Title: The Unbound
Author: Victoria Schwab
Series: The Archived #2
Genres: Fantasy, YA
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Release: January 6th, 2015
Source: Paperback
Pages: 357
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BLURB: Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books.
Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures that only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive.
Last summer, Mackenzie Bishop, a Keeper tasked with stopping violent Histories from escaping the Archive, almost lost her life to one. Now, as she starts her junior year at Hyde School, she's struggling to get her life back. But moving on isn't easy-not when her dreams are haunted by what happened. She knows the past is past, knows it cannot hurt her, but it feels so real, and when her nightmares begin to creep into her waking hours, she starts to wonder if she's really safe.
Meanwhile, people are vanishing without a trace, and the only thing they seem to have in common is Mackenzie. She's sure the Archive knows more than they are letting on, but before she can prove it, she becomes the prime suspect. And unless Mac can track down the real culprit, she'll lose everything, not only her role as Keeper, but her memories, and even her life. Can Mackenzie untangle the mystery before she herself unravels?
With stunning prose and a captivating mixture of action, romance, and horror, The Unbound delves into a richly imagined world where no choice is easy and love and loss feel like two sides of the same coin.
EXPECTATIONS: I love Victoria and I have yet to find a book I don't like so... expectations through the roof I guess.
THE WORLD: Exactly the same world as in the first book, where there's a parallel universe thingy where the souls of people go when they die called The Library. The concept is that humans are like "books" in the way that when they die all their memories and lives can be stored in a place, and that place is The Library. This parallel world is protected by Keepers and Crew (paired Keepers and a higher rank) and sometimes these memories of people wake up and escape so they have to be hunted down and returned. The Keepers and Crew have a special key to access portals that take you to this world.
CHARACTERS: They're mostly the same as in the first book too. We still have Mackenzie dealing with the aftermaths of the events that happened in the last book and attending a new high-class type of High School, you know, the super expensive and fancy ones. Then we have Wesley (the guyliner lol) who is just as mysterious as always but he's a very good guy. To be honest, he might be even better than Mackenzie who can't seem to even trust herself. We get to meet a few of their classmates... most relevant one? Cassius Arthur Graham who goes by Cash. And then we get a deeper view into some of The Library members like Agatha (the supervisor of Mac's branch), Hale (the director of The Library) and a Crew couple, Eric and Sako.
ROMANCE: It could've turned into a sappy love triangle but the fact that Mac is not very interested in the dating part saved the whole thing. I'm glad because I hate triangles.
GOOD: Here's the thing, it wasn't what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be similar to the first book but this book has a different approach and a different pace. The first book was more action-driven while this one plays more with the psychological aspect. Because of this, the book as a strange pace... sometimes very slow and suddenly fast, then slow then fast. You know what I mean? The fastest pace and the most action happens at the end of the book. It's not a bad ending. Open... so I guess Victoria will write at least another book. I can't wait!
BAD: I didn't think this change of focus in the book was bad or anything. It was unexpected but I did enjoy reading the book. It was easy to read even with the pace changes. I just wish we could've gotten a bit more background and depth into some characters like Wesley and Roland... I guess that will come at the very end of the series? I hope so.
OVERALL: 5 stars and recommended. My strike of "perfects" for Victoria's books is still intact. I like this. I very much like this.
What do you think about THE UNBOUND?
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