Unbreakable
Author: Elizabeth Norris
Series: Unraveling #2
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Science Fiction, Mystery
Release Date: April 23, 2013
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Summary:
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?
In this heart-pounding sequel to Unraveling, author Elizabeth Norris explores the sacrifices we make to save the people we love and the worlds we’ll travel to find them.
First Sentence: Some days are so perfect, they just don’t seem real.
My Review:
Why Elizabeth Norris, why?! When I heard that Unraveling and Unbreakable was a two book series, I was in shock. I thought it would be a trilogy like so many other young adult books out there. I thought that I would have an additional book to read about, obsess over Janelle and Ben together some more, and be able to treasure another book I would be sure to love. I also thought I would have another awesome cover to look at. But I thought wrong.
My biggest worry before starting Unbreakable was the fact that I didn’t remember anything from Unraveling besides Janelle and Ben since I read and bought Unraveling the day it came out a year ago. Thank goodness Amber wrote an excellent recap of Unraveling for everyone to use; otherwise, I would have been totally lost while I was reading Unbreakable thinking, wait, who is this again? and wait what had happened?!
Janelle is as strong as ever. It has been less than a year since everything had happened and she’s surviving, toughing it out, and trying to live on without Ben in her life. I really admire all she goes through; if I was her, I would have broken down, curl into a tight ball, and cry all day, sobbing leave me alone! I don’t want this! But no, Janelle decides to risk her life for her friend and to save other people.
“She’s so tough, it’s frightening. That girl will outlive us all.” (331)
As for Ben, I’m not liking him as much as I did in Unraveling because of the huge mistake he made. (I mean, how could he?! Janelle didn’t make that mistake!) I can’t explain any further or it’ll be a big spoiler to those who have not read Unbreakable yet, but for those of you who’ve read the short novella Undone, you might have a clue about what I’m talking about. Maybe.
It hurts, it makes my body ache, that he didn’t know who I was – or who I wasn’t – but I still love him. More than anything. (334)
I’m afraid that there isn’t much of a mystery going on in Unbreakable. Right from the beginning, I automatically figured out which friend of Janelle’s got kidnapped by the human trafficking ring before I even read the book. (It was fairly obvious.) As for who was behind the human trafficking ring, we readers have no idea who is behind the human trafficking ring since Janelle knows nobody involved, having to relay on Barclay on this mission. That means that there are no little clues where we readers could gather and piece together to figure out who is behind the human trafficking ring before the main character does.
I can not believe that Elizabeth Norris killed off a character I was starting to like. No. No. No. In Unraveling, she broke my heart by killing people off left and right and now she’s doing so again in Unbreakable. I wanted to see that happy ending for that person she killed off! However, I grudgingly do like the fact that Elizabeth Norris isn’t afraid to kill anyone off just because readers won’t like it.
Reading Unbreakable left me with lots of meaningful, and of course, awesome quotes. I’ll love to post a lot of them, but most of them contains spoilers, so I’ll choose one of them that shows one of the major themes in the book, but would not spoil the book for you, if that makes sense.
…because if the good guys are going to cross that line and torture someone, what is it that separates them from the bad guys? (196)
Overall, I am sad to see this series end. This would be the one case that I would not mind if Elizabeth Norris decided to turn the two-book Unraveling series into a trilogy. In fact, I would probably jump up from my chair, cheer in happiness, and dance around the room, all in that order.
And last, but not least, I’m sorry if parts of this review doesn’t make any sense/sounds funny. This is what I get for writing a review so late at night because I’m sleepy.
I just finished this one, too! So glad you enjoyed it!
I know what you mean about Ben’s mistake – Janelle knew right away, so why didn’t he?! I mean, it’s an honest mistake but it still sucked and I was really disappointed in him. And the character that she killed off – that character was my favorite! I seriously bawled when said character died. Like you, I had started liking them and got really attached! Sigh. At least the death was noble…
I really need to read Undone. But I have a crazy aversion to novellas and I’m too cheap to spend money on it right now >.<
Jessi @ Auntie Spinelli Reads recently posted…Follow Friday (59)
I know! I still don’t forgive Ben, it’s like how could you?! If I was Janelle, I would make him grovel FOREVER.
I wanted to cry when that character died, but I was thinking I should have seen this coming, especially with the way Elizabeth Norris had ended Unraveling. It’s like don’t develop any relationship with any of the characters because they will eventually die. ):
I got Undone for free, but I’ve never read it and only peeked at the ending and got confused. After reading Unbreakable, however, I finally got the ending of Undone.
Kelly recently posted…Book Review: Unbreakable – Elizabeth Norris
I should probably get it and read it. At least it would satisfy the hole that the end of Unbreakable left for me…
I hope she writes a new series soon!
Jessi @ Auntie Spinelli Reads recently posted…Nators Discuss! Being the Black Sheep
I decided not to read it because there was no more Alex. He was my favorite!!!
Yeah. ):
But you should be kind of glad to know that Janelle suffers from guilt from what had happened!
Kelly recently posted…Book Review: Unbreakable – Elizabeth Norris
I’m so glad you liked this because I’m pretty excited to get my grubby mitts on a copy of Unbreakable. So excited! And this is really going to be a two-book series? Hmmm. I kind of thought that it would be a trilogy. Oh well. I haven’t read the novella yet but I probably will once I get the book. Great review as always!
The Twins Read recently posted…The Sunday Post #19 + Stacking the Shelves #24
Yes, Unbreakable was so good! There was never a boring moment. :D
I’ve been stalking Elizabeth Norris on twitter and she says there MIGHT be a third book, but it won’t be focused on Janelle and Ben and on other characters instead, which might as well mean that there’s only two books in the series. ):
Thank you! (:
Kelly recently posted…Stacking the Shelves [31]
Sounds like such a good series! I’ve heard really good things about it from book tube:)
It is such an awesome series! I absolutely loved it. :D<3
And I need to stop by book tubers more. :P
Kelly recently posted…Stacking the Shelves [52]