Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Books
Release date: September 13th 2012
Ages: 12+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.
Sarah Rees Brennan shares an extract of Unspoken:
Most delighted to have an extract from my book Unspoken so kindly hosted!
Unspoken is a Gothic mystery about a sassy lady reporter who finds out her imaginary friend is a real boy, and a member of the sinister family who live in the manor on the hill above her town…
I wanted to find a bit of the book that showed you both funny and feeeeeelings, because those are two prominent features of the book!
So, this is the third time Jared and Kami have ever met in person. Neither of the first two times went particularly well…
Kami bit her pencil in two.
Angela rose from her chair like the wrath of God in a red silk blouse and demanded, “Who the hell are you?”
“Hey, Angela,” Jared said without sparing her a glance.
He shoved his hands into his jeans pockets and continued, glaring at Kami’s desk. “I was thinking.”
“I see no evidence of that, Jared,” Kami said. “Sorry, Angela! He’s crazy! Excuse us, we have to go talk in the hall.” She pushed her chair back from the desk so fast that it top- pled over. As she came toward him, Jared gave her a little crooked, awkward smile.
“I’m not going to let you go talk to some lunatic alone in the hall,” Angela said furiously. “Who are you?”
“Jared Lynburn,” said Jared.
Angela slipped out of her chair and circled Jared like a panther.
Kami intercepted the prowl and patted Angela’s red-silk arm. “I’m off to go do an interview with him in the hall.” She patted Angela again. “Trust me. I will explain everything.” She made shepherding gestures to get Jared out of the door without touching him.
Jared let himself be shepherded, glancing at her over his shoulder as if he was uncertain she was coming with him.
You idiot, she said fondly. She saw his mouth curve before he turned his head. Kami followed him out the door, which she shut and then sagged against. “Now tell me,” she said. “What the hell was that?”
In addition to leaning against the door, Kami was also keeping a firm grip on the doorknob. It was reassuring to have a firm grip on something. Jared stood in the echoing hallway as if his presence in the world was perfectly normal. Which it was, and she was going to have to get used to it.
Jared watched Kami. He was wearing the same blue T-shirt he’d been wearing in the garden, and the sight of it made her additionally uncomfortable. She wished again that he wasn’t quite so tall.
“I said, we should—” Jared began.
“I heard what you said!” Kami yelped. “I guess I was hoping I’d got it wrong and you hadn’t said the crazy thing you said. Since you did say the crazy thing that you said, do you mind explaining it to me?”
Jared set his jaw and stared at the floor. “We should date,” he repeated obstinately. “Because this whole being in each other’s heads thing, there has to be a reason for it, doesn’t there?”
“There has to be an explanation,” Kami conceded. “Yes.”
Jared glanced up, taking this as encouragement. In this particular slant of light, his strange eyes were so pale they seemed colorless.
If it wasn’t for that, Kami might have called his look almost shy. She clenched her hand into a fist. One of them had to be reasonable, or they would ruin everything.
“And we’ve found each other,” Jared continued. “So this is like, fate. Isn’t it? Soul mates. Isn’t it?” Every word seemed to be dragged out of him, but now he was looking at her steadily.
Kami’s voice came out calmer than she expected. “Let me get things perfectly clear. You want to date?”
Jared nodded, cautiously.
Kami took a deep breath and stepped toward him, her fingers uncurling to reach out. Jared flinched, and she drew her hand back.
“As in boyfriend and girlfriend?” Kami pursued. “Sweet- hearts? Who canoodle?”
Jared nodded again, even more cautiously.
“Well, mi amore, this is awesome news! Let’s get right on that,” said Kami, and began to undo the buttons of her blouse. She looked down at the red buttons slipping out one by one from the black fabric of her shirt. She only had eight buttons, and there went the fourth.
Jared sucked breath out of a horrified void and shouted, “Stop that!” He angled himself to protect her from the eyes of a crowd that was not there. He hesitated, possibly because now he had a view directly down into shadows and curves.
Kami glanced up. Jared looked at the wall.
“Here’s the thing,” said Kami, doing her buttons up fast, trying to keep things casual. “I don’t think that people who are freaked out by each other’s physical existence should date.”
“I cannot believe you just did that,” Jared said. “Are you crazy?” He still looked shaken, which Kami found irritating. She was sure other girls received far more enthusiastic responses when they started with the undressing.
“Well, I can’t believe you walked in and said that,” she shot back. “In front of Angela!”
“I had to work myself up to it,” Jared said. “I may have lost my head.”
“I was acting on an impulse!” Kami said. “I still feel it was a sensible impulse.”
“So what you’re saying is, we’re both crazy,” said Jared. “Well, this is going to be fun.”
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