“This review DOES NOT contain spoilers”
With a catchphrase to give you chills like “Onward, if you dare” (which is so awesome and I love it so much), I knew that I really, really wanted to read this one.
I have always loved anything done by Amie Kaufman and/or Megan Spooner, so when I was lucky enough to get my hands on an ARC of their upcoming novel, Unearthed, it is an understatement to say that I couldn’t WAIT to start reading.
This book is all about alien temples, who and when to trust, and figuring out who the real enemy is. And it’s really, really awesome.
I’m personally a huge fan of underground horror movies. Not quite sure of the reason, since I’m only a horror type person in broad daylight, but those types of movies always seem to excite me. And a good chunk of this book is just like an underground horror movie; crawling into alien temple, solving alien puzzles, and just the grit and darkness that comes with being the first few people to be inside an alien temple on an alien planet.
The one drawback that always pushes me away from horror movies is the lack of character and character development. I feel it is very rare for horror movies to have solid characters. It’s understandable, seeing as how there is only so much run time allotted to build character before everything has to go to heck and character development takes a back seat. A lot of characters are usually jerks, which means there is even less of a chance of me taking a liking to them. My view on horror movies is you’re basically watching people you don’t like die for 90 minutes. But nevertheless, I am a fan of reading or watching something simply to see the creepy story play out and come together.
Now, since this book takes to the tone of an underground horror movie, it was so freaking good! Because this underground horror story had characters that actually had a part in the story and I could become attached to and cheer on. And it just made my little heart happy.
Mia was awesome. Even though some parts of her story seemed thrown away and kind of pushed to the background, I’m hoping those points will come to together in future books. (Which is going to be a LONG wait.) Jules was also awesome. And his story came together nicely and I really liked how it played out. I also took a deeper liking to some of the side characters more than I normally do. I’ve never really fallen in love with a side character. I sort of just like them and then move on. But these characters were actually kind of cool.
I was kind of disappointed about the twist at the end because I had this whole cool theory going on, but I haven’t lost hope for my theory to come into play. But the twist was cool and unexpected (in a way) nonetheless.
I of course recommend this book one million percent and a million times over. It has even been optioned for a movie! Which is awesome, but I’m just crossing my fingers that it turns out as awesome as the book.
This book is one of the best sci-fi adventures that I have read this year, maybe even ever. I can’t wait to gush with everyone about Mia and Jules and all the plot points. I hope to see you on Gaia!
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