Unwritten by Tara Gilboy Review

Unwritten
Author: Tara Gilboy
Genre: young readers/ fantasy fiction/ action adventure
Release date: 16 Oct 18
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Unwritten is really a kids kind of story

But Unwritten is also a book that triggers a lot of discussion, even if the words are simple enough. The moral/ theme of the story is not something a younger person can grasp well, drawing from a very old argument in philosophy: are humans born good/ evil? Truthfully, such a theme may be confusing to even us. Unwritten is cool because it chose to believe that a person can choose! How cool is that?

On the surface, our main character is twelve- year old Gracie Freeman, a student at school. She has a mom, who is obsessed with a lot of things. Gracie also has a good friend Walter, because their parents are friends. What the readers also know about Gracie, is her secret. She is a character of a fairy- tale, taken into the real world by a parchment. Why? Because her parents knew that she was slated to die in the book.

Characters

Gracie – the main character of the story. She’s always curious, usually obedient. Gracie strikes me in the book as a girl who understands that her survival means doing what mom tells her, but does not really believe any of it.

Walter- Best friend with Gracie. Mainly because they had the same background =D . This is no secret to us, but Walter actually does not know about his origins.

The Adults- what can we say about the adults? Mainly dismissive because children are just… children. Even in Unwritten, where Gracie had to continuously fight against the adult’s doubt in her. It is kind of annoying, but this may endear the book to the target audience. My mom… *eye rolls* I wish she’d listen to me, or let me do something …

Story

I love it but I am also apprehensive about the whole theme. Yes, it is great to send the message to kids that you can be better. Unwritten can be confusing topic to manoeuvre, because kids ask tough questions. Like why you have to stop at the red light (we all agreed that red is stop without telling you?) and why people keep throwing stuff away. What I am getting at, is that Gracie represents us as a person. She is a heroine because she chose to be, even though her ‘fate was written’.

You see what the author is trying to do? Getting kids to choose to be better through this story is awesome, although I wonder if they do understand it.

Verdict

Definitely a read and discuss book. Hopefully when my kid is older I can buy the paperback copy, this is one that I might want to keep. This book tackles a lot of issues: growing up, bullying (did I mention the bad guy is like a bully?) and choice. It is a wonderful book, put in a perspective of a child. As we all know, 12 years old is a very impressionable age, and if we can get them to understand that you can choose, it could create a better society.

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