Unspoken (Lynburn Legacy)

Kami Glass is in love with someone she's never met - a boy the rest of the world is convinced is imaginary. This has made her an outsider in the sleepy English town of Sorry-in-the-Vale, but she doesn't complain. She runs the school newspaper and keeps to herself for the most part - until disturbing events begin to happen. There has been screaming in the woods and the dark, abandoned manor on the hill overlooking the town has lit up for the first time in 10 years. The Lynburn family, who ruled the town a generation ago and who all left without warning, have returned. As Kami starts to investigate for the paper, she finds out that the town she has loved all her life is hiding a multitude of secrets- and a murderer- and the key to it all just might be the boy in her head. The boy who everyone thought was imaginary may be real…and he may be dangerous.

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Exclusive Short Story: The Spring Before I Met YouHolly Black is a best-selling author of contemporary fantasy, including The Spiderwick Chronicles.I had the privilege of reading this story many months ago and swooning over it almost as much as I swooned over Unspoken, the first book of Sarah Rees Brennan's gorgeously crafted modern gothic trilogy. Sarah's writing is incredible in that she is able to write these witty, lush scenes that have you smiling along until suddenly, in a single sentence, she reaches out to break your heart.This story introduces us to one of the main characters of Unspoken, Jared Lynburn. Seeing him as the broken, dangerous, closed-off teenager that he appears to be from the outside allows us to anticipate all of the insight we'll have into his character when we get inside his head--which we will, since he's the heroine's "imaginary friend."I enjoy the contrast of Jared's loneliness in the rough streets of Hunters Point/Bayview in San Francisco and the small, strange English town Jared is headed toward, and the girl he is about to meet. But most of all, in this story, I enjoy Jared himself, a character who is a study in contrasts--pushed to such extremes of despair and fury that he's truly capable of anything and yet capable of vast kindness, gentleness and humor.Download The Spring Before I Met You by Sarah Rees Brennan [PDF]

From School Library Journal

Gr 7 Up-Aspiring journalist Kami lives in Sorry-in-the-Vale, a sleepy little town in the English Cotswolds. The school year's just started and she's already achieved a major coup-after sweet-talking the administration into letting her start a school newspaper, she convinces her best friend, Angela, to partner with her. They promptly set up shop in an empty room, dub the glorified closet "headquarters," and start sniffing out stories. The out-of-the-way arrangement works well. Gorgeous Angela prefers to be away from the ogling eyes of others and Kami, well, Kami has not kept it a secret that she talks to a boy's voice in her head, a fact that doesn't make her the most popular girl in school. When the Lynburns, the "ruling family" in town, return to their home after 17 years away, Kami is able to get to the bottom of the many secrets swirling in the air. And when the boy in her head appears in the flesh, her own story intertwines more and more tightly with those of the Lynburns and of the townfolk. The cover aptly describes Unspoken as a "gothic romance," but it has equal parts fantasy and supernatural rolled in, all emanating from the somewhat mythical forest around the town. While the rush of overly witty, pithy banter rolling from Kami's lips can be a tad much at times, Brennan molds a likable and independent heroine. Most importantly, the cliff-hanger ending and depths left untrolled will keep readers guessing and wishing for book two. Fans of Maggie Stiefvater's "Wolves of Mercy Falls" books (Scholastic) need look no further for their next series.-Jill Heritage Maza, Montclair Kimberley Academy, Montclair, NJα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

a compulsive, rocketing read!” Kelley Armstrong, New York Times bestselling author

“Breathtaking, heartbreaking

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter OneThe First StoryTHE RETURN OF THE LYNBURNSby Kami GlassEvery town in England has a story. One day I am going to find out Sorry-­in-­the-­Vale’s.The closest this reporter has come to getting our town’s scoop is when I asked Mr. Roger Stearn (age seventy-­six but young at heart) to tell me a secret about our town. He confided that he believed the secret to Sorry-­in-­the-­Vale’s high yield of wool was in the sheep feed. I think I may have betrayed some slight disappointment, because he stared at me for a while, said, “Respect the sheep, young lady,” and ended the interview. Which leaves us with a town in the Cotswolds that has a lot of wool and no secrets. Which is plainly ridiculous. Sorry-­in-­the-­Vale’s records date back to the 1400s. Six hundred years do not go by without someone doing something ­nefarious.The Lynburns are the town’s founding family, and we all know what the lords of the manor get up to. Ravishing the peasants, burning their humble cottages. Fox hunting. The list goes on and on.The Lynburns have “dark secret” written all over them. There is even a skipping song about them. Skipping songs may not seem dark to you, but consider “Ring Around the Rosy,” a happy children’s rhyme about the plague. In Sorry-­in-­the-­Vale they sing this song:Forest deep, silent bellsThere’s a secret no one tellsValley quiet, water stillLynburns watching on the hillApples red, corn goldAlmost everyone grows old.The song even talks about secrets.During this dauntless reporter’s lifetime, however, the only Lynburn in Aurimere House was Marigold Lynburn (now deceased). Far be it from me to speak ill of the dead, but it cannot be denied that Mrs. Lynburn was a ferociously private person. To the point of ferociously throwing her walker at certain innocently curious children.Today, after seventeen years in America, Mari­gold Lynburn’s daughters have returned to Sorry-­in-­the-­ Vale. If the family does have any dark secrets, dear readers, you can have faith that I will uncover them.Kami stopped typing and glared at the screen. She wasn’t sure about the tone of her article. A serious journalist should probably not make so many jokes, but whenever Kami sat down to the computer it was as if the jokes were already there, hiding behind the keys, waiting to spring out at her.Kami knew there was a story in the Lynburns. They had gone away before she was born, but all her life she had heard people wishing that someone sick would recover, or a storm would bypass the valley, and in the same breath say, “but the Lynburns are gone.” She had spent the summer since she heard of their return asking questions all over town, and had people instantly hush her as if the Lynburns might be listening. Kami’s own mother cut her off every time, her voice equal parts severe and scared about her dangerously dis­respectful daughter.Kami looked back at the screen. She couldn’t think of a title besides “The Lynburns Return.” She blamed the Lynburns, because their surname rhymed with “return.” She also blamed the kids who were messing around in the woods beyond her garden: tonight they were making a sound that was almost howling. It went on and on, a noise that struck her ears hard and set her temples throbbing.Kami jumped up from her chair and ran out of her bedroom. She thumped down the narrow creaking stairs and out the back door into the silver-­touched square that was her garden at night. The dark curve of the woods held the glittering lights of Sorry-­in-­the-­Vale like a handful of stars in a shadowy palm. On the other end of the woods, high above the town, was Aurimere House, its bell tower a skeletal finger pointing at the sky. Aurimere House, which the Lynburns had built when they founded the town, and where they had lived for generations, the masters of all they surveyed. There was no place in Sorry-­in-­the-­Vale where you could not see the mansion, its windows like watching eyes. Kami always found herself watching it in return.For the first time Kami could remember, every window was lit from within, shining gold.The Lynburns were home at last.The howling reached a pitch that raked up Kami’s spine and sent her running to the garden gate, where she stood with her eyes full of darkness. Then the sound died abruptly. Suddenly there was nothing but the night wind, shushing Kami as if she’d had a bad dream and running cold fingers through her hair. Kami reached out past the boundaries of her own mind and called for comfort.What’s wrong? the voice in Kami’s head asked at once, his concern wrapping around her. She felt warmer instantly, despite the wind.Nothing’s wrong, Kami answered.She felt Jared’s presence slip away from her as she stood in the moonlit garden for another moment, listening to the silence of the woods. Then she went back inside to finish her article. She still hadn’t told Angela about the paper.

About the Author

Sarah Rees Brennan is the New York Times bestselling author of the critically acclaimed Unspoken and The Demon’s Lexicon trilogy. Her most recent book, In Other Lands, was a Hugo Award finalist. She lives in Ireland. Visit her at SarahReesBrennan.com.

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