Review: Unbreakable

Author: Elizabeth Norris
Date of Publication: April 23 2013
Pages: 479
Source: Library ebook
Series: Sequel to Unraveling

Four months after Ben disappeared through the portal to his home universe, Janelle believes she’ll never see him again. Her world is still devastated, but life is finally starting to resume some kind of normalcy. Until Interverse Agent Taylor Barclay shows up. Somebody from an alternate universe is running a human trafficking ring, kidnapping people and selling them on different Earths—and Ben is the prime suspect. Now his family has been imprisoned and will be executed if Ben doesn’t turn himself over within five days.

And when Janelle learns that someone she cares about—someone from her own world—has become one of the missing, she knows that she has to help Barclay, regardless of the danger. Now Janelle has five days to track down the real culprit. Five days to locate the missing people before they’re lost forever. Five days to reunite with the boy who stole her heart. But as the clues begin to add up, Janelle realizes that she’s in way over her head—and that she may not have known Ben as well as she thought. Can she uncover the truth before everyone she cares about is killed?

Review:

I'm not very happy with Unbreakable. I liked the first, Unraveling, but this sequel disappointed me in many ways.

First, the writing irritated me. I felt like the entire story was completely overwritten. There were so many unnecessary details and I didn't like that some chapters would end off with an extremely detailed thought, and the next chapter would again elaborate on this insignificant piece of information. It felt like complete overkill, and this book should not be 400+ pages because it doesn't have 400 pages worth of content.

Here's an example.

*Something shocking happens*

Janelle: OMG this is crazy!

--Next Chapter--

Janelle: This is crazy and I do not know what to do about it.

*someone else walls in*

Person: This is shocking!

Janelle: What do we do?

--Next Chapter--

Janelle: I'm so screwed.

Person: Here's a plan.

--Next Chapter--

Janelle: This so dangerous!

--Next Chapter--

Janelle: I still can't get over that twist.

I admit to some hyperbole, but that's genuinely how the story felt to me. It just kept repeating itself and it was incredibly frustrating to read.

I sound like some kind of hater, but I didn't hate this book. I think you can actually attribute my anger to the story itself because I was not at all happy about the ending. Most of my complaints are personal. I personally didn't like where the story was going, and that made me pretty unhappy with the book overall.

I remember near the beginning, except for the overwriting, I didn't think there was anything wrong with the story. I liked Janelle because she is badass and capable. What I didn't like was her moping for Ben.

Ben is pretty much the second issue I had with Unbreakable. There's nothing wrong with him, except that I have no interest in him. I was pretty impressed with Janelle and her thoughts on Ben at some point, but then she changed completely and so many of the issues she had before were overlooked. I didn't believe in their romance and I did not like how Janelle would pine for Ben.

The romance was a complete miss, and I continued the story despite it because there was another character I really liked. Taylor Barclay was awesome. He was badass and brave and capable and I thought he was the real star of Unbreakable. Don't worry, there's no love triangle, but I enjoyed his interactions with Janelle a lot. I felt that near the end of the book, Barclay was much less prominent in the story, and that pretty much coincided with my declining enjoyment of Unbreakable.

The other characters were decent, but they didn't play as big a role as Ben, Janelle or Barclay.

The plot would have been much more exciting if it didn't move along at a snail's pace because of the writing. The idea behind the story is very cool, and I wish Janelle kicking butt and making a difference was the bigger storyline than the romance.

I think I'm pretty much done with this series because it didn't really go the way I wanted it to. I'm giving Unbreakable a very emotional, subjective 1 star.

-P.E.