Friday, October 4, 2013

Review: Unbreakable by Kami Garcia

Title: Unbreakable (Legion #1)
Author: Kami Garcia
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal Fantasy
Release Date: October 10, 2013 (Aus); October 1, 2013 (US)
Source: Simon & Schuster Australia. Thank you!
Goodreads | The Reading Room


Kennedy Waters didn't believe in ghosts, until one tried to kill her.

When Kennedy finds her mother dead, her world begins to unravel. She doesn't know that evil forces in a much darker world are the ones pulling the strings. Not until identical twins Jared and Lukas Lockhart break into her house and destroy a dangerous spirit sent to kill her. The brothers reveal that her mother was part of an ancient secret society responsible for protecting the world from a vengeful demon - a society whose five members were all murdered on the same night.

Now Kennedy has to take her mother's place in the Legion if she wants to uncover the truth and stay alive. Along with new Legion members Priest and Alara, the teens race to find the only weapon that might be able to destroy the demon - battling the deadly spirits he controls every step of the way.
Review by Nara

I fell asleep thinking about her. Wondering what it would be like to have wings if you were too scared to fly.
Not that I've really read any reviews of this book, but I have heard that a lot of people compared this book to Supernatural, saying that the story is much too close. I actually haven't watched Supernatural before, so I can't really comment, but the idea of a group of people hunting down ghosts certainly isn't particularly original. So, I don't know about everyone else, but I didn't go into this story looking for something fresh- I basically went into it looking for action and entertainment. And I'm pretty happy, because that's exactly what I got.

I have to admit, the book was a bit infodumpy at the start, but once all the rules of the Legion were sorted out, the pace was smoothed out nicely. Also, the way that the ghosts were introduced was ridiculous. The book starts off with a cliched "oh, hey it's a person in a nightgown in a graveyard! Oh, wait...THEY'RE FLOATING. But no, it's definitely not a ghost. How could it be a ghost!". All right, Phase One: Denial. And might I also add that the name of the "vengeful demon" is Andras. Andras doesn't sound like the name of a demon. It sounds like the name of a backpacker from Europe.

The relationship Kennedy had with her mother was quite sweet at the start of the book (before the mum gets murdered, of course). I think I would have liked to see a bit more of this normality before the murder actually happened. It was a bit too sudden- there wasn't really enough time to appreciate the role the mum plays and fully gauge how close the two were. So when the murder occurred, it didn't really evoke much emotion in me- I wasn't particularly sad or anything, simply because it all happened too quickly.

And Kennedy's best friend Elle accepted the truth waaay to easily. I mean, even if one of my friends disappeared suddenly after her mum was murdered and her house totally trashed, I sure as heck wouldn't believe her if she told me that ghosts were responsible for it all. And Elle's explanation for the acceptance was that she'd seen "Paranormal Encounters". Yeah, real.

When the twins first appear my thoughts were 1. SAHWOON! Because, twins. 2. This better not turn into some crappy love triangle with both of them liking the protagonist...And unfortunately, my prayers were not answered because FREAKING LOVE TRIANGLE! And it's a seriously annoying and superficial one- it gets to the point where the twins are practically fighting each other over her. STAHP IT. For some reason, it's even more annoying because they're twins.

Also, random, but this line made me laugh:
"How long have you been out here?" 
..."A while."
Dude, this ain't Twilight.

Despite the seeming negativity of my review, I actually really enjoyed reading Unbreakable. It seems I was just really in the mood for some old fashioned ghost killing (well, not really killing...ghost destroying?) It's full of action and adventure, and it's, as I said, just really entertaining. Certainly entertaining enough to overlook a few flaws.

Liked it
Ratings
Overall: 8/10
Plot: 4/5
Writing: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
Cover: 3/5





26 comments:

  1. Hahahaha STAHP IT xD Lol you crack me up!
    I've not read this one, but I've heard about it's existence floating around. I think the ghost hunter idea has been used several times already, but it still looks intriguing. And a love triangle between two brothers? -.- Yes, we all can't get enough of love triangles! (sarcasm)
    But I'm glad all in all you enjoyed it! :D This looks pretty decent, so I may give it a try when I have time!
    Great review, Nara! :D

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    1. What are you talking about Em? Love triangles are da best!
      Seriously though, le sigh. Brother love triangles are annoying enough, but twin love triangles? -_-
      But yes, it was pretty good overall :)

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  2. I wasn't a fan of the romance either or the twins for that fact, and I agree, her BFF did just brush it off too easily.

    Fab review, Nara! <33

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    1. The twins were okay, I guess, but how they were fighting and stuff was weird. I just more so liked the book because of the action and adventure!

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  3. Thanks for your review, I was so annoyed about the Supernatural similarities and the love triangle that I completely forgot about the whole best friend's easy acceptance and brushing over what happened to the mother!

    Jeann @ Happy Indulgence

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    1. haha even though there were so many bad things in this book, I think I was just really in the mood for a simple plot and lots of action!

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  4. Well, my friend has a copy of the book, so I can borrow it. If I hate it, no loss on my part.

    But I hope that Kami Garia delivers, because I didn't enjoy Beautiful Creatures. Mostly because of the subject, but the writing was good. But my hopes aren't too high, so I hope this one will be good for me!

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    1. Yeah, I didn't really like Beautiful Creatures that much either (I think I gave up after reading the first two books), and I agree, it was mostly because of the actual plot. It was too angtsy and annoying.

      But I quite liked this book. Don't even know why haha

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  5. BAHA! Wow, if not for that last paragraph I would have thought you really hated this one. So funny how we can sometimes find so many things wrong with a book and yet STILL manage to enjoy it!

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    1. haha so true. I think I mostly wrote bad things because I actually don't know why I liked this one. It was just a fun read I guess :P

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  6. Hahaha I really thought you hated this book. I actually love Supernatural, and I have to read this book because it was a review copy, but I'm pretty hesistant about it because I don't know how Kami Garcia works alone (in comparison to the Beautiful Creatures series). Anyways, great (but misleading! xD) review.!

    -Marianne @ Boricuan Bookworms

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    1. hahaha I think it's a good thing, because despite all those bad things about the book, I still enjoyed it overall! (but yeah, slightly misleading, my bad haha)
      I'm always curious how people write collab books if there aren't two distinct POVs. But this book was quite different from Beautiful Creatures, I think.

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  7. Despite those four stars, I'm not too sure I want to give this a go anymore. I love the premise, and I don't think the lack of originality would bother me much if I went into it with the same mindset as you, but GAH. Freaking love triangle with twins? How cliché is that? One of my biggest issues concerning books is the romance. It must be bearable, otherwise I'd just throw a fit. I know, I'm a pretty impatient and picky person. I can't help it! D:

    A ghost called Andras reminds me too much of my sister. Her name is Andrea. You can see the similarities. But yeah, sister names aside, it does sound like one of those European hitchhikers from some exotic European country. Budapest or Hungary or something. Did that affect the impact of the demon, though? Having a sweet name?

    "And Kennedy's best friend Elle accepted the truth waaay to easily." - Oof, the convenient way of sorting things out between besties. How nice. It actually reminds me of a book I just finished a couple of days ago: CONJURED by Sarah Beth Durst. The MC can do magic in a human world, and the love interest doesn't even ACT surprised. He just "widens his eyes" and totally goes along with it. Riiiiight...

    And were you referring that the quote wasn't TWILIGHT? Do I sense a "I've been watching you sleep for ages" kind of thing coming along in here?! Noooooo. I'm happy the action part reached your expectations, and that you managed to enjoy the book fairly well despite the flaws, but I don't think I'd be able to be that lenient! The romance and conveniency would probably annoy me half to death, unfortunately. Great review all the same, Nara!

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    1. yeah the love triangle with twins was pretty annoying. But I feel like romance wasn't really the focus of the story, so I was good with it haha. I can usually overlook things like that. Totes not as picky as you :P

      We actually didn't see the demon at all in this book! Just his minions. We'll have to see how things turn out in later books :)

      DUDE I hate that too. It's so ridiculous when characters accept things too easily -_- And ah, that reminds me I need to go check out your review of that book!

      You know the Twilight quote "how old are you?", "17." "how long have you been 17?", "a while"- every time i see the phrase "a while" it brings back unpleasant memories of that scene...

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  8. Okay, so I had mixed feelings about this one because I couldn't finish Beautiful Creatures (I really, really tried to), so I was planning on avoiding this book like it's the plague. However, you totally convinced me to give it a chance. It sounds like a fun read, which is what I need right now.
    And it's like Supernatural?! WHAT?! Why haven't I heard about that so far? Just the word "Supernatural" has me completely sold on this one. (Psst, this is also a hint that you have just GOT to watch Supernatural. ;D)
    As for the love triangle with the twins, uhhhh.... For some reason, I think that's weird. :P
    Anyways, great review Nara! :D

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    1. I was okay with the first book in the BC series, but the second was such a struggle. And I still haven't bothered picking up the others. They're so tedious -_-
      haha I have so many TV shows on my to-watch list it's ridiculous. So little time!
      Yeah, the twin love triangle is definitely weird. Because it's kind of like being in a love triangle with the same person. Or at least, the same face. That's pretty weird.

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  9. Hmm yeah, ghost hunting isn't a particularly original idea so I think you were definitely right not to expect something super original with this one. It's good that you were sufficiently entertained even without the originality!! But ugghh, no more triangles PLEASE. I can't deal with them anymore. haha - "STAHP IT" exactly. Well, I can't say this is one that I would set down everything to read when my tbr is already so insanely long, but I have to say I'm impressed that it turned out better than I was expecting it to be. So that's something! This was a really great review, by the way!

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    1. Yeah I have to admit the love triangle in this book is unfortunately pretty terrible. The romance overall was actually rather terrible. But I was more so reading for the action so I was fine with it haha.

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  10. Thanks for the review. I'm not a huge fan of ghost stories and after reading your review, I might pass on this one.

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    1. Yeah there were quite a few flaws with the book. Maybe not for those who don't like ghost novels :)

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  11. The book cover looks amazing and very inviting. I clicked it instantly while browsing your feed. However, the plot seems a bit tad for me and reminds me of City of Bones premise. I actually didn't like City of Bones so I think I will pass on this one.

    After reading your review, I don't think I would enjoy this kind of book. I have read some good Ghost series like Anna dressed in blood, Graveyard Queen and Meg Cabot's Mediator series.

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    1. I wouldn't say that it's anything like City of Bones, really. I guess, maybe, they both have a very action oriented plot, but other than that I wouldn't really say that they're similar.

      Anna Dressed in Blood and the Mediator series are amazing!

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  12. Nice review. Not a fan of triangles.

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  13. Oh, I really want to read this book! Plus...Supernatural? Yah, I want to read it.
    I wasn't a fan of BC, either but I'll try this one!
    Thanks for the review!

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    1. It was pretty good. Quite a lot of action, and a very different feel from Beautiful Creatures :)

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