ARC Review: Unremembered by Jessica Brody

I seriously doubt that I am a fast reader, but I just finished reading this book and it hasn't even been two hours. It's THAT fast paced!

Title: Unremembered (Unremembered #1) by Jessica Brody
Release Date: March 5th 2013
Published by: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux (BYR)
Source: Publisher (Thanks Ksenia!)
Buy: Amazon | Book Depository

Summary:

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 compelling and suspenseful new sci-fi series, set in a world where science knows no boundaries, memories are manipulated, and true love can never be forgotten.

Jane Doe, the sixteen year old female lone survivor of a plane crash, doesn't not know who she is. She can't remember her name or where she's from, what she was doing before she was found. She was given a temporary name, Violet, after the color of her eyes, and was given temporary parents while the authorities search for hers. But they wouldn't find her parents, nor anything else about her, because Violet has a secret. One that has dire consequences when revealed. Then a boy who claims to know everything about her appears, and he wants her to remember. But at what cost?

I liked Violet for being such a peculiar character despite the very cliche description of her. She's exceptionally smart, beautiful and mysterious. She was almost like a robot at first and then when her identity was uncovered along with the story, I had a completely different understanding of her as a person. I imagine her as a child learning everything she could for the first time, one imprisoned and sheltered from the outside all her life. It's a lonely, solitary existence. Like being such a perfect person isn't worth it if you're existence is limited to living in an enclosed place, of not having anyone knowing you.

The mysterious boy, Zen, is a character I'd like to describe as someone with a steady personality. He didn't need to prove himself as much when Violet remembered who he was, and he certainly didn't need to compete with anyone for Violet's attention because this book does not have a love triangle. What's interesting in his character is that he's persistent, curious and the typical nice boy who gives in to his curiosity only to fall in love with someone he wasn't supposed to, yet he's ready to face the consequences for it.

The mystery, that desire to find out who Violet really is, what she was doing before the accident, and why she was caught in it was what kept me on my toes. It pushed me to just plunge into the story deeper and deeper to search for the answers just like what she was doing. When you're just about at the brink of giving up piecing the clues in the story together, suddenly it makes sense. I loved how Jessica Brody managed to time the revelation of each part of Violet's past and memories perfectly. Although there were moments of confusion towards the end when the sci-fi bit was revealed, readers should be on the look out for any technical terms that will come out of nowhere especially when the story was about to come to a close. It doesn't, however, affect the easily readability of this story.

Unremembered is a mix of things I've read of before, but mixed together, creates something quite exquisite to read. Just when you think it's a simple mystery thriller about a seemingly ordinary girl with a stubborn stepbrother and your typical villain, the story opens up to something totally different from what you expect. There's a bit of science fiction thrown in the mix, add to that a very healthy dose of romance and a bit of Shakespeare and you get something so easy to read and appreciate that you wouldn't believe it's over when you flip to the last page. Action packed, entertaining and highly enjoyable! You will get swept along with the story before you know it and even with such a cliff hanger of an ending, you'll be immensely satisfied with the story.

Give it a try? Yes, definitely!

Content (plot, story flow, character):
I'm okay getting surprise characters towards the end of a book, but when this character introduced a lot of information that left me grasping for a concrete timeline of the story (because of the time shift) it confused me more instead of helping. Would've given this a 5!

Shining: Worthy of a Goddess' Love!

Book Cover:
Violet is so gorgeous!