The Unbound (The Archived #2)

9/03/2017

Blurb:

Last summer, Mackenzie Bishop, a Keeper tasked with stopping violent Histories from escaping the Archive, almost lost her life to one. Now, as she starts her junior year at Hyde School, she's struggling to get her life back. But moving on isn't easy – not when her dreams are hunted by what happened. She knows the past is past, knows it cannot hurt her, but it feels so real, and when her nightmares begin to creep into her waking hours, she starts to wonder if she's really safe.

Review:

"It's okay to not be okay," she says. "When you've been through things – whatever those things are – and you don't allow yourself to not be okay, then you only make it worse. Our problems will tear us apart if we try to ignore them. They demand attention because they need it. Now, are you okay?"

Where do I start? I guess I start by stating the simple fact that this book is really up my alley. As soon as I started reading I lost myself within the pages, I got all tangled up with the story, and it's been a while since I've been this intently invested in a character's mess (of a mind). Needless to say, I liked the second book better than the first one, which already says quite a lot about The Unbound book, seeing as how good The Archived was.

Admittedly, this book did touch upon a soft-spot of mine (nightmares) and executed it quite brilliantly. It wasn't just the nightmares that haunted Mackenzie but also the fear of falling asleep, her brain bleeding her dreams into reality, and the constant need to just get some rest – all flowing together naturally and convincingly. But, obviously, just having the problems doesn't really do much for a story if people don't also have to fight the problems, which Mac does (beautifully? Let's rather go with: entertainingly).

Apart from the mental toll Mac has to deal with, there's obviously more to happen. And while I was really happy about the Wesley-storyline, Owen did disappoint a little. He was so omnipresent from the beginning which made me quite numb to his presence rather early on. Still, this book does anything but lack action and adventures.

Now, all that's left for me to say is: Oh boy, I really don't want to wait for the sequel.