Monday, March 31, 2008

The Unspoken, by Thomas Fahy

Fahy, Thomas (2008). The Unspoken. New York: Simon & Schuster, 166 pages.

Summary and Evaluation:
Five years ago, six teenagers who were forced to be in a cult burnt down the campsite killing the self-declared prophet, but not before he could prophesy that each of them would die of their worst fear in five years. Thus, when Allison and the others learn that her friend Harold mysteriously drowned, they are drawn back to the town where it all began. The curse is being fulfilled as others mysteriously disappear and die. It is up to Allison to discover the truth behind the mystery and find a way for herself and the others to survive.

When choosing this book, I prepared myself for a gruesome horror story, but was disappointed that it wasn't nearly as shocking as advertised. Allison's dreams during her seizures gave warning of impending death; however the details of the dreams were not vivid and did not create suspense. Each dream was followed by the discovery that one of her friends died. Though descriptive, they were not suspense builders. Even with the lack of suspense, the plot did move along quickly after the five surviving teens gathered. The story switches from the present to five years ago telling the horrors that each teen experienced while living in a commune with the other cult members. These frequent flashbacks were good for understanding each character's fears, but made very obvious the "who-done-it" aspect of the story. Fahy tries to resolve the story partly with realism and partly using the supernatural giving Allison one last premonition leaving the story unresolved and a bit unsettling. Many of the plot elements were left unexplained which I preferred. I could choose which explanations I most enjoyed.

Booktalk Hook: Because of the age of the characters and the style of writing, I would present this book to older YA's. To describe this book, I would read from the passage when the cult leader takes Allison to the confessional.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I just read this book last week and I thought it was soooo weak! I couldn't belive the loser ending and wanted a LOT more from a text that seemed to promise more than it delivered. Oh well.
Amy P.