Title: Unforgotten (Unremembered #2)
Author: Jessica Brody
Published: February, 2014 by Macmillan
Pages: 400
Rating:  
Purchase: The Book Depository

After a daring escape from the scientists at Diotech who created her, Seraphina believes she is finally safe from the horrors of her past. But new threats await her and her boyfriend, Zen, at every turn as Zen falls prey to a mysterious illness and Sera’s extraordinary abilities make it more and more difficult to stay hidden. Meanwhile, Diotech has developed a dangerous new weapon designed to apprehend her, a weapon that even Sera will be powerless to stop. Her only hope of saving Zen’s life and defeating the company that made her is a secret buried deep within her mind. A secret that Diotech will kill to protect.

Final Thoughts:
Ranging from bored, to mildly interested, to disturbed, and to just plain annoyed—this book drew a lot of emotions out of me. I’m finding it hard to fathom how I gave the first book a five star rating, when this one was so hard to like. Its first mistake was that it took something like ten chapters before ANYTHING happened. I wanted to give up on it, but forced myself to go on. And then, boom, love triangle. Not the good, or even plausible, kind. No, she is inexplicably drawn to some random new character that’s been sent to capture her for the big evil organisation that created her. He shows no interest in her, forces her to do things, but on she goes wondering about how drawn she is to him. Um, Sera, you have a boyfriend. He loves you. Where is your head???

I feel like this book is going to make me rant…and give away spoilers.

Spending seventy or more pages in the 1600’s on a farm did nothing to draw me into the story. I had no interest in the family Sera and Zen were staying with. I had no interest in listening to Sera lament over how no one liked her, how no one trusted her because ‘she was different’. It was just so blah. The only part I actually liked was her being burned at the stake, all the while her telling herself she’d be fine because she was so important that the evil organisation wouldn’t possibly let her die. She had previously told us over and over how she had these superhuman abilities—strength, hearing, speed, that she could basically do anything—but running away from townspeople accusing her of witchcraft, nope, too much for her.

Yes, I’m going to rant.

As we waved goodbye to the farm, and the horse that also didn’t like her, the story jumped centuries ahead into 2032. Here, taxis are driven on autopilot, and they offer to let you watch TV while you sit helplessly in the back. We’re in the future, people. And now that Sera doesn’t have the townspeople and their pitchforks to worry about, we got to learn that Zen, her boyfriend, has fallen ill and will now remain comatose for a great chunk of the book. Insert new love interest, Kaelen. Because guys with weird names are hot. This guy’s been manufactured in a lab somewhere off in the future and he’s just like her…only better. He actually says something like that to her. Ooh, cue the swoons.

From then on, we spend many an auto-piloted taxi ride trafficking across town, Kaelen forcing Sera to hunt down clues for the evil organisation so that she can get the cure for Zen. Because if she’s doing it for her ‘unforgotten’ boyfriend, spending time with the mega hot evil guy and wondering what it would be like to kiss him is completely justifiable. I pretty much wanted to barf every time she went off on one of her internal tangents about how she was drawn to him. I’ll throw one in, just because I’m feeling generous:

He is my sworn enemy and yet I could never bring myself to defeat him. He is despicable because he was made by the hands of the people who seek to destroy my happiness. And yet we are the same. “Kaelen,” my lips whisper his name. It slithers out of my mouth, filled with a venomous longing. A maddening fascination. A repellent attraction.

By the time she finally gives in to her inner adulterer—though, she reminds us more than once, she’s a teenager and so must be forgiven for poor decisions—and kisses Kaelan (on a submarine), fireworks go off inside them and he is magically de-brainwashed by her super lips. Poor Zen is clearly not unforgotten anymore. Oh, but what’s that? No-longer-evil Kaelen uses his evil gifts and steals some memories that locates the cure for Zen. Guess where it is? Back at the headquarters of the evil organisation he was sent to take her back to. Sera HAS to go there. I think you can guess where this was headed. Maniacal laughter from the big bad as everything turns to crap. How unexpected. I was never so happy to see the back of a book. I still have the third one to go, but I have no desire to torture myself in the immediate future.

Recommended to:
Those who can stomach infidelity, love triangles and silly characters.