Unbreakable ~ Kami Garcia (earc) review

Unbreakable(Legion #1)
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
October 1, 2013
320 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from Book Depo/or Amazon

Supernatural meets The Da Vinci Code in this action-packed paranormal thriller, the first book in a new series from New York Times bestselling author Kami Garcia.

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.

It seems like most of the time when a book summary promises a book is 'A meets B' or 'like X meets Y,' said book is guaranteed to be nothing like A, B, X or Y. So, I was definitely skeptical when I saw that the expanded synopsis of Unbreakable the solo novel from Beautiful Creatures co-writer Kami Garcia had Supernatural as one of its 'meets.'

Pairing that (working successfully) with ghosts and a secret society and it sounded like the book for which I have been waiting quite a while.. (There are not enough ghost-slash-evil-or-not-spirit books in my opinion.) I just had to hope my expectations weren't too high.

Fantastically enough, they were not.

Unbreakable is really brilliant. While I can't speak to any Da Vinci Code feelings you may or may not get (having neither read nor seen it), it does have a Supernatural vibe to it. (A few parts had me thinking of the episode, "Asylum," and not just the more obvious ones.) There's the most obvious similarity: two good looking, demon fighting brothers - who aren't without some tension, drama between them.

Jared and Lukas have someone that Sam and Dean could really use, though: Priest their own resident weapons inventor and member of the Legion. Macgyver meets James Bond's Q, Priest has moved far beyond rock salt shotgun shells. He's the youngest of them all but definitely holds his own and stands out.

Priest and the fourth member of the Legion Alara were two of my favorite characters. Alara was a great character, very well developed. I loved all of the little quirks and interesting traits she had. Though Lukas and Jared were the more primary characters, after Kennedy, they didn't leave as strong of an impression as Alara and Priest. They were more Jared-and-Lukas than Jared and Lukas, two characters.

I liked that the story started with Kennedy separate from the Legion and from the other characters involved. We saw more about how she reacts to things and the entire 'paranormal' aspect wasn't just taken as the norm this way. Her situation being thrown into such chaos, so quickly, while horrible for her to experience was great for the book. It allowed a lot to happen and change, for Kennedy to have to come to terms with a lot and figure herself and the situation out rather quickly, all in the midst of something extraordinary.

There were a few instances where it started to seem like Kennedy would be venturing into Mary Sue category. Except for those scenes, however, she still had her troubles, she was still learning where she fit now and the characters helped her and hindered her in the right amount.

While I loved Alara and Priest, I am hoping that I do love Kennedy, Jared and Lukas just a little more in the next novel - should everyone appear. I very much want to plot to be more of what I loved in this first book because oh did I love it.


Rating: 9/10

Other books you may also enjoy: Strange Angels by Lili St Crow, Paranormalcy by Kiersten White and 'Red Run' by Kami Garcia (also/originally in Enthralled: Paranormal Diversions anthology)





thank you to LBYR and NetGalley for my egalley for review