Review: Unspeakable

Unspeakable
By Abbie Rushton

Published By: Atom
Publication Date: February 5, 2015
Date Read: April 3, 2022
Genre: YA – Contemporary Romance
Source: Bought
Format: Audiobook
Pages: 279

From Goodreads:
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?

Unspeakable is a book that has been on my TBR for a while, but one I didn’t really know much about before finally picking it up. It is completely possible that I knew more about it back when it first released in 2016, but as my memory is absolutely terrible, when I finally picked this one up in early 2022, I couldn’t remember a thing about it. I am so glad I finally picked this one up. This is an enjoyable, emotional tale about a girl who has voluntarily gone mute after a traumatic experience.

I found this book really moving, sad and intriguing all at the same time. It follows Megan, a young girl who feel guilt following the death of her best friend. Due to this she has decided that she is never going to speak again. Unspeakable definitely has a mystery element to it, as you don’t really know what happened to Megan’s best friend until near the end. You hear Megan’s thoughts and guilt over it but you don’t actually know what happened so I enjoyed trying to piece everything together and find out what actually happened.

Unspeakable has a great LGBTQ+ representation. This is definitely a sapphic romance, but one thing I really enjoyed was the fact that both halves of this sapphic pair also had romantic relationships/dates with members of the opposite sex. Both characters are around 15-16 years old, and I loved that the author had them exploring their sexuality. That it wasn’t as black and white as being gay/lesbian or straight. They were discovering and learning more about themselves as they went on and I thought that was quite perfect for that age range. I haven’t come across many books that has done this (this could be because I don’t read a lot of contemporary so don’t come for me if there is actually lots out there), and I think the author did a fantastic representation of young LGBTQ teens.

Unspeakable is an enjoyable read. It was a little predictable. I guessed the ‘twist’ a mile off, but that didn’t take away any of my enjoyment. If you’re planning on giving this one a go and you enjoy audiobooks, I urge you to give the audio edition a listen. The narrator did a phenomenal job of bringing this book to life. I think it’s actually one of my favourite audio editions I’ve listened to. Unspeakable is sad, pensive and tense… but by the end you feel uplifted and hope which I really enjoyed. This isn’t one I would re-read, but I am really glad that I gave it a go.

Follow K-Books on WordPress.com