Unleashed in Multiculturalism in YA,Fantasy, Sci FI,Paranormal and fun books ;p

Feb 15, 2011 The FountainPenDiva, Old school geek chick and lover of teddy bears rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: characters-black-heroines, genre-interracial-romance, genre-ya-fiction, poc-on-the-covers, omg-provocative, characters-biracial-heroines, characters-werewolves, wtf-epic-cover-fail

Overall, Unleashed was a much better book than I thought it would be. This isn't a book for the Twi-hard crowd (thank goodness).Unlike most readers, I wasn't put off by all the drinking, drug use and sexuality the characters engaged in. Let's be honest here, teens are doing these things. If anything this kind of moral ambiguity and grittiness makes the book and the characters feel far more real. Interestingly Unleashed doesn't take place in some hip, cosmopolitan city, but in Birmingham, Alabama Overall, Unleashed was a much better book than I thought it would be. This isn't a book for the Twi-hard crowd (thank goodness).Unlike most readers, I wasn't put off by all the drinking, drug use and sexuality the characters engaged in. Let's be honest here, teens are doing these things. If anything this kind of moral ambiguity and grittiness makes the book and the characters feel far more real. Interestingly Unleashed doesn't take place in some hip, cosmopolitan city, but in Birmingham, Alabama and this setting also creates the sense of darkness and dread and even claustrophobia. And even though actual racism plays a small part in the narrative, the bloody history of Bombingham during the Civil Rights movement is a reminder of just how some wounds haven't quite healed.

Unleashed is the story of Daniel Morning and Misty Sandlin, complete opposites in every way possible. Daniel is the high school golden boy who is quite tarnished. Accepted to Cornell University based on a lie, he lives his life trying to be the perfect student--getting the right grades, playing the right sports, dating the right girl and even attending church. Misty is a biracial teen who wears a shell of insouciance, though inside she's the walking wounded. She's
both volatile and fragile, fiercely loyal to her family and her friends. When these two collide, Daniel begins to question his well-ordered existence, and he envies the freedom he believes Misty and her group of outsiders represents. However, there's more to Misty than just her "f*ck you" attitude. What I liked about Misty is even though she truly finds herself in love with Daniel, she doesn't lose what makes her tough. Too many supposed kick-ass teen heroines stop being tough the moment they smell testosterone and end up whiny and boring.

There were other characters in the novel, but unfortunately for Mr. Reisz he doesn't spend a lot of time on them, which is a shame because they needed to be fleshed out. I had no idea whether Daniel's friend Bwana was male or female or what they looked like. The rest of his friends seemed to be just cardboard stereotypes--the jocks, the popular girl, the outcasts. In a way, this lack makes Unleashed a bit unfinished.

I don't want to give away too much about the werewolf aspect; suffice it to say it was a vastly different take on the werewolf mythos, which I liked. There were no full moons or ancient clans or any of those other tired old tropes that keep getting recycled in the paranormal genre. In fact, I view this for of shifting more in line with Native American spirituality and myth than the European bite on the neck.

I'm knocking one BIG star from my rating because of the EPIC COVER FAIL for the paperback edition. Why, oh why, are New York publishers so terrified of showing an interracial couple on the cover of a book? E-pubs have been doing it for years and no one (at least no one who really matters) has ever complained. This fail isn't as bad as the cover fail for Justine Labastier's Liar and Cindy Pon's Silver Phoenix, but the less controversial "hands and half face" is still troublesome. One day I hope the publishing companies in New York will actually start being run by grown ups who aren't scared of changing demographics. I won't hold my breath though.

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