Review: Unspeakable by Abbie Rushton

Megan doesn't speak. She hasn't spoken in months.

Pushing away the people she cares about is just a small price to pay. Because there are things locked inside Megan's head - things that are screaming to be heard - that she cannot, must not, let out.

Then Jasmine starts at school: bubbly, beautiful, talkative Jasmine. And for reasons Megan can't quite understand, life starts to look a bit brighter.

Megan would love to speak again, and it seems like Jasmine might be the answer. But if she finds her voice, will she lose everything else?

My Review: 5 Stars

This book was so good and so compelling that once I got into it, I really couldn't put it down until I reached the end and could get all the answers and make sure everyone was okay.  I read this within one day, and loved it so much.  The characters, the relationships, the mystery - everything was just perfect.

Megan is an interesting character, especially since she doesn't speak.  It is cool to get to read the book from her perspective, since I could see when she wanted to speak, but couldn't make the words leave her mouth.  And she really censored what she did and didn't say, since to really say something, she had to write it on a piece of paper, which took more time.  We don't immediately know why she doesn't speak, though it's clear that she must have faced some kind of trauma.  Over the course of the book, the mystery behind when she stopped speaking slowly unraveled.

There is a romance in the book, that started as a great friendship.  I would have been happy with it even remaining solely in friendship territory, but I was happy with it becoming a romance too.  At the beginning of the book, Jasmine moves to the school during the middle of the school year.  Pretty quickly, she befriends Megan.  She is a great friend to her, always being there for her, and never trying to push her to speak.  She accepts Megan's lack of speaking for what it is.  Megan is there for Jasmine too, when people send her threatening notes and bully her.  During this amazing friendship, Megan slowly discovers she has feelings for Jasmine, and eventually it becomes clear that they are mutual.  The romance between the two is super cute and adorable.

If you like YA contemporary, read this book.

Katie