I love the style of Adrienne Young’s writing but was a little disappointed in the ending of this one

I LOVE Adrienne Young and think she is a brilliant storyteller! Her books are always so immersive and atmospheric - and A Sea of Unspoken Things was no different.

I read this book very quickly, and was driven by solving Johnny's mystery. Even though I went in blind except for knowing this was about twins, I had hoped for more magical realism and more of an on-page twin relationship. I was also a bit disappointed when it turned out to be more of a who-dun-it + a small paranormal element.

Totally recommend for fans of general fiction, but sadly not really my cup of tea!

I have had The Unmaking of June Farrow and Spells for Forgetting on my shelves for a while now and ironically this is the first book I’ve read by Adrienne Young.

As a giant fan of Alice Hoffman, I’m always prepared to jump into a magical or witchy book with full force but the others have sat on my shelves for the perfect “season” and it seems A Sea of Unspoken Things has come at the perfect time and the urge to read the others is strong.

Firstly, the title of this book evokes so much imagery that I went in not knowing anything of the plot but felt prepared to be lead on a beautiful journey. Young blends together the cozy magical atmosphere she is known for with an underlining mystery that will keep you guessing. Young uses the tether that twins can have to put a supernatural twist in this grounded story and it does exactly what it sets off to do.

My one critique is that because the book is so rooted in reality, I wanted the ghost/supernatural aspect to hit a bit harder but that’s also personal preference and not enough to detract from the book overall. A Sea of Unspoken Things is exactly what it sounds like and takes us to the deepest depths of grief, absolution, and love.

Synopsis: A woman investigates her brother's mysterious death while coming to terms with her own haunting past.

Thoughts:
This was an interesting one for me. I was expecting the story to take place by or near the ocean (from the title) and it was deep in the woods. I absolutely adored The Unmaking of June Farrow and Fable so I had high hopes for this one. There were a few things I was confused about. One - this book is categorized as a Fantasy and it is NOT a fantasy. It is a mystery thriller and slightly magical realism. Secondly, it took me a long time to realize that the main character is female. Her name is James, so it really threw me off and probably until about 15-20% of the way through the book I realized that she was a female.

I still love Adrienne Young and need to read the rest of her backlist. This one just didn't do it for me and that's ok!

My rating: 3/5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Delacorte for the free e-copy in exchange for an honest review!

Let me start out by saying that I absolutely love the World of the Narrows series by Adrienne Young, and am very eager to read basically anything she writes. Unfortunately I think her YA novels are a better fit for me than her adult novels.

This is only the second of her adult novels I’ve read (I have not read The Unmaking of June Farrow yet) however there are a LOT of similarities between this book and Spells For Forgetting. I’m sure this will work for many people better than it worked for me. And of course they do each have their own stories, however within 50 pages it just felt so familiar. The main character leaves their small town after the death of a close friend as a teenager, returns after the death of a family member, and is reunited with their first love.

I do understand why the Griffin storyline was included but it felt like the story of what happened was teased for a long time, and by the time it was all revealed I’m not sure if I really felt like it mattered anymore. So much was told about Johnny, who he was and what James knew and didn’t, that it felt like that was ‘revealed’ at a time just to make Johnny seem a certain way and I just didn't love that. It was too much with the timing of everything with Autumn and the implications made towards Johnny with that.

All of that being said, I did think that the way things were resolved was good, and made sense which I appreciated. The last chapter was more of an epilogue than just a final chapter, which is fine, just noting it because I know how some people feel about epilogues.

Thank you to the publisher & NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an advanced copy of this book! I voluntarily read this book, and all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Adrienne Young does it again! I really enjoyed this book from start to finish, so much so that I finished it in one day! I absolutely loved the setting and atmosphere. The moodiness of the forest and nature is so enchanting and Adrienne Young does such a great job of making you feel like you are there. As far as the plot goes, I was making guesses left and right about how it would end. At one point I was convinced everyone was guilty! I thought the last 25% was especially exciting and caught me off guard in the best way. I love when thrillers surprise you while still feeling like the conclusion makes sense. My only gripe was the lack of development between James and Micah reconnecting. I wanted MORE! I wanted to feel them falling back in love but I just didn't totally get that. Overall, a great book with great twists and characters. Will be recommending to friends once this book is released!

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for an ARC of A Sea of Unspoken Things.

I absolutely loved The Unmaking of June Farrow so this was a very highly anticipated read for me...it pains me to say that I liked this, but didn't love it. I kept waiting to find the magic I expected and never really found it. The book was also a very slow burn and I didn't feel like anything happened until around 72%.

All that being said, this was entirely a plot and pacing issue for me. Adrienne Young has the absolute most beautiful, smooth flowing writing and I'm already looking forward to her next release.

3.5 stars

This book surprised me - I literally gasped out loud several times! I’m not usually a fan of thrillers but I couldn’t put this book down. If you liked the general vibes of Spells for Forgetting but loved the gorgeous story telling in The Unmaking of June Farrow, this book is for you!

The first few pages from the book were quick to grab my attention. As someone who struggles sometimes to get into a book in the first chapter, I really liked how Adrienne began. The story begins with the main character, James, returning to her hometown. Her brother has just died, but she believes there’s more than it only being an accident.

Right away the author shows us exactly where the story takes place. I love Adrienne’s descriptions because I know where I am, and I can mentally see the nature surrounding the main character. Her words express how James is feeling about the sudden loss of her twin. I felt her grief and the way she’s maneuvering the town that she hasn’t visited in twenty years, which come from different reasons.

I enjoyed all the guessing and wondering what the truth is. I felt like I pinpointed certain characters from the beginning, but I was only to guess one correct. I think the only reason I’m taking away a star is because of James and Micah. I loved them in the end, but I wanted more story for them. I think I wanted more from their relationship and why they were still into each other. I understand they’re each other’s first love, but many years have passed, and no other event has happened between them. I also wished he had more dialogue in there.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group.

James comes back to Six Rivers (think Virgin River, but much darker), after the unthinkable happens - her twin brother Johnny dies from a gunshot wound, from a hunter's accidental gun. Or is that really what happened?

James can feel the movements from her twin, even when they're not together. Coming back to this sleepy Northern California town, where she quickly left after another tragedy happened before leaving for college. James faces the inevitable old friends, lovers, and a town full of people who don't like the fact that she just left.

The first half of this book is about discovering who was Johnny? Who are these other intricate characters that may know what happened to him? What does it feel like to lose the only family left behind? What kind of secrets remained buried and how do you recover from tragedy?
The second half turned into a murder mystery, one that will leave you guessing until the very end.

This is my first Adrienne Young novel, and surely not my last. Though the book can easily be ready in one day, it carries so much emotion and intrigue, it almost reads as a much longer book. Six Rivers is a dark and moody small town, and leaves you feeling uncomfortable until the very last page. Though sometimes home can be like that - you don't appreciate what it truly is until you realize you should never have left.

I loved the first book, The Unmaking of June Farrow, from the author and was eagerly looking forward to this one. As always, the author manages to weave an intricate story with the sense of time and place. It is always a joy to read such well built storylines. Looking forward to future works from the author

This was ⭐️⭐️⭐️ read for me! (and believe me I am being generous) I honestly had a big expectation because I have heard such an incredible things about author and her books. So when I saw this book on NetGalley I thought why not request it and read it. Well I did and it was disappointing.

“We were made in the dark but we’d found a way to create our own kind of light”

I was provided eARC by publisher through NetGalley and this is purely my own opinion.

This was outside of my preferred genre which is fantasy but I was excited to read magical realism, atmospheric mystery and thriller, but the story took so long to form and story was just little exciting after 70% mark. So I literally pushed myself to read and finish it.

I actually like so much the fact that dead twin brother is photographer and the twin sister protagonist is a painter. Because I am a film photographer and abstract artist. So the inner throughs of protagonist around being artist was relatable. I also love the part of behind the scene of film photography which was beautifully described.

This quote how I exactly feel about my photography journey “the camera had been the eye through which Johnny saw the world. A window, where he could watch from a safe distance” it felt so personal and resonant for me. This was my favorite part about storyline.

Twins having supernatural bonds and it got activated more through the death of twin brother and James our protagonist is coming back her hometown after 20 years later but the life she left behind was still there and alive. So she was figuring out her brother Johnny’s death meanwhile facing her past and whatever she left behind.

The story had so much potential but it was flat and unsatisfying. I didn’t like it has lose ends when author mentioned so many times then we didn’t get any consequences. ( I am talking about Ben). I also found the romance flat and uninteresting. Lastly, nowhere in hell James is 37 years old woman she acted like in her mid 20s.

I wanna finish my review the quote from book which fits so well with my review 😌 “wishing things were different only drove deeper how unfair it was they weren’t” (exactly my thoughts about this book 🤷🏻‍♀️)

Thanks to NetGalley & Random House Publishing Group for providing me with a digital review copy of this fast-paced, mystery-laced fiction. True to Adrienne Young’s style, this novel was infused with intense family dynamics, gentle romance, and supernatural elements. I yearned for more, however, and was left feeling a little deflated by this much anticipated novel. The things I typically enjoy about her books were tampered down some, which was unfortunate. I felt the twists at the end could have used more umph, more drama; they were enjoyable—one was not predictable, but I wished there had been more explanation, more said about it. The ending felt stunted because of this.

Overall, I can see fans of Adrienne Young’s enjoying this and I will continue to read what she puts out in the future!

Wow, what a powerful book. I love how Adrienne Young can create such atmospheric novels with a sense of time and place. She infuses the setting with an almost supernatural quality. I also appreciated the nuances of a complex brother/sister relationship interwoven throughout a mystery. I didn’t want to put this book down and felt sad when it was over.

After realizing her brother was shot his twin sister James heads back to the remote area of Six Rivers CA to tie up lose ends and send out the remainder of the photography conservation project he was working on. Upon returning memories begin to flood back about their troubled youth and her twin connection seeing her brother and his life she begins to realize she didn’t know him as well as she thought. A small departure from her previous two books this book still felt like them even being darker and as always I stayed up until I finished it. Well done I will always blindly read Adrienne Young 5⭐️

Holy shiznit! If only this was going to be released in October because this gave me all the fall feels! After reading this and The Unmaking of June Farrow, I can confidently say Adrienne Young is now one of my favorite authors!

Johnny and James Golden are twins and seem to have a sort of supernatural connection bonding them together. Because of this connection, James actually feels her brother being shot and killed before she is even called by the police. She decides almost immediately to return home to investigate what actually happened to her brother and, along the way, has to confront her own past.

This is an easy top 5 book of the year for me, 5 out of 5 stars! 🌟

This was short, and wrapped up well, but up until the last fourth or so it felt like a half-formed thought of a novel. I really loved <i>The Unmaking of June Farrow</i> and was so excited to receive an early copy of this! It just didn't quite hit the mark for me, but I'll absolutely read more of Adrienne's work. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me an early copy!

This book was amazing! I love all of Adrienne young. And I was so happy to get to read this book! The story was so beautifully written and I could not put it down!

This was my first by the author, even though her books are on my TBR, I just haven't got around to reading one yet. I went in completely blind, so I really had no clue what to expect. It started out slow but did start to pick up in the last half. I read it in a day and really enjoyed the ghost?/twin connection and the murder mystery kept me engaged. I thought I knew what was going to happen but it did take a twist I didn't expect. It was beautifully written and I quite enjoyed the second chance romance that was sprinkled in. The ending felt a little bit rushed to me but overall I enjoyed this one and look forward to reading her other books soon!

Thank you to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

When I saw this book I just saw Adrienne Young and knew I had to read it.

It did not disappoint, I really enjoyed the connection the FMC had with her brother even though she doubts him.

Love that Romance wasn't the main idea but enjoyed the little bit we got.

The book kept changing my mind about what had happened as I kept reading.

Another fantastic read from Adrienne, thanks Netgalley for the Opportunity to ARC read.