You can't go wrong with an Adrienne Young book. You are guaranteed to get a heavy dose of atmosphere and mystery. A Sea Of Unspoken Things is excellent. She gets better with every book

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this one early.

I have found that I adore this authors writing. Truly. It is so magical and atmospheric. I love a story with magical realism and she does it so well. This story gives a fun, new twist. If you enjoy magical realism and mystery then give this book a go. Can’t wait to snag my physical copy!
4.5 stars

“Maybe we were made in the dark, like Johnny said, but we’d found a way to create our own kind of light.”

Adrienne Young does a phenomenal job creating the mood, feel, and overall atmosphere of a book. I also really like her writing style; there were several times where I just stopped and admired a paragraph she’d written. 😂

She so expertly weaves an invisible string of magic throughout this book, connecting Johnny and James to each other and to the town of Six Rivers. Just like many of her other books, there’s a slow burn romance, magical realism, characters so real you feel like you know them, and a layered mystery (but I did guess the end).

The Unmaking of June Farrow is still my favorite Adrienne Young book by far, but I still enjoyed this one.

*Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for an eARC in exchange for an honest review*

3.5 stars

Adrienne Young doesn’t disappoint with this small town mystery. A woman investigates her twin brother’s untimely death. Set in the secluded, mountainous town of Six Rivers, California.

I wanted more twin “magic powers” connection throughout the plot. I felt like we were promised a more unique magic based system throughout the storyline.

Her writing is very fast-paced. And the whole book felt very binge-able.

I liked the character growth. And the twist was good. Overall, this is for the reader that is more into the mystery than the magic.

Wow! I couldn’t put this book down and literally devoured it. The prose is exceptional, suspenseful and intriguing. The characters are well developed, and the description of locations are so atmospheric that I felt like I want to go visit all those places. Little hints here and there point to the main character’s troubled past and are woven into the story perfectly before everything is fully revealed.
James (yes it took me a while to figure out that she is a female!) just lost her twin brother, Johnny, to a tragic accident. She returns to her hometown of Six Rivers, nestled deep in the Northern Californian forests, to settle some of his affairs. She’d left her hometown, and with it her brother, friends and high school sweetheart, 20 years ago to go to college and is now faced with her own past and childhood secrets again while trying to figure out what led to Johnny’s death. With their mother abandoning them as children and their father working in another state, James had always been really close with her twin brother, and they always protected each other. Now, after his death, she seems to have a supernatural connection to him. Is he trying to communicate with her?
I truly enjoyed this book which is a wonderful story about family, community, love and grief. The cover is beautiful and the title is on point. The end left me deeply satisfied. 5 ⭐️ read for me.
This was my first Adrienne Young novel but will not be my last. I am a new fan and can’t wait to get my hands on the next book of hers to read.
I’d like to thank NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group and Ms Adrienne Young for the opportunity to read this advance copy. What an honor and joy! The above is my honest review and own opinion. Pub date is 1/7/25.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the eARC.

I love Adrienne Young. Her writing is always so beautiful and her characters/relationships always work so well for me. A Sea of Unspoken Things is hands down my favorite of hers. I just loved it. I loved James and Micah. I loved the growth in James’ understanding of her brother. Even the outlier characters made an impact.

Just so good. So so good.

This whole book was a convoluted showcase of codependent characters. What I thought was a novel about a woman piecing together her brother’s final days ended up being a murder mystery and a revelation of so many nefarious or underdeveloped characters. I didn’t like this. It read like a melodrama with every chapter basically ending in “Did I really even know my brother?”. This wasn’t for me at all.

I was SO excited for A Sea of Unspoken Things and, unfortunately, a little let down. Being a HUGE Adrienne Young fan, I was looking forward to being swept into another of her emotional worlds, gasping for air on the other side. This is the first time I've ever felt truly detached from the main character, James. It feels as though James is moving through space a little like a zombie, and not as someone who just lost her twin brother. I never felt the level of grief or torment that I would expect to feel from someone who lost the person they had this special bond or connection with. To be honest, I never really felt connected to any of the characters throughout the book, which is unlike any of Young's other novels. I almost DNF'd this at the 33% mark, but pushed through and am still lukewarm on the premise and overall outcome. I'll continue to read Adrienne's future books, but this is probably my least favorite of her repetoire.

Adrienne Young has done it again with A SEA OF UNSPOKEN THINGS. An atmospheric read, this author does an amazing job of blending mystery and magical realism in a way that feels original and interesting. I think if you've loved this author's previous works, this one will be no different.

This story follows James, who has recently lost her twin brother, in a hunting accident. Except James does not believe that the accident was truly an accident and goes back to her small hometown, where she hasn't been in 20 years, to undercover the secrets of her brother, but also to unearth the secrets she left behind.

Part of what I loved about this story is how the author combines almost two separate genres to create this narrative while also creating a new universe from the mundane. She creates the aspects of mysteries and magical realism and mixes them to create a gorgeous narrative about loss, love, secrets, and reinvention. And she does it in a way that is atmospheric and immersive. Her mastery of this blend creates a highly entertaining, but beautiful story that really sucks the reader in as a whole and makes them not want to put down the book. 

Overall, I thought the book was a gorgeous book that was interesting, entertaining, and fascinating. I didn't want to put it down. I think if you liked the author's previous works, lush descriptive writing where the setting feels like a character, conflicted characters, secrets, small towns, and magical realism, you should pick up this book. 

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Adrienne Young leaves the fantasy genre behind with this one. This is strictly a small town mystery with a tiny bit of magical realism! I don’t usually enjoy the mystery/thriller genre but I love this author’s lyrical writing. It’s very poetic and really draws you into the vivid setting. That being said, I did predict the ending and was not at all mystified.

Ty to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC <3

The first thing I will say about this story is that the imagery is absolutely stunning! I really struggled to put it down due to that, I was immediately hooked. I love the elements explored within this story - grief over a loss, twin connection, going back home to a small town, and uncovered secrets. The writing is absolutely stunning and I did not expect any of the twists and turns. I can’t wait to pick up more of this author’s works.

Although this book didn’t include as much magic as Young’s other works I adored the darker themes it explored. I’ve always believed that energy lingers in spaces so this book and the themes of a ghost lingering was right up my alley. We follow James as she returns home after the untimely death of her twin brother and she can feel that something just isn’t right. I felt like this book compared to other works by Young was almost spookier and felt myself get chills during a few different scenes that really had me on edge. Her writing is as beautiful as always but it took a darker more haunting turn in this book and I think it worked so wonderfully. I thought I had successfully guessed the plot twist before it happened but I was proven wrong not once but twice. I loved all the twists at the end and Young really kept us guessing until the very last page. I only wish we were able to get to know some of the side characters more but understand that would’ve made for a much longer novel.

I read the author's previous book, The Unmaking of June Farrow and I was mesmerized by Ms. Young's way with words and use of magical realism, a technique I love but find used well so rarely. It was a given that I was going to read her next book, although examining her body of work, I was not quite sure what to expect. The author comes primarily from a YA background and I have not read any of those books.
While this book, A Sea of Unspoken things, is different, it is just as good. The author uses a touch of magical realism and the supernatural in a mystery. We meet James, who is a girl, not a boy (that is another thing: there were a few characters with names that bent gender and I am assuming this was not accidental, though I am not quite sure why) who is a twin who comes back to the very small town that she fled from to figure out why and how her twin brother, Johnny, died. It was obvious that Johnny had secrets. This was a difficult experience for James, who feels as if her brother is communicating with her, and there are other people in the town who do not exactly want their secrets exposed. There is also a lost love, and they get to know one another again but not under the best of circumstances.
The author's mastery of prose is present again. Her use of imagery is nothing less than gorgeous. She constructs characters, including Johnny, the dead twin, so that the reader is captivated and can't help but continue to read to find out what happened to them.
If I have one small critique, it would be that I would have loved to have seen even more supernatural and magical realism. I felt like perhaps toward the end, because the mystery needed to be resolved, that element was not used or totally carried through with. Nonetheless, it is one of my favorite books of the year and I will obviously read her next book which comes out in November of next year and anything she writes, even if it is a shopping list.
Thanks to NetGalley and to Random House Ballantine for giving me the opportunity to read this wonderful book.

4 stars! Adrienne Young stories are atmospheric and immersive. I love that nature is centric to the story. The story read quickly and had high intrigue, although was somewhat predictable. That didn’t take away from my enjoyment. I will continue to pick up published work by this author.

I loved it once again such an amazing book written by Adrienne Young! I loved it so much. Captivating from start to finish with the character and plot development beautifully written and executed.

James returns home to deal with the affairs of her twin brother, who unexpectedly died. But her time home opens old wounds and relationships, and she discovers more about her brother and herself than she ever knew before.

This was my first Adrienne Young book and I understand the hype! A Sea of Unspoken things leaves little unspoken with Young’s incredibly descriptive writing style! She captures the single point of view of our female main character and immerses you deeply in the mental and emotional world like you yourself are them!

This book sucked me in and spit me out when I finished reading. The mystery of her twin brother’s death haunts her, their twin bond creating doubts and worries for her, while her past and the secrets, lies, and avoidance of it are all catching up to her.

The pace is very slow and steady and nothing crazy jarring happens like a mystery-thriller, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t surprises and breadcrumbs that left you confused as the mystery unfolds. There were a few points I guessed rather quickly, but there were some I was highly mistaken on that left me shocked.

I highly recommend this book and I’m so glad I had a chance to read it through NetGalley and Random House Publishing.

A Sea of Unspoken Things is the sixth Adrienne Young novel I’ve read this past year. I started with Spells for Forgetting, and I loved it so much I also read June Farrow and the Fable series, so I was so excited when I got approved for the arc of A Sea of Unspoken Things. This brought me back to the vibes of Spells with a similar mystical setting, an isolated town, and a murder mystery to solve.

The FMC James has always had a connection with her twin brother, and felt it when he was killed. She has returned to their Northern California logging town to help wrap up the conservation photography project he was working on, and begins to unravel the events leading to his death. The forest is almost sentient for her, and she continues to see remnants of her brother’s past.

I loved the genre-blending of magical realism with a thriller murder mystery, and a Hallmark second chance romance. I really wasn’t sure what way the book was going to go for the first half, and did not see the twists coming at the end. This felt fresh, and really cemented Adrienne as an auto-buy author for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Delacorte for providing an eARC for my honest opinion.

I was so excited to be given the opportunity to review Adrienne Young's newest story. The one thing I can say about her stories is that they are always something new with a serious topic to explore. This story follows James and she is suffering from being the fixer of her family. Her twin brother Johnny and her share this twin connection where they can feel whatever each other is feeling. James was able to get away from the small logging town by her art skills and never looks back. But when her brother dies in a mysterious way, James can still feel him all around her. She tries to undercover the brother she thought she knew and discovers that there are many secrets kept in the trees. With the help of her old love, so you know there will be a hint of romance as well.
What I love about this book compare to Young's previous books is that a romantic relationship wasn't the center of the story. It was about sibling love and growing apart while still trying to hold onto who you use to be. James is a flawed character that is kind of moody and not what you would imagine for a main character. This is one of the reasons I love Adrienne Young, is because her main characters are relatable and you can identify traits of the characters in you. Even with the little bit of mystical elements this book is heavily focused on being in reality. James is dealing with the consequences of leaving the small town and leaving her chaotic brother there. She has this imagine of Johnny as the teenager she left and as the story goes on, you realize that life didn't stop when she left. And more importantly, her brother isn't the care free, boy next door that she always labeled him as.
I appreciate that this story doesn't tie every lose end and there are some issues that will never be able to be resolved. The mystery never fully gets solved but what needed to be said and discovered has answers. I appreciate that there isn't one person who is a complete villain but everyone has motives for why they do what they do. This feels more grounded and you are left satisfied but also a feeling like the story will continue on without you reading it. I felt like these small coastal towns have a charm that Young continues to capture while giving us fresh stories of individuals that feel like they could be our friends or loved ones.

When James' twin brother Johnny dies, she comes home to the town she left when she was 18, and has to deal not only with losing him, but with the life she left behind.

Describing the plot of this book almost feels beside the point. There are mysteries that get solved and old wounds that begin to heal, but this book has the feel of grief: of things happening through a curtain of remove, actions only feeling clearer in retrospect. If grief is a mood, I think this book captures it so well. James is a character who feels incredibly realistically drawn as someone who has experienced a lot of trauma and not had the support or space to deal with it. Micah is an incredibly sweet love interest, and there's a sense that he has spent a lot of time trying to grow from their teenaged years.

I would really recommend this to anyone who wants to reflect on love and grief and how trauma can shape us at the edges.

4.5 Stars

I love anything and everything Adrienne writes because it is so fully immersive and you genuine feel like you’ve been sucked into the time and place that she is writing. Moody and atmospheric, A Sea of Unspoken Things is the gripping story of finding home while also being terrified of the truths you might uncover while on that journey.

James and Johnny are twins and when Johnny died from an accidental hunting incident, Hames is forced to return to their small forest town in the north of California. As she tried to piece together what happened to Johnny, James starts to unravel uncomfortable truths about herself, Johnny, their hometown, her first love, and the community as a whole.

Part thriller, part mystery, this story has moments of romance and magical realism making the whole reading experience feel otherworldly. The bond of twins is one the author knows herself, and to read this story knowing that really hits you in the feels.