sarah Rees Brennan
Publisher:
Random House Children’s Books
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased

To Sum It Up: Despite Sorry-in-the-Vale appearing to be firmly in the grasp of Rob Lynburn, Kami isn’t ready to give up on saving her town—or Jared—just yet. A hidden piece of Lynburn family history may provide the hope Kami has been searching for, but she may not be the only one who has to pay a steep price to free the town from Rob. Without this sliver of a chance to defeat him, though, Sorry-in-the-Vale is certainly lost, and Kami can’t bear to watch that happen, either.

Review: I’ve finished reading The Lynburn Legacy series and survived to discuss it! As anyone else who’s also read the trilogy will probably agree, that’s no small feat. There’s been heartbreak galore throughout the series, and Unmade carries on that fine tradition. I hadn’t gotten very far into Unmade before I was already fearing for one of my favorite characters. All I could think was, for the love of God Sarah Rees Brennan, please don’t kill this character!

On top of worrying about the fates of certain characters, I was a tad anxious about what to expect from the book in general. Untold was a little lighter on plot advancement than I’d thought it would be, so I wasn’t sure if Unmade was going to be a rush to wrap up the series. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case; the action in Unmade was for the most part better paced than it was in Untold, although once in a while the quest to stop Rob Lynburn would take an extended backseat to a subplot.

From the beginning, this series’ greatest appeal to me has been how freaking hilarious it is amidst all of the evil sorcery enveloping Sorry-in-the-Vale. The series’ sense of humor is an exact match for mine, and that has contributed heavily to my enjoyment of all three books. Judge me as you will, but I’ve loved every minute of laughing out loud even as a town and its citizens stood on the brink of a takeover by a diabolical megalomaniac. If you’ve guffawed your way through the first two books like I have, you shan’t be let down by all of the witty dialogue in book three.

The other signature of this series has been its ability to seize the reader’s heart in its fist and pulverize it without mercy. I’m still looking for a few pieces of my heart, and not just because of some, er, stuff that happens that I don’t like to think about. My heart also forgot to beat a few times because it was too busy melting over the prose. There are some very prettily written lines (some of which may belong to Jared) that I needed to reread and reread again before I was ready to turn the page.

Despite having a few of the proverbial bad apples in their family tree, I’m really sad to bid adieu to the Lynburns: sweet Ash, brooding Jared (whom I loved because of said brooding), and even frosty Lillian. I actually grew quite fond of Lillian and was impressed by how protective she was of her two Lynburn boys. I’ll also miss Sorry-in-the-Vale, the quaint little English town with an epic tale to tell.

All in All: Unspoken is still my favorite installment because it’s simply spot-on in every way, but Unmade is a strong conclusion to the series.

2 comments:

  1. I'm so glad you thought Unmade was better than Untold! I was a bit disappointed in Untold (probably due to how much I adored Unspoken) but I'm glad the plot is balanced better with this book. I'm going to read this soon, because I need to know how it all ends! I just hope I won't have my heart too pulverized... :)

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    1. I was on edge quite often while reading Unmade. I also laughed a lot too, though, which was good because otherwise I wouldn't have been able to take the heartbreak in this book at all! SRB is SO good at making you simultaneously feel the urge to laugh and cry your eyes out!

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