REVIEW: Unwept (The Nightbirds, #1) by Tracy Hickman and Laura Hickman

Unwept by Tracy Hickman

My rating:

 

"You know, Ellie, Nightbird is just another name for 'moth'. Maybe that's where your dreams come from."

I would like to thank Netgalley and Tor books for providing me this review copy for an honest review.

Where do I even start with this?

Until now my head is just overflowing with possibilities on what will happen on the next book. That's a bit of a spoiler isn't it?

Yes, there will be sequel!

And this baby, ended in a way that you will surely ask for more.

This is how I looked like as I was reading this. This is chronologically arranged, starting from when I started reading it up to when it ended.

STARTED READING:

AT ABOUT 30%:

AT ABOUT 60%:

AT ABOUT 80%:

AFTER FINISHING:

THIS BOOK WAS A SUCKER PUNCH TO THE GUT OR FACE... WHATEVER!

It will keep you guessing up until the last minute, even after they're already revealing the secret behind the mystery, you are still guessing if it's true or not.

For the GIST

Ellis doesn't know how she got on that train going to Gamin, Maine. All she remembered was waking up from a nightmare, and in front of her was a nurse who knows her, but she had no memory of ever knowing her.

Upon her arrival to the town, she was greeted warmly by people she had never met, but knew her. Doctor Carmichael (who prefers to be called Uncle) picks her up from the train station and takes her to her cousin, Jenny, to recover from an illness she also does not have any memory of.

She still gets dreams, and the dreams are getting more and more vivid. She doesn't distinguish which is real and which is a dream anymore.

She wants to trust in someone, but she doesn't know who she can trust, especially now that everyone can't seem to tell her what happened to her. No one tells her anything. She wants answers, and she will find them no matter what it takes.

MY RATING

WRITING: 17

PLOT: 20

CHARACTERS: 17

UNPREDICTABILITY: 20

PACING: 5

ENJOYABILITY: 8

----------------------------

87 points

WRITING

I just have one thing to say about the writing, it was damn eerie. It has that mysterious vibe oozing through its pages. It will make you flip through its pages faster than you should. I usually don't like third person narration, except for maybe the Harry Potter series and Cassie Clare's books, but this one worked for me.

Waking up without a memory will cause you to be confused, puzzled, and lost. I've never lost my memory, so I couldn't really confirm if this was an accurate thinking of a person who had amnesia. But I kind of think it was as close as it could get to it.

PLOT

UNIQUE. The plot of this book is nothing I've ever read before. I wasn't exactly sure at first, if it was going to be a paranormal book, or just an otherworldly contemporary book. The story doesn't really giveaway too much of wha was going to happen until the last few pages of the book. This book was like a puzzle with missing pieces, that we were trying to complete. As the story progress, we get one piece of the puzzle at a time until the whole picture is revealed.

It was amazing.

CHARACTERS

Ellis was an admirable character. She may have lost her memory, but she doesn't give up in finding out the truth about who she was, and what was going on around her, because there was a lot going on in the background. There was a lot of thing we weren't able to see at first. She thinks before she speaks. Although everyone tells her she was sick or something, it didn't break her spirit. I liked that about her. She knew she'd be a fool to trust anyone, which was the right decision. Although, there was a point she misjudged someone, which I kind of thought she would.

I don't want to get too much on the details about the other characters because I'd probably give away too much if I did. There were a lot of secondary characters, but not all of them had a role, most of them are just pawns on the game that one of them was playing... So no, I wouldn't tell you guys anymore about the characters.

PREDICTABILITY

I still gave this a perfect score on my book, because majority of the time I was just shaking my head in disbelief that what I was thinking about is so far from the truth. I did guess one thing right though, I guessed who the evil villan was!!

PACING

It was too slow for my taste, but towards the last quarter of the book, all the truth came out in the open and hit you all at once.

ENJOYABILITY

I love my mystery so I definitely enjoyed this book!

FINAL RAMBLINGS

I am totally impressed with this book! I would have finished this earlier had I not been irritated with the Bluefire reader. *NOTE TO SELF: never send a galley through Bluefire!!*

Romance was not a big thing in this book so if you're looking for paranormal romance in this novel, better look for it some place else. There is pseudoromance I guess, but I'm not really sure until I get the next book which I want right now!!!

Oh and the cover's gorgeous! I should have given plus points for that. Publisher's should always remember that the cover gives the book additional pull to its audience.

What else am I missing?

I think that's all for my review of this book! Would I recommend it? Abso-fucking-lutely! I'm not really sure if this was supposed to be YA or adult or something, but younger readers could read this. No mature themes that I have read, just a little bit of gory stuff towards the end.

VERY FINAL NOTE I don't get the title. Why was it Unwept? Maybe I missed it somehow. I'll probably skim through it at some point to figure it out!

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