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About a year ago, I picked up Sarah Rees Brennan’s (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sarahtales) Unspoken, largely out of not-wanting-to-look-like-an-asshole-itude, at a book signing where the at-the-time-unknown-to-me Ms. Rees Brennan was accompanying my longtime favorites Libba Bray and Holly Black.
Reader,I married it I would totally marry this series, actually. Unspoken turned out to be one of the smartest, most well-written YA books I’ve read in ages, as well going up to 11 on the Relevant To My Interests scale.
Unspoken ended on a totally WTF-y note and I and legions of other readers have spent a year shivering in antici… pation for Untold, the second installment of The Lynburn Legacy.
But now—oh frabjous day!—Untold is out! And I have read it! And BRB, have to go pick up pieces of my soul from the floor and mail ‘em to Sarah Rees Brennan for her collection.
Untold continues the story of Kami Glass, editor and lead intrepid girl reporter of her high school newspaper The Nosy Parker, as she seeks to save her sleepy little English town of Sorry-in-the-Vale from being taken over by evil sorcerers want to use human sacrifices to fuel their magic. The evil sorcerers are the nuttier faction of the town’s ruling sorcerer family, the Lynburns, whose less nutty faction is actually still quite nutty and sometimes douchebaggy too, but at least they get that human sacrifice is wrong. Kami is also dealing with the fallout from having severed the magical telepathic bond that had connected her to one of the non-evil sorcerers, Jared, for her whole life (although for most of that time she’d thought he was an imaginary friend).
The story opens with Kami and her awesomely cranky BFF Angela getting attacked on Halloween night by evil magically animated scarecrows, and gets weirder from there. The evil Lynburn faction, headed by Rob Lynburn—the one who always seemed like the nicest—moves to consolidate power in the town with disturbing ease, promising the other sorcerers in the town power while simultaneously terrifying them out of thinking they could possibly decline. Kami and her friends are a small but awesome faction, but they have their work more than cut out for them in resisting Rob and his cronies, and things are additionally complicated by the fact that their social group is ridden with incredibly awkward interpersonal situations. The cast list includes:
KAMI GLASS: Is basically awesome, and dedicated to fixing everything. She tries to be constructive about stuff like figuring out how to fight the sorcerers and adjusting to not having Jared in her head anymore, but it is hard. She never gives up and always has something sassy to say even when she doubts herself. She also cares a lot about her family because her family is freakin’ awesome.
ANGELA MONTGOMERY: Kami’s BFF, Angela is very beautiful and also massively cranky as a human being. She likes naps and dislikes most people. She is a lesbian and has a thing for Holly, which has made their friendship a bit awkward. Though she is massively lazy, Angela learned self-defense from her older brother, and can and will beat the shit out of you if she has to.
HOLLY PRESCOTT: Holly’s family is sorcerers, who used to be prestigious within Sorry-in-the-Vale and somehow fell from grace, and now her home life is kind of shitty. Holly is very pretty and is mostly a boy’s girl, except for her friendships with Kami and Angela. Holly usually manages to keep up a fairly sunny personality, at least in public, except when there are major plot points happening.
JARED LYNBURN: A mashup of the in-distress Gothic heroine and a broody rogueish bad boy. Occasionally a tavern wench. He is a sorcerer, and he is dealing with no longer being mentally tied to Kami even worse (MUCH MUCH WORSE, which is a LOT of bad) than Kami is dealing with not being connected to him. His mother Rosalind is with the evil sorcerers, and is in love with his uncle Rob Lynburn, head of the evil sorcerers, because THAT’S NOT CREEPY AT ALL.
ASH LYNBURN: Ash Lynburn wants to be good and nice and make people happy! As a result, he almost became an evil sorcerer, because his dad is Rob Lynburn and he wants to please his dad. His mom is Lillian Lynburn, head of the nutty-but-not-evil sorcerer faction, and now he wants to please her, but he can’t, because she’s still pissed off at him for almost becoming evil. Ash also seems to have a crush on Kami which is very awkward, since Ash and Jared are cousins (and might be brothers because JESUS CHRIST ROSALIND) (ALSO ROB, YOU ARE NOT OFF THE HOOK HERE, ASSHOLE) and look very much alike, leading to at least one super awkward scene involving romantic entanglements and mistaken identity.
RUSTY MONTGOMERY: Angela’s older brother. Almost as lazy as she is, but much happier—his picture is in the dictionary next to the phrase “laid back.” Owns a gym, and teaches his sister and all her friends self-defense. Rusty is very handsome, and likes to talk about how handsome he is all the time, but not in a snotty way.
They are occasionally joined by some very colorful adults, including Lillian Lynburn, ice queen extraordinaire, a woman so arrogant that I am surprised that she doesn’t walk into doors and then be offended they didn’t open for her of their own volition; and Jon Glass, Kami’s fabulously sassy (and apparently hot) dad. There is a scene where Jon Glass sasses Lillian Lynburn and I laughed so hard I almost vomited.
I don’t really want to talk too much about the plot outside of “evil sorcerers” because the plot is MADE OF TWISTS and therefore EVERYTHING IS SPOILERZ plus I already went and told you about the scarecrows. As usual, Sarah Rees Brennan lives on our tears, so the plot veers wildly back and forth between high-octane nightmare fuel and interpersonal soul-crushing, and the dialogue oscillates beautifully between heart-wrenching and hilarious. The ending is somethin’ else, as usual, although differently than the last one—in Unspoken, the Thing That Happened at the end was itself massively shocking and I was like “Noooo my feelings” as soon as it happened; in this one, the ending is the Unfair Cliffhanger of Doom, so I zipped right through the last plot point—which, though not in this instance predictable, is a Gothic classic—going “This is riveting! What happens next?” and it was only when I realized that there is no next for another year that I started shaking my fist in the general direction of Ireland (or wherever she lives) and shouting “DAMN YOU, REES BRENNAN”.
On a happier note, I finally learned what a honey badger actually is! And why he don’t care! I do so love learning things.
Recommended strongly for people who like one-liners, Gothic novels, ladyfriendship, and awesomeness.
sarahtales) Unspoken, largely out of not-wanting-to-look-like-an-asshole-itude, at a book signing where the at-the-time-unknown-to-me Ms. Rees Brennan was accompanying my longtime favorites Libba Bray and Holly Black.Reader,
Unspoken ended on a totally WTF-y note and I and legions of other readers have spent a year shivering in antici… pation for Untold, the second installment of The Lynburn Legacy.
But now—oh frabjous day!—Untold is out! And I have read it! And BRB, have to go pick up pieces of my soul from the floor and mail ‘em to Sarah Rees Brennan for her collection.
Untold continues the story of Kami Glass, editor and lead intrepid girl reporter of her high school newspaper The Nosy Parker, as she seeks to save her sleepy little English town of Sorry-in-the-Vale from being taken over by evil sorcerers want to use human sacrifices to fuel their magic. The evil sorcerers are the nuttier faction of the town’s ruling sorcerer family, the Lynburns, whose less nutty faction is actually still quite nutty and sometimes douchebaggy too, but at least they get that human sacrifice is wrong. Kami is also dealing with the fallout from having severed the magical telepathic bond that had connected her to one of the non-evil sorcerers, Jared, for her whole life (although for most of that time she’d thought he was an imaginary friend).
The story opens with Kami and her awesomely cranky BFF Angela getting attacked on Halloween night by evil magically animated scarecrows, and gets weirder from there. The evil Lynburn faction, headed by Rob Lynburn—the one who always seemed like the nicest—moves to consolidate power in the town with disturbing ease, promising the other sorcerers in the town power while simultaneously terrifying them out of thinking they could possibly decline. Kami and her friends are a small but awesome faction, but they have their work more than cut out for them in resisting Rob and his cronies, and things are additionally complicated by the fact that their social group is ridden with incredibly awkward interpersonal situations. The cast list includes:
KAMI GLASS: Is basically awesome, and dedicated to fixing everything. She tries to be constructive about stuff like figuring out how to fight the sorcerers and adjusting to not having Jared in her head anymore, but it is hard. She never gives up and always has something sassy to say even when she doubts herself. She also cares a lot about her family because her family is freakin’ awesome.
ANGELA MONTGOMERY: Kami’s BFF, Angela is very beautiful and also massively cranky as a human being. She likes naps and dislikes most people. She is a lesbian and has a thing for Holly, which has made their friendship a bit awkward. Though she is massively lazy, Angela learned self-defense from her older brother, and can and will beat the shit out of you if she has to.
HOLLY PRESCOTT: Holly’s family is sorcerers, who used to be prestigious within Sorry-in-the-Vale and somehow fell from grace, and now her home life is kind of shitty. Holly is very pretty and is mostly a boy’s girl, except for her friendships with Kami and Angela. Holly usually manages to keep up a fairly sunny personality, at least in public, except when there are major plot points happening.
JARED LYNBURN: A mashup of the in-distress Gothic heroine and a broody rogueish bad boy. Occasionally a tavern wench. He is a sorcerer, and he is dealing with no longer being mentally tied to Kami even worse (MUCH MUCH WORSE, which is a LOT of bad) than Kami is dealing with not being connected to him. His mother Rosalind is with the evil sorcerers, and is in love with his uncle Rob Lynburn, head of the evil sorcerers, because THAT’S NOT CREEPY AT ALL.
ASH LYNBURN: Ash Lynburn wants to be good and nice and make people happy! As a result, he almost became an evil sorcerer, because his dad is Rob Lynburn and he wants to please his dad. His mom is Lillian Lynburn, head of the nutty-but-not-evil sorcerer faction, and now he wants to please her, but he can’t, because she’s still pissed off at him for almost becoming evil. Ash also seems to have a crush on Kami which is very awkward, since Ash and Jared are cousins (and might be brothers because JESUS CHRIST ROSALIND) (ALSO ROB, YOU ARE NOT OFF THE HOOK HERE, ASSHOLE) and look very much alike, leading to at least one super awkward scene involving romantic entanglements and mistaken identity.
RUSTY MONTGOMERY: Angela’s older brother. Almost as lazy as she is, but much happier—his picture is in the dictionary next to the phrase “laid back.” Owns a gym, and teaches his sister and all her friends self-defense. Rusty is very handsome, and likes to talk about how handsome he is all the time, but not in a snotty way.
They are occasionally joined by some very colorful adults, including Lillian Lynburn, ice queen extraordinaire, a woman so arrogant that I am surprised that she doesn’t walk into doors and then be offended they didn’t open for her of their own volition; and Jon Glass, Kami’s fabulously sassy (and apparently hot) dad. There is a scene where Jon Glass sasses Lillian Lynburn and I laughed so hard I almost vomited.
I don’t really want to talk too much about the plot outside of “evil sorcerers” because the plot is MADE OF TWISTS and therefore EVERYTHING IS SPOILERZ plus I already went and told you about the scarecrows. As usual, Sarah Rees Brennan lives on our tears, so the plot veers wildly back and forth between high-octane nightmare fuel and interpersonal soul-crushing, and the dialogue oscillates beautifully between heart-wrenching and hilarious. The ending is somethin’ else, as usual, although differently than the last one—in Unspoken, the Thing That Happened at the end was itself massively shocking and I was like “Noooo my feelings” as soon as it happened; in this one, the ending is the Unfair Cliffhanger of Doom, so I zipped right through the last plot point—which, though not in this instance predictable, is a Gothic classic—going “This is riveting! What happens next?” and it was only when I realized that there is no next for another year that I started shaking my fist in the general direction of Ireland (or wherever she lives) and shouting “DAMN YOU, REES BRENNAN”.
On a happier note, I finally learned what a honey badger actually is! And why he don’t care! I do so love learning things.
Recommended strongly for people who like one-liners, Gothic novels, ladyfriendship, and awesomeness.