Review: Unremembered by Jessica Brody

Publisher: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux
Series: Unremembered #1

Pages: 320

Received: Received a copy from Raincoast Books in exchange for an honest review

Release Date: March 5, 2013
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Goodreads Synopsis:

The only thing worse than forgetting her past... is remembering it.

When Freedom Airlines flight 121 went down over the Pacific Ocean, no one ever expected to find survivors. Which is why the sixteen-year-old girl discovered floating among the wreckage—alive—is making headlines across the globe.

Even more strange is that her body is miraculously unharmed and she has no memories of boarding the plane. She has no memories of her life before the crash. She has no memories period. No one knows how she survived. No one knows why she wasn’t on the passenger manifest. And no one can explain why her DNA and fingerprints can’t be found in a single database in the world.

Crippled by a world she doesn’t know, plagued by abilities she doesn’t understand, and haunted by a looming threat she can’t remember, Seraphina struggles to piece together her forgotten past and discover who she really is. But with every clue only comes more questions. And she’s running out of time to answer them.

Her only hope is a strangely alluring boy who claims to know her from before the crash. Who claims they were in love. But can she really trust him? And will he be able to protect her from the people who have been making her forget?

From popular young adult author, Jessica Brody comes a mesmerizing and suspenseful new series, set in a world where science knows no boundaries, memories are manipulated, and true love can never be forgotten.

My Review:

There's always something interesting to me about books where the MC has lost their memory and is working towards this mystery of their life. So naturally the story of UNREMEMBERED really stuck out to me when it was advertised. There was so much more to this story though, and I definitely had all my attention on this book while reading. The book opens up with a teenage girl found among the wreckage of a plane crash, and she is the only survivor, and we come to the mystery of how she ended up there and why no one knows about her. The book is broken up into three parts, and each part begins after Seraphina has learned something big dealing with her mysterious past life.

I really enjoyed the plot of this book and felt that it was what really drove the book forward. Jessica Brody takes her time getting to all the answers, and everything is slowly revelaed to readers and to Seraphina alike. The plot of the book had many twists that made it hard to really figure everything out, and I enjoyed being surprised over again with what Brody came up with in this book.

I did have a few problems connecting with the characters, which I can understand when it comes to Seraphina's issues. Though I couldn't connect with her emotionally, I did enjoy her character, how she was careful to trust those around her (at the beginning at least). She trusted her gut instincts and I liked that about her, but I felt like there was still something missing to fully connect with her. I did like that she was a girl with an attitude and fought to find the answers she needed. I mean seriously if you couldn't remember anything about your life wouldn't you run off to find answers where you could (I definitely would!)

I found that I connected a little more with the secondary characters than with the main characters, especially the family that Seraphina is placed with as foster care. I really enjoyed her little brother, and how he learns to care for Seraphina like she is family. He comes out to protect her even though he is young. I loved the dynamic between the two of them.

I do admit, that yes this story is similar to other stories, but Jessica Brody really drew me in and kept me reading with the mystery she added into the story, and with the twists that she added that even I didn't see coming. I really enjoyed this book, I did find that the ending fell a little flat for me and I was hoping for something a little more. I do understand that it's part of a series and that's why it ended as it did, but after everything that happened I was left feeling a little deflated. I do think I will continue on with this series to see where Brody will take the story.