Book Review - Unspeakable

Unspeakable
Author: Abbie Rushton
Standalone
Genres: Contemporary, GLBT | Young Adult
Release Date: February 5th 2015
Publishers: Atom
No. Pages: 368
Source: Review Copy - Atom
Rating:
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Megan doesn't speak. She hasn't spoken in months.

Pushing away the people she cares about is just a small price to pay. Because there are things locked inside Megan's head - things that are screaming to be heard - that she cannot, must not, let out.

Then Jasmine starts at school: bubbly, beautiful, talkative Jasmine. And for reasons Megan can't quite understand, life starts to look a bit brighter.

Megan would love to speak again, and it seems like Jasmine might be the answer. But if she finds her voice, will she lose everything else?

So firstly I would like to start off by saying that for those of you who didn't know, at the start of January (as in the 1st) I managed to crack my Kindle screen not long after being up. As you can imagine this wasn't the best of ways to start off the year, especially since I had a lot of eARC'S already saved to it that I needed to get through. Cue me panicking about how I was going to read them as me and my partner use Linux, which is harder to get Adobe on. Anyway I emailed the publishers of certain books to explain that I wouldn't be able to read the book unfortunately, and Atom were lovely enough to send me through a finished copy of Unspeakable, which I was very pleased about because I was really looking forward to the book. I'm so glad to say that it turned out to be a really good book too so it was worth the wait. Another thing you should know is I was only talking to Amanda a while ago about the lack of GLBT young adult books set from a lesbian or bisexual girls point of view. (I have read a few, but if there is any I should get my hands on then feel free to let me know). When I heard bout this book it was on my list, but it wasn't until that little talk with Amanda did I realise just how anticipated and well needed this book could be to the genre.

Right from the start we are faced with Megan's inability to talk, how it's got so bad that when faced with trying to save a dog, she almost drowns herself because she can't call for help. We are also shown very early on how others at school shun her because of her muteness, they don't understand or try to, instead they either make fun of her or just plan ignore her. Megan's only friend is Luke, a boy who in Megan's personal opinion could hang out with the popular kids, that is until the new girl Jasmine decided to sit next to her on the bus to school. She isn't like the other kids, she doesn't know anything about the mute girl or her reason's behind it, she doesn't know what she's been through, but oddly enough she doesn't seem to mind or think she's weird because of it. Jasmine seems to like her against all odds and after a while they begin spending more and more time together, and for a while Megan is feeling happy again for the first time in 9 months, sadly it doesn't last long and she finds herself having to face up to the reason for her silence.

Though I wouldn't consider this book a thriller or a mystery, things do happen that cause you do speculate everything from why she was silent, what had happened to make her mum so cold towards her, why Jasmine had to leave her old school and what seems to be following her and what really happened 9 months ago between Megan and her friend. As you can tell there is so much going on that you are never left confused or feeling like you are getting a massive amount of filler until it gets to the important stuff. I had ideas, about pretty much everything and even though a lot of them where right, I wouldn't call it predictable.

When it comes to characters we have a lot of variety. We have the mean girl at school called Sadie, who was once friends with Megan, she may say really horrible things to not only Megan and Jasmine but towards the end we not only see a different side to her but realise that maybe she also has a reason why she's be a little harder on everyone over the past year. We have Luke, a nice boy who though he knows it's more hassle than it's worth sometimes, sticks by her. We have Megan's mum who from the start gives off the impression that she can't be bothered to be a mum, I'll be honest and say that from the start I had an instant dislike of her because even though it must be hard and lonely to live with someone who doesn't speak, she shouldn't have took it out on her. However my opinion of her did change as the story went on. There is Jasmine, she's really friendly, pretty and exotic being half Greek, she has the seemly perfect family and admirers left right and centre. And then we have Megan, she is battling with inner demons and a guilty conscious. She's got a temper and soon has strange romantic feelings added on top of everything else.

Overall I liked this book a lot more than I thought I would do. The was plenty of character development from everyone, Abbie Rushton managed to paint the picture of everything perfectly. The only thing I would say I didn't like about the book was the repetitiveness of Megan's' voice in her head, I get that it was a crucial part to the story but it was slightly annoying at time. Anything I would say I would have liked is if Hana was giving more of a voice that she was, we get to see a bit about her but I think we only scratched the surface and though I do understand that the story is about how others have got on with their life after, I still would have like to know more about her. I also think that in some way it only slightly touched the LGBT subject, but it did it well.