Review: Unbreakable by Kami Garcia

Unbreakable

Author: Kami Garcia

Release: October 1st 2013

Genre: Paranormal, Ghosts, YA

#1 in the Legion series

Sequels: Unmarked (#2), TBA

Plot:

Supernatural meets The Da Vinci Code in this action-packed paranormal thriller, the first book in a new series from New York Times bestselling author Kami Garcia. 

I never believed in ghosts. Until one tried to kill me.

When Kennedy Waters finds her mother dead, her world begins to unravel. She doesn’t know that paranormal forces in a much darker world are the ones pulling the strings. Not until identical twins Jared and Lukas Lockhart break into Kennedy’s room 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.

Goodreads | B&N

Review:

This book is very far from perfect, I know. Would I rate this completely objectively, it would "only" be like 4 stars or something, but I enjoyed this book so immensely and loved it so much, I have to give it 5 and even count it to the best books that I have read so far this year.

Damn son. I really hope that Margaret Stohl can keep up with Garcia, because when I bought this, I thought it was only fair to give both the authors of Beautiful Creatures a chance to impress me as a single author and so I have Icons lying around here, too.

Of course, I was also kind of expecting this to be extremely good, and have been dying to finally get started on this, ever since I read Kami Garcia's ghost story "Red Run" in the Enthralled short story anthology. And, as you can obviously see, I really wasn't disappointed.

The story started out nicely, with some good action going on and very likable characters. I was sold right away, the story had me in its grips from start to finish. Sometimes the beginning was a little rough and hacked off, it seemed, but I didn't mind very much. There are also some things that made me frown and shake my head in disbelief, like the time when Kennedy pulled a Bella and searched the guys' names on the Internet... However, despite some missteps, the series and I really hit it off.

I think what drew me in right away were simply the characters. I loved Kennedy, because she was rational, badass and real. Her reactions to everything were believable and appropriate, and her struggles to belong and fit in with the others was something that just made me so much more sympathetic towards her. I don't know, I just really really liked her. And I also loved the other characters, this is a really diverse cast of characters that have it all: the other girl, who is badass and athletic and also kind-of bitchy towards the new one because she wants to protect the others, the brooding guy, the cheerful guy and the ingenious little trickster kid. I seriously couldn't tell you which of them I liked best, maybe only that I liked Lukas least, but even that is an understatement in the sense of, I still liked him lots.

And yes, believe it or not, but I was instantly smitten when it came to the romance. I shipped Kennedy and Jared the instant he saved her from the vengeance spirit and carried her out by slinging her over his shoulder. I internally screamed whenever they touched or simply looked at each other and I was already imagining them kissing on page 150. Call me fickle, or naive, childish, or I don't know, but I'm not usually this bad, so it's saying something.

Ah, plot. I loved it to bits and pieces. Ghosts aren't usually the genre I go for, I don't even know why but I simply like other supernatural/paranormal creatures better. But everything with the Ghosts here was so ... maybe not necessarily creative, but definitely something new. They really aren't lying when they say this book is like Supernatural and The Da Vinci Code meet. They really aren't. The weapons and equipment the Legion uses was so quirky and resourceful, I loved it. Now I'm not sure if that was really that creative, since I don't read many ghost books as I pointed out, but if all of them are like this, I'm definitely gonna hunt for more. Well, besides that, there's also the ghost hunting in itself that is extremely epic and cool, and the plot back story was also very nice. All in all, the correlation between it all was so unbelievably well done, as well as everything else. Plot twists, events, just, everything.

Writing. Since I, like I said, haven't read Icons yet, sadly I can't compare yet, but let me say that I did enjoy it quite a lot. There were some extremely lovely and nice quotes, although I'm sad to say the writing style lacks the harmonic and lyrical sound that I love. Anyways, few authors do meet those expectations of mine, so I'm not that bummed. It was still really good.

All in all, this was a huge improvement over Beautiful Creatures, let me tell you. Hopefully, this improvement will also be seen when the authors get together again to delve into the Caster world and write Dangerous Creatures. Here's to hoping. Anyways, back to Unbreakable, a novel that I enjoyed immensely and devoured in a matter of hours. Seriously, If I hadn't been plagued with a terrible headache last night, I would have read this in one sitting. And the first thing I did when I woke up was turn on the lights and finish this book with a heavy heart. I wish this had been longer, it's been only roughly 300 pages. But well, I can use this to my advantage, since now I can tell you to just try it, since it's not that long and you don't have to drag yourself through much even if you don't happen to like it. Personally, I want that sequel now and I want it bad...