A Sea of Unspoken Things is a story about love, grief, family, and friendship. James learns of her twin brother Johnny's death, which forces her to return to her hometown, Six Rivers—a place she has avoided for 20 years. Upon her return, she discovers that Johnny's death may not have been an accident but possibly a murder.

This book left me with a whirlwind of emotions. I felt giddy and happy for James, yet confused and full of unanswered questions. I craved closure, which the story didn’t fully provide. The fast-paced nature of the book made me wish it had been longer—I would have devoured every bit of an expanded version.

What earned this book 4 stars from me was its captivating blend of thriller, mystery, horror, and romance. However, the mystery remained unresolved, leaving me hoping for a sequel. I believe the characters and their stories need the closure they deserve.

Overall, this book evoked powerful emotions that I’m still trying to process. I loved it, yet it left me questioning my sanity. It felt like pieces of a puzzle were missing, and I’m eagerly hoping for a sequel to solve it all.

A huge thanks to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, and Delacorte Press for giving me the chance to read this incredible story of James, Johnny, and Micah.

✨WHAT I LIKED:
📌 The friendship between Johnny, James, and Micah was heartwarming.
📌 Micah is the epitome of a true friend.
📌 Although it’s a thriller/mystery, I couldn’t help but get giddy about the chemistry between Micah and James—it’s absolutely overflowing!

✨TROPES:
📌 Slow - Burn Romance
📌 Love Triangle
📌 Sibling Bond
📌 Found Family/Friendship
📌 Grief and Loss
📌 A Subtle Hint of Spice

🖥️ GOODREADS REVIEW: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7161050338

💻 BLOG REVIEW: https://kimthebookdragon.com/2025/01/03/arc-review-a-sea-of-unspoken-things/

LINKEDIN REVIEW: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kinanahmanalao_arc-review-a-sea-of-unspokenthings-activity-7280703406032220163-3iWP?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Oh my gosh Adrienne Young does it again with a brilliantly atmospheric story that will captivate you and have you hooked from the first few chapters!

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Ballantine for sharing this ARC!

After adoring The Unmaking of June Farrow last year, I was so excited to receive an advance copy of A Sea of Unspoken Things. Adrienne Young is an excellent atmospheric writer. Her books are all vibes all the time, and this one is no exception. The mysterious and supernatural premise of this book was incredibly intriguing and for about 60% of the book I was on pins and needles with anticipation on how everything would resolve. Unfortunately, there were too many twists and turns that didn't make sense, and one major piece of the mystery is so unrealistic that I can't believe it didn't get edited. The writing is still enjoyable, so if you loved June Farrow and enjoy atmospheric stories, give this one a try.

what a beautiful slow burn mystery of a women coming back home to find her twin brother. adrienne always writes with a touch of magical realism thats leaves you breath taken. this is one to keep you hooked with paranormal and romantic themes throughout. big thanks to penguin random house for the arc and netgalley as always!
A Sea of Unspoken Things by Adrienne Young will be available on January 7.

Through her words, Adrienne paints a world of a small, rural town tucked in a forest of secrets and mystery. James loves her twin brother Johnny and often feels his presence in the world until he is killed. James returns home to a tight knit community where she grew up to search for the clues and answers to Johnny’s untimely death. Past friendships, relationships and secrets resurface, hooking a reader into story where they do not want to put down the book. How far will a sister’s love go? In just under 300 pages, this is a perfect, quick read.

This book just wasn’t for me, unfortunately. The plot felt very forced and I was having a hard time feeling like I could really care about our main character and her role in this story.

That said, I do believe the author did a great job portraying the depths and complexities of grief, so I appreciated that angle quite a bit!

After the sudden death of her twin brother, an artist returns home to the Pacific Northwest to wrap up his affairs. She begins a journey to solve the mystery of his death and how it could possibly be tied to a young photographer.
The pacing of the plot was a bit slow but picked up at about the 60% mark. Lots of descriptive passages with little dialogue in the first half of the book. The book felt dark throughout.

This book follows the same kind of vibes as Adrienne Young's prior two adult books, so if you liked those you'll like this one. I think this one may be the one that sticks with me the least of the three, but that does not mean it's not good. I did read the majority of it in one sitting, because once you get going you CANNOT STOP.

A Sea of Unspoken Things follows James, an artist in San Francisco, as she goes back to her small town in northern California to deal with the aftermath of her twin brother's accidental death - or at least that's what she's told. She has a sneaking feeling that something is off about his death, and she is trying to learn more about the life her brother was leading before he died. This book deals with grief in a beautiful way. particularly when you are mourning someone who was not quite the perfect person everyone seems to become once their obituary is written. Young does a great job of giving you little crumbs of the characters' history to keep you intrigued but out of the know, and it really gets you hooked. However, I do think we could have used a bit more in James' relationships with the people from her home town, to make them feel a bit more life like.

I really enjoyed this book, and I think readers of Young's past work will enjoy it as well!

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.5🌟s rounded down!

I have enjoyed everything I’ve read by Adrienne Young and this one was no different 🙂‍↕️

This was so perfectly atmospheric and Young’s prose is just incredible!! You get a lot of small town mystery with a little romance and a little subtle magical realism thrown in there as well. I was engaged from the start and could have easily binged this if I had the opportunity.

I loved the setting, the characters, the twists, and of course the writing. I truly never knew where this was going even when I thought I did. And the way everything ends up connecting in the end — incredible!!

This is less magical than her other adult books, which I think is important to know before going in. However, that didn’t bother me one bit because I still ate this book up!!

Adrienne Young has become one of my favorite authors. Maybe of all time. She has a way of bringing her novels to life. It’s hard NOT to have a strong emotional response to her stories.

I had tears streaming down my face and I don’t even have a twin?

I thought this was erie and absolutely brilliant. I could feel the red wood woods alive and could feel her deceased brother over my shoulder. Her writing is just storytelling at its finest. Stories brought to life and makes you so invested, it’s hard to come back to reality. The ending had my mouth on the floor. I never in my whole life would’ve guessed the plot twist. So beautifully done. Makes me teary thinking about it, even weeks later.

Isn’t that the kind of story we all want to get wrapped up in? One that makes us mourn siblings we’ve never had. A love we never lost. And a place we’ve never been. This book is exactly why I read.

I loved the setting of this book and felt like I was really there: the forest, in Six Rivers. Great descriptive writing. Unfortunately though this story fell a little flat. Was not emotionally invested. Could not connect with James. The first half was a little slow with most of the action towards the end.

I love Adrienne Youngs writing style and how she develops stories and characters. James returns home to try and make sense of her twin brothers death. Everyone is writing it off as an accident and she just doesn't believe it. There was some suspense more of a mystery and family drama along with some of the magical realism she usually writes about though less in this book than her others. I think this may be my favorite book from this author though I'm really not sure why just a well written story. I want to thank NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

⭐️ 4/5

Quick synopsis: James travels back to her rural hometown to investigate her brother Johnny’s mysterious death, which is claimed to be a hunting accident. She starts to unravel clues as she confronts her past, grief, and the truth about who her brother actually was.

I liked this book. I thought it was a “quiet” thriller, if that makes sense. It’s slow moving even though it’s a shorter book, lots of beautiful writing and descriptions of nature, her connection with her brother and the world around them. The ending was unexpected to some extent and made sense.

I would recommend this to others if you’re looking for a slow burn, yet short, thriller and family drama.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the advance reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.

I read The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young a couple of months ago and absolutely LOVED it, so I was super excited about this book! Adrienne’s writing is truly some of the most gorgeous, evocative, & atmospheric prose out there. It’s a joy to read her books.

The mystery in this book centers around the death of the FMC’s twin brother. Not fully believing it was accidental, she decides to investigate. And there’s a lot packed in here: some magical realism (although it felt incredibly light and a little underdeveloped, to be honest), a mystery that slowly unravels, dual timelines, and even second chance romance.

I actually loved the relationship between James and Micah and found that to be my favorite part. The layers of the mystery were well executed and well written, but felt a little too quickly resolved at the end, making it feel rushed.

The story is a bit slow up to that point, but it’s clear the author is taking her time to show the details of the world she has created, and it’s a beautifully written slow burn. Other than pacing issues, I felt like this was a lovely story with a satisfying conclusion. Do I love it as much as June Farrow? No. But that one is hard to beat. 😉

This was one of my most anticipated releases of 2025 and it is one to read for sure! I really enjoyed it. Also, the cover is just absolutely 😍😍😍

WOW! I was extremely impressed with A Sea of Unspoken Things! This is so different, story wise, from Fable/Namesake and June Farrow, but I was so immersed in the atmospheric feeling that Young created in this book.

James Golden has returned to her small town home in California to settle the affairs of her twin brother, Johnny, following his death. As twins, James and Johnny have always shared a unique connection that can’t quite be explained, and after being away from her hometown for 20 years, she discovers that connection still exits even after Johnny’s death. As she reminisces about her past life in Hawthorne and goes through the remnants of Johnny’s current life, she starts to doubt how well she actually knew her brother and what that means for the choices she made to protect him throughout their lives. Now James feels that Johnny’s death might not have been an accident and she must unravel the mystery of how he died, all while trying to decide if she wants to come back to the place she ran away from or continue the life she’s created for herself in San Francisco.

I loved this book from beginning to end. Young is so descriptive in her writing, and it made me feel like I was actually in the places she was describing. The small town, inside of the National Park, created a great setting for the mystery part of the story. The people in the town know everything about one another and share gossip about one another, but are also very skeptical of new people, so you get that close knit community with a touch of dysfunctional small town vibes.

Young’s writing in this book really grabbed my attention. There is a weighted feeling to the closeness of the National Park, the small town and the secrets that are being kept. It adds a smothering, oppressive, ominous feel to the story and I felt like James was feeling all of those feelings too, as she found out things about her brother, that she had missed out on, over the past several years. I also loved seeing how the connection with Johnny still existed, and brought a touch of the supernatural to the story.

If you have read any other Adrienne Young books, then I would highly recommend A Sea of Unspoken Things. It is beautifully written, and definitely holds its own among her other amazing books.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Delacorte Press and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC copy of A Sea of Unspoken Things, in return for my honest review.

After fleeing her hometown after a tragedy decades ago, only another tragedy would be enough to bring James back to Six Rivers. In the aftermath of her twin brother's death, James returns to put his affairs in order. Her connection to her twin brother is something supernatural that she barely understands. But she knows that the explanation that his death was a hunting accident is not the whole truth. As James discovers more about Johnny's life and all of the unspoken things that he hasn't shared with her, she begins to question if she knew her brother as well as she thought. Determined to prove that Johnny is the man she thought he was, James sets off a chain of events that she could never have predicted.

There is something deeply magical about the way that Adrienne Young writes. Each story has a supernatural element and is based on the idea that we are all connected with nature and one another. A Sea of Unspoken Things is what I would consider a slow burn. There is a ton of exposition in the first half of the book setting things up and then barreling downhill into all of the events and action of the second half. James is an intrepid character and even though she sometimes has her doubts, she trusts her gut about what she knows in her heart about Johnny. I thought all of the action was wrapped up before the last couple of chapters and that I was wrong about my suspicions of a certain character. That twist at the end proved that my gut was also right when it came to this story.

Adrienne Young is so good at creating such a feel with her writing and setting. It is SO atmospheric and I love it. I can feel and visualize the small town and all of the vibes. It was very mysterious, and I was intrigued to know how the ending was going to unfold. It did take a while to get to the end (not in a bad way) but I did think the ending was rushed. And I think the ending was a bit convenient. I still really enjoyed it, and I will always read books by this author! Not that I should compare but I liked it more than Spells for Forgetting but not as much as The Unmaking of June Farrow.

What could we possibly say? I couldn’t even pretend to know how you could take a whole life, a whole person, and put it into words. Goodbye is a lost language. A silent one.

Adrienne Young is quickly becoming one of my “must read” authors. I’ve truly enjoyed both of her books that I’ve read so far and I fully intend to read everything else she has written. In A Sea of Unspoken Things, Young explores the difficult question of how well can we truly know the people we love the most and finding out who we are both with and without them. Young has such a gift for description that I can’t help but feel like I’m actually there, experiencing everything along with the characters. And I loved all of the characters, even the ones we only get to know because of James’s memories. I even enjoyed the characters who turned out to have been murderers, finding them easy to sympathize with. There were so many twists and surprises throughout the story and it had me enthralled all the way through. If you haven’t read any of Young’s books (or even if you have), A Sea of Unspoken Things should definitely be on your TBR.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

TL:DR - this atmospheric mystery set in a northern California forest is slow to begin with, but worth it in the end. 🌁🎨📸🧐🌲🦉

Oh wow. Okay. Where to start with this one? I haven't read any of Young's books before, although <i>The Unmaking of June Farrow</i> has been on my TBR for over a year now. This was highly anticipated though, because I've heard great things.

The book is complicated, and my feelings on it are even more so. About 40% in I was ready to DNF it. The story seemed so meandering and while it was atmospheric and the writing was lovely (lovely!) I just did not CARE what was going on.

James is searching for details about how her twin brother, Johnny, died. Sure, they said it was a hunting accident, but she just doesn't believe that, and the apparition of her brother coming back has convinced her to go back to her hometown and find out what's up.

Sounds super interesting, yea? But James as a character is hard to pinpoint in the beginning, despite her narrating the book, and Johnny is an absolute mess. Some of his characterization was so out-of-pocket in the beginning that I have to wonder if Young really even knew what she wanted from him. It was off-putting, considering this was the main plot point of the book, and combined with the incredibly glacier pace of the plot in the first half, I was about ready to call it quits and be done.

I'm glad I didn't. The second half of this hooked me in and suddenly the plot focused in brilliantly. Do I think it needed to take that long? Absolutely not - especially because the end (last 10%) felt so rushed and weird. I wish this had sped up the first 50% and slowed down the last 10%. But the last half of the book was in fact fascinating and really well done, and I'm glad I stuck it out.

So go into this with an open mind and a willingness to break through what is, for lack of a better word, a slog. If you're the kind of reader who likes atmospheric mysteries (this is a mystery, not a thriller, although I've seen it marketed a few places as a thriller) with a touch of magic realism, and you have got the patience for it, I would definitely recommend it. It is well done, and I did indeed enjoy it from that perspective. However, if you need to have a solid grip on character and plot within the first half of the book, this probably isn't a great choice for you.

Of course I chose one of my most highly-anticipated novels of 2025 for my first review of the year. Sadly, it didn’t come even close to living up to my expectations.

A Sea of Unspoken Things isn’t just a bad book: It’s a boring book. It’s a boring book that constantly put me to sleep and didn’t do anything new for the magical realism/paranormal fiction genre it occupies in the publishing sphere.

Adrienne Young has been a hit or miss author for me in the past. I didn’t like her YA novels but I loved Spells for Forgetting and The Unmaking of June Farrow. I had hoped this book would fall more in line with these latter titles, but I honestly felt like this book looked for its own plot the entire time I was reading it and never settled on one.

I was provided a copy of this title by the author and publisher via Netgalley. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.