Unforgotten

Unforgotten

By Jessica Brody

Published on February 25th 2014
Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Source: Netgalley

Some memories are better left forgotten...

After a daring escape from the scientists at Diotech who created her, Seraphina believes she is finally safe from the horrors of her past. But new threats await Sera and her boyfriend, Zen, at every turn as Zen falls prey to a mysterious illness and Sera’s extraordinary abilities make it more and more difficult to stay hidden. Meanwhile, Diotech has developed a dangerous new weapon designed to apprehend her. A weapon that even Sera will be powerless to stop. Her only hope of saving Zen’s life and defeating the company that made her is a secret buried deep within her mind. A secret that Diotech will kill to protect. And it won’t stay forgotten for long.

Packed with mystery, suspense, and romance, this riveting second installment of Jessica Brody’s Unremembered trilogy delivers more heart-pounding action as loyalties are tested, love becomes a weapon, and no one’s memories are safe.

So I was kind of meh about Unremembered, the first book in this series, when I read it last year.  I liked it but didn't love it, but I was intrigued enough to want to continue with the series.  If it's been a while since you read Unremembered, the book does a fairly good job at throwing in reminders about what happened previously, although it would never hurt to at least skim the previous book before moving on to this one.

I ended up enjoying Unforgotten way more than the previous book.  I'm guessing this is because most of the initial worldbuilding was out of the way and the major characters were already established.  This one struck a good balance between action scenes and quieter moments, and probably tipped towards more action and less exposition.

I still don't necessarily love Sera and Zen as a couple, because I still feel like they're two people who we were told were in love, but we never really saw it.  I just don't feel the chemistry between them, but ultimately their relationship isn't what drew me into the book, anyway.  I like his devotion to her, though, and wish we could have seen more of that firsthand rather than being told about it.  Regardless, Zen's illness takes him out of the picture for a good chunk of the story, and Sera has to carry it mostly on her own.  Things get interesting as she starts to unravel the many secrets of her existence and why Diotech is chasing after her this time.  There's a new character who is introduced as an antagonist to Sera, who for many reasons will remind you a lot of how Sera was at the beginning of the first book, and it's interesting to see them play off of each other.

I do like that we were given a lot of answers in this book.  Sci-fi type series can often draw things out for too long, leaving you unsatisfied with all the loose ends from book to book, but here, we've already started to learn the truth about Sera's origins, how she wound up in the year 2013, etc.  It was a good move to start handing out more answers, even while creating more questions to be resolved in the trilogy's final installment.

While there were some aspects I found predictable -- and a few guesses I've made for the next book already -- overall I was really satisfied.  Unforgotten answers many questions that you were left with from the first book, brings back some old characters, and raises the stakes for the third book.  Unforgotten is a quick, easy read, thanks to Brody's brisk writing style, so it shouldn't take too much of your time.