Review: Unbreakable by Kami Garcia

Title: Unbreakable (Legion #1)
Author: Kami Garcia
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal Fantasy
Release Date: October 10, 2013 (Aus); October 1, 2013 (US)
Source: Simon & Schuster Australia. Thank you!
Goodreads | The Reading Room

Kennedy Waters didn't believe in ghosts, until one tried to kill her.

When Kennedy finds her mother dead, her world begins to unravel. She doesn't know that evil forces in a much darker world are the ones pulling the strings. Not until identical twins Jared and Lukas Lockhart break into her house 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.

Review by Nara

I fell asleep thinking about her. Wondering what it would be like to have wings if you were too scared to fly.

Not that I've really read any reviews of this book, but I have heard that a lot of people compared this book to Supernatural, saying that the story is much too close. I actually haven't watched Supernatural before, so I can't really comment, but the idea of a group of people hunting down ghosts certainly isn't particularly original. So, I don't know about everyone else, but I didn't go into this story looking for something fresh- I basically went into it looking for action and entertainment. And I'm pretty happy, because that's exactly what I got.

I have to admit, the book was a bit infodumpy at the start, but once all the rules of the Legion were sorted out, the pace was smoothed out nicely. Also, the way that the ghosts were introduced was ridiculous. The book starts off with a cliched "oh, hey it's a person in a nightgown in a graveyard! Oh, wait...THEY'RE FLOATING. But no, it's definitely not a ghost. How could it be a ghost!". All right, Phase One: Denial. And might I also add that the name of the "vengeful demon" is Andras. Andras doesn't sound like the name of a demon. It sounds like the name of a backpacker from Europe.

The relationship Kennedy had with her mother was quite sweet at the start of the book (before the mum gets murdered, of course). I think I would have liked to see a bit more of this normality before the murder actually happened. It was a bit too sudden- there wasn't really enough time to appreciate the role the mum plays and fully gauge how close the two were. So when the murder occurred, it didn't really evoke much emotion in me- I wasn't particularly sad or anything, simply because it all happened too quickly.

And Kennedy's best friend Elle accepted the truth waaay to easily. I mean, even if one of my friends disappeared suddenly after her mum was murdered and her house totally trashed, I sure as heck wouldn't believe her if she told me that ghosts were responsible for it all. And Elle's explanation for the acceptance was that she'd seen "Paranormal Encounters". Yeah, real.

When the twins first appear my thoughts were 1. SAHWOON! Because, twins. 2. This better not turn into some crappy love triangle with both of them liking the protagonist...And unfortunately, my prayers were not answered because FREAKING LOVE TRIANGLE! And it's a seriously annoying and superficial one- it gets to the point where the twins are practically fighting each other over her. STAHP IT. For some reason, it's even more annoying because they're twins.

Also, random, but this line made me laugh:

"How long have you been out here?" 

..."A while."

Dude, this ain't Twilight.

Despite the seeming negativity of my review, I actually really enjoyed reading Unbreakable. It seems I was just really in the mood for some old fashioned ghost killing (well, not really killing...ghost destroying?) It's full of action and adventure, and it's, as I said, just really entertaining. Certainly entertaining enough to overlook a few flaws.

Liked it

Ratings
Overall: 8/10
Plot: 4/5
Writing: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
Cover: 3/5