Unspoken

AUGH ENDING SO UNFAIR/AWESOME.

A good chunk of my love for this book is because of the way that it handles a trope that fandom loves and I hate: the soulbond. What if you had a mystical connection to another person? In this book the answer is mostly "wow. Awkward," and I love it.

However, if you have not found yourself cursing "damn you, soulbonds!" at the internet, I am less sure what you will get out of this book.

It's a great book! There's some super hilarious dialogue, great characters, the plotting is tight, the setting is vivid, etc. But so much of what I love about it is that constant return to "wow, awkward," so my love for it is a bit founded on one thing that other people may not share.

Okay, and I have probably made it sound like this book is about two people standing around going "so... this is awkward," which is a terrible description. Let me try to do better.

Sorry-in-the-vale, winner of the annual 'most creepily picturesque town-name in England' award, has always been keeping an eye on the Lyndburns for as long as Kami remembers, even though the Lyndburns have been absent her whole life. But now they are back, and Kami discovers that the voice in her head which she has been accustomed to thinking of as her imaginary friend, is a real person with an actual physical existence. (Wow. Awkward.) But Kami cannot properly freak out about this, because she is very busy freaking out about: someone is creepily killing animals in the woods; Kami is being flirted at by boys, which is new, and maybe awesome?; Kami plans to be a kickass journalist, and she has managed to start up a school newspaper; EVERYONE IS KEEPING SECRETS, THIS IS SERIOUSLY NOT COOL.

So, like, she is very busy, being awesome and kickass and terrified and dealing with her suddenly not imaginary imaginary friend. And then the stakes get higher.

One of the things I love about this book is that the book is clearly a Gothic novel; everything is creepy, the houses have names, secrets have secrets etc. But Kami is not at all the Gothic Heroine, she is the plucky girl detective and has no patience for all the awesome Gothic tropes she is swimming in. Someone will give her a creepy Gothic Pronouncement and she'll whip out her recorder and be all "Can you repeat that, for the record, and state your name?"

Kami's pretty great, and her cast of supporting characters is too. I kind of want to know more about Angela's romantic relationship, and what's up with Rusty? because seriously he is not doing good at having a secret, and also her dad who wandered into this Gothic Novel from a quirky sitcom I would watch more of.