Jan
10
2014

ARC-REVIEW: Unbreakable (The Legion #1) by Kami Garcia

Title: Unbreakable
Series: The Legion #1
Author: Kami Garcia
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Release Date: October 1st 2013
Pages: Hardcover, 320 pages
Source: ARC from BEA

Summary from Goodreads:
Supernatural meets The Da Vinci Code in this action-packed paranormal thriller, the first book in a new series from New York Times bestselling author Kami Garcia.

I never believed in ghosts. Until one tried to kill me.

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

Suspense, romance, and the paranormal meet in this chilling urban fantasy, the first book in a new series from Kami Garcia, bestselling coauthor of the Beautiful Creatures novels.


  • Unbreakable was a pretty fast read, there is a whole lot going on.  The chapters were suspenseful and full of action.  
  • Legion.  The entire premise was interesting and enjoyable.  As mentioned above, you can see the parallels to the Da Vinci Code like plot.  While I did enjoy the similarities I felt it was still lacking in development.  

  • Unbreakable was a little bit out there.  I can accept supernatural books and even would consider it one of my favorite genres but I like it to be well done.  The execution of the plot was weak and I felt like the supernatural elements lacked substance.    
  • The romance felt forced and unnecessary.  
  • Lastly, I felt that the story line was rather forced.  The drama/main focus in the story was a stretch.  Now I am not a huge mythology person so it may in fact be following the actual myth but Awaken just seemed to be a book there to simply end the character's story.  
  • The characters had a young and sometimes immature voice that I just could not overlook.  It just dragged my opinion of them down and made it hard to truly root for the characters. 

Unbreakable was a blend of crazy spirit/ghost hunters and secret societies. Parts reminded me of Tomb Raider.  The whole idea is definitely intriguing but I felt the characters were mediocre and the romance and supernatural aspects were lacking.
  

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Comments (5)

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So basically, great idea but poor execution? Honestly, I sort of felt that way about Beautiful Creatures. I mean, I liked it well enough but it didn't blow me away either. Sounds like this is another one of those books. Sorry to hear it wasn't quite so up to par!
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I like this book a lot, haha. But at the same time, I rarely read anything paranormal or supernatural and for me this felt like a nice easy adventure into the genre. I'm pretty sure that's the only thing that saved me from disliking this book.
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I liked the creepy bits (like with the well), totally freaked me out. But, I didn't like anything much else a whole lot. Like you said, the romance seemed forced and the "triangle"? Ugh. I didn't connected to any of them, and to be honest I didn't really care about them either. It was fast paced, but because of the shortness of it, everything definitely felt too soon, too quick without any progression. I was so excited for it as well, one of my most disappointments of last year.
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I didn't love Unbreakable like I thought I would, but I did very much enjoy it. I think it was a good start to a series that has a lot of potential. The characters are well-drawn, and with a little bit of tweaking, I think they could all be pretty great. The plot is interesting, but does need a bit more development. And I was really wanting a super scary story, but this didn't deliver that. There were some semi-spooky parts, but I want some full blown scares in the next story. Which I will definitely be reading!
Pam@YA Escape's avatar

Pam@YA Escape · 585 weeks ago

Too bad you didn't like it that much, I actually really enjoyed it. But I do agree about the romance, it was forced and fast and really unnecessary. But I loved the group of teenagers (although I wish there had been more character development) and I was definitely entertained throughout the whole book.
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