Review: Unbreakable by Kami Garcia

Unbreakable

Kami Garcia

Series: Legion, #1

Released: October 1st, 2013

Publisher: Little, Brown BFYR

Rating: 3 stars

Fright Scale: 5.5 out of 10

Reviewed by: Mel

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.

Suspense, romance, and the paranormal meet in this chilling urban fantasy, the first book in a new series from Kami Garcia, bestselling coauthor of the Beautiful Creatures novels.

Not being a great fan of Beautiful Creatures, I went into Unbreakable wearily and finished, rather pleased with the end result.

Kennedy Waters has met a ghost and her mother has recently died. And just when things are about to move along, she meets twin brothers, Jared and Lukas Lockheart. Soon, Kennedy finds out that her mother was part of a secret group called the Legion to fight a demon that dared to harm the world; however the world is no longer safe as the people of this group are all dead. And now it's time for Kennedy to take her mother's place. Similar to The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare, Kami Garcia's latest novel will make your spine chill so ensure that you have the lights on when you're reading this!

I wouldn't say that I hated Kennedy, nonetheless she wasn't amazingly loveable. Ever since she was young, Kennedy discovered that she could memorise things by just looking at them for a few short minutes, a bit like a super photographic memory gift. And until she meets Jared and Lukas, she never gave much thought about it, just kept a low profile so no one at school would take advantage of her ability to cheat tests. First impressions for Kennedy were pretty high, I liked how she didn't boast or use this ability to climb up the high-school social ladder and I really appreciated her thinking logic. Clearly intelligent. However when she was thrown into the world of paranormal, she became quite self-conscious about herself. This, was not a major issue until three- quarters of the way in where she still had not stopped whining and instead with kicking some ass. Her constant questioning of belonging did begin to nag in the back of my mind. Overall, Kennedy was a bearable character that I hope will undergo some character development in the next instalment.

The supporting characters were one of the highlights. Alara had to be my favourite. She didn't care what people thought of her and was completely focused in the action scenes (which was nearly every page), while badassery has been getting a little typical lately; Alara's was still thoroughly enjoyable. We also have Priest who's like the tech-y guy in Unbreakable. Then there are the twins, Jared and Lukas who seem to have some silent argument going throughout the novel. I was really interesting to see what was behind that story. All characters were easily definable and unique. Despite the constant action, we do have a romance- which was not a big fan of. It felt more like an ornament on a Christmas tree that did not fit the rest of the colour scheme. In other words, likeable but better off without. There is a hint of a love-triangle but it's barely there and I do believe it's sort of solved near the end of Unbreakable.

One of the best things in Unbreakable that I hope sustains through the entire series was the pace. Fast, lively, and absolutely heart-pounding. I am no thriller fan (or horror for a fact) but I still managed to love it. Especially at the start where it just jumps in and the feeling of not knowing what's happening with ghosts and cats being possessed- it's spontaneous. An amazing type of spontaneous.

A little predictable in some areas, with other flaws could've made this an underwhelming read but the constant action, suspense and horror will satisfy! The set up here was clearly for more instalments to come so Unbreakable does focus more on the character backgrounds a little more. If you weren't a fan of Beautiful Creatures, I recommend trying this as it's nothing like Beautiful Creatures!