Unwritten by Tara Gilboy
Expected Release: October 16th 2018
Format: Ebook
Publisher: Jolly Fish Press
Source: Netgalley
Unwritten Synopsis:
Twelve-year-old Gracie Freeman is living a normal life, but she is haunted by the fact that she is actually a character from a story, an unpublished fairy tale she’s never read. When she was a baby, her parents learned that she was supposed to die in the story, and with the help of a magic book, took her out of the story, and into the outside world, where she could be safe.
But Gracie longs to know what the story says about her. Despite her mother’s warnings, Gracie seeks out the story’s author, setting in motion a chain of events that draws herself, her mother, and other former storybook characters back into the forgotten tale. Inside the story, Gracie struggles to navigate the blurred boundary between who she really is and the surprising things the author wrote about her. As the story moves toward its deadly climax, Gracie realizes she’ll have to face a dark truth and figure out her own fairy tale ending.
Review:
A BIG Thank You to NetGalley, Jolly Fish Press and North Star Editions for providing me a copy of “Unwritten” by Tara Gilboy in exchange for my review. I loved the concept of this book! It was so unique and different from others I have read recently.
The main reason why this novel stands out is because of its characters and what they go through. Gracie, Jacob, Walter, and the others are very down to Earth and realistic even though they are literally only characters in the story. The novel highlights that you can be the author of your own destiny, and choose your own path. The book also focuses on constructively dealing with emotions. In the story, Gracie fights with her emotions and tries to not be her written form. There are some gripping scenes where Gracie tries to control herself from being destructive. Like Gracie, we also have moments where anger and sadness consumes us, but we should not let it control us. This is a nice message that younger readers can learn from. One of my favorite passages in the story mentions the same:
“Being angry doesn’t make you a villain, Gracie. Anger can help you stand up for yourself, do the things you need to, It can be a good thing, if you control it rather than letting it control you.”
Tara Gilboy has done a wonderful job in writing “Unwritten”. She has a wonderful style of writing that’s easy to read yet gripping with a consistent pace. It is a great debut novel, and I would love to see what she comes up with next. I hope that there is a sequel coming up soon as I would love to read more. There are many reasons I can think of for having a sequel. Firstly, the author has created the world building nicely that could easily include new villains. Secondly, as the book ends in a slightly open ended manner, I would like to see how it continues. Thirdly, I want to find out how Winters story came to life and possibilities of crossovers with her other novels.
Overall, “Unwritten” is one of those books that is targeted for a middle grade readers, but it can be enjoyed by anyone who loves to read adventure/fantasy novels.
