Spooky Shorts: Envy by Elizabeth Miles and Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan.

Product details:
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Books.
Hardcover, 320 pages.
Release date: August 30th 2012.
Rating: 3½ out of 5.
Ages: 14+
Source: Received from publisher for review.

Spring is here, and the ice is slowly melting in Ascension…revealing the secrets buried beneath.

The Furies are back, and Emily Winters is about to discover that their roots in Ascension are deeper than she ever imagined. With the help of her new friend Drea, she vows to take them down. But it's hard to focus when she's desperate to make up with JD, and to figure out why Crow, a mysterious Ascension High dropout, seems to be shadowing her.

Meanwhile, new girl Skylar McVoy is determined to leave her own dark past behind. So she's thrilled when not only does popular Gabby takes her under her wing, but the stunning and sophisticated Meg offers to give her a major makeover. But everyone knows what happens to the vainest girl of all…

It's tempting to be naughty. But beware: the Furies are always watching, and their power grows stronger by the day.

Vanity comes before a fall…

The Furies return to the small town of Ascension, Maine, in Envy, the second chilling installment of the Fury trilogy by Elizabeth Miles.

Fury introduced us to beautiful but deadly redhead Ty who wreaked revenge left, right and center on the misbehaving teens of Ascension. However, new girl Skylar is sure that nobody has the dirt on her.  Her dark secret is buried away so deep down inside that nobody will ever find it.  But, then, she hasn’t met the Furies.  All Skylar wants is to be the most beautiful and most popular girl in school.  Currently that title belongs to sweet-natured Gabby, who is everyone’s friend.  But with Meg’s help, Skylar is all set to topple her from her throne.

Of course, Meg’s help comes with a price…

Meanwhile, Emily Winters, who made a pact with the Furies in order to save the life of her friend JD, is determined to rid the town of these harbingers of revenge forever.  With the help of her new friend Drea and a bad boy misfit named Crow, Emily schemes to uncover the secrets of the Furies.  But along with her relationship issues –JD is no longer talking her her and Crow wants to do a whole lot more than just talk to her – Emily is undergoing a strange transformation that may just change her life forever.

A little predictable in places, and less of a page-turner than its predecessor, Envy is nonetheless an enjoyable read that left me wanting more.  I’ll be sticking around to find out what the Furies have in store for their next unfortunate victims when the third and final book in the series, Eternity, releases in 2013.

Product details:

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Books.

Paperback, 384 pages.

Release date: September 13th 2012.

Rating: 2½ out of 5.

Ages: 12+

Source: Received from publisher for review.

Kami Glass is in love with someone she's never met - a boy the rest of the world is convinced is imaginary. This has made her an outsider in the sleepy English town of Sorry-in-the-Vale, but she doesn't complain. She runs the school newspaper and keeps to herself for the most part - until disturbing events begin to happen. There has been screaming in the woods and the dark, abandoned manor on the hill overlooking the town has lit up for the first time in 10 years. The Lynburn family, who ruled the town a generation ago and who all left without warning, have returned. As Kami starts to investigate for the paper, she finds out that the town she has loved all her life is hiding a multitude of secrets- and a murderer- and the key to it all just might be the boy in her head. The boy who everyone thought was imaginary may be real...and he may be dangerous.

 

Kami Glass wants to be an investigative reporter.  Only problem is, she lives in the sleepy little town of Sorry-in-the-Vale where nothing ever happens.  If it wasn’t for Jared, the imaginary friend, who has always lived in her head, life would be boring.  Then one day, the mysterious Lynburn family returns to Sorry-in-the-Vale after a long absence.  Suddenly life isn’t so boring in the Vale anymore. As for that imaginary boy of Kami’s? Turns out he may not be so imaginary after all.

I’ll say it straight away.  Unspoken was my kind of book. Yes, I liked the premise, and yes Unspoken had a lot of potential, but this book all round didn’t work for me. I found the pacing slow, I found that the big reveal didn’t come soon enough, I found that the romance, such as it was, just wasn’t enough, and as for Kami, well, I’ll get to her later.  I think Unspoken is a book that will divide readers in a love and hate kind of way. Literary marmite, if you will.  There are those who will love the book for its offbeat humour and idiosyncratic cast of characters, and then there are those, like me who might just wonder if they’ve read the same book that everyone seems to be raving about.

Sometimes if I’m not really feeling a book I can still find something to love about it.  Usually that’s where characterization kicks in, but oh, Kami, you and I just didn’t click at all. In fact, I didn’t connect with any of the characters in this book.  For me, the teenagers in this book were a little too smart and all-knowing to the point where they just weren’t believable.  Kami herself is wise beyond her years and speaks in a stream of witty repartee, which often dominates this book to the detriment of plot and pace, resulting in a long-winded storyline that takes forever to get where it’s going.

Unfortunately, despite the fact that it seems to be a big hit amongst my fellow bloggers, Unspoken gets the thumbs down from me.