Review : Unremembered by Jessica Brody
Unremembered by Jessica Brody
Pages : 320
Genre : YA, Speculative fiction
Series : Unremembered, book 1
My Rating : 3,5/5
What it’s about :
When time passes by and no family comes to claim her, Violet is temporarily placed in a foster family. Now she gets to learn everything again, while trying to regain her memory. The more she uncovers, the deeper the mystery gets – and it gets bigger when a mysterious guy, claiming to be from her past, starts following her around…
My Thoughts :
It is really hard to review Unremembered without spoiling anything. And it is even more difficult not to compare it to another well known YA novel with a similar twist – which would instantly tell you all that Unremembered is about. So I’ll do this in two parts, the first one being without spoilers.
Unremembered was a fun and really quick read. It’s entertaining, the author’s writing has a nice flow and the mystery keeps you turning the pages. Amnesia has been a very popular device in the past few years of YA literature, and while Jessica Brody doesn’t renew the genre, the story was about much more than lost memories. It was surprisingly not too predictable, as many elements were not revealed until later in the story. It definitely belongs to the speculative fiction genre, and without spoiling everything, I can say that fans of light science-fiction will have a good chance to enjoy it.
Violet herself was an intriguing character. It wasn’t only the lost memories, but also her reactions to the “new” elements she encountered, the questions she asked, the things she should have known and yet didn’t. I will say that I wasn’t too surprised when her identity was finally revealed, but the circumstances surrounding her memory I couldn’t have foreseen. In retrospect, her reactions and thoughts made much more sense! As for Zen, the guy following her around, I didn’t really connect to him yet, but I think it is due to how little of him we got to see of him at first. I am sure the next books will give us this opportunity.
In the end, I felt that Unremembered was a book filled with action and mystery. I would recommend it to readers who enjoy a bit of technology and romance, a perfect read for when you need to relax a little.
And before I conclude, I’ll go with the second part of this review, which means I have to warn you :
* * * !!!SPOILERS AHEAD!!! * * *
It is, of course, impossible not to compare Unremembered to its predecessor Jenna Fox. And which one you like better will mainly depend on what you are looking for in a book. While Unremembered feels like a fun action movie, Jenna Fox did a better job of raising questions on what makes us humans, the “wrong” or “right” of science, etc. If Jenna Fox made a more long-lasting impression on me, I have no doubt other readers will favor Jessica Brody’s lighter take on the themes.
Thanks to Farrar, Straus & Giroux for generously providing a digital copy of the book for this review.
Lol I was shocked to see the name “Jessica Brody” because it’s the same name used for a character in the US TV series Homeland :))
This looks *so good*. I’ll have to add it to my list of wanted books!
I haven’t read either of these books, but really want to read Jenna Fox, as I have the audio version on my shelf and haven’t made time for it. It would be interesting to read both books and compare. I think you did a great job leaving the spoilers section marked so that it didn’t ruin it for anyone.