Review--Unchanged by Jessica Brody

In this mesmerizing conclusion to the Unremembered trilogy, Sera will fight those who have broken her.

After returning to the Diotech compound and receiving a successful memory transplant, Seraphina is now living a happy life with another synthetically engineered human like herself, with whom she is deeply in love. She has no recollection of Zen. But the nagging feeling that something is missing from her life continues to plague her. Diotech's newest product is about to be revealed—a line of genetic modifications that will allow people to live longer, fight disease, and change any unfavorable physical attribute they desire.

As more secrets are revealed, more enemies are uncovered, and the reality of a Diotech-controlled world grows closer every day, Sera and Zen must find a way to destroy the company that created her, or they’ll be separated forever.

Jessica Brody's Unchanged was one of the hardest books I've had to read this year. And I'm not saying that it was in anyway a bad read, I'm just saying the events were hard to swallow! It was very emotional on so many different levels...I struggle to form coherent sentences. There are still so many questions I have, but at the same time, I feel like I know the answers.

At the end of Unforgotten, we were all feeling the pains. Sera has saved Zen's life, only to leave him and go back to Diotech in order to continue to keep him safe. We learn right away, Sera was changed yet again, given modified memories. Though at the same time, they were the same memories, she was just given different feelings about them. Dr. Alixter was truly a monster in this series, what he did and continues to do to poor Sera, was disgusting.

In her new reprogrammed state, Sera loves Kaelen just as she was always meant to. They live an almost happy life. Yet we readers know better. Dr. A plans to finally show the world what they become, they can be perfect people just like Sera and Kaelan and they embark on a 12 city tour to show the world just that. Only, it's right as this tour kicks off that danger strikes and Sera is kidnapped by what looks like a group of terrorists.

For a good chunk of the book, we never get to see Zen. We only get the occasional memory rehash from Sera and even then, it's only to have her be disgusted with herself in allowing herself to be tricked by Zen. It was disheartening, because I had come to love the relationship between the two. And when they finally do get their face to face meet...it wasn't what I hoped for. Sera has been irrevocably changed, yet Zen believes the old Sera is still in her somewhere.

Zen and his new friends plan to take Diotech down for good. Destroy everything that they are, so they can no longer ruin and rule the lives of people. But naturally, there are a few hiccups.

I think what made this book so challenging for me was that Sera was no longer Sera. She's not the girl we've come to know from Unremembered, but that's to be expected since she was literally changed. Given new memories and new feelings. It's almost sick to think that that technology can exist. Even if you are an "artificial" human.

This next little paragraph might be considered "spoilery", so read it at your own risk. Though I didn't think it too spoilery if you really think about it.

What was also a little hard to deal with was the fact that Zen had a new girlfriend. Though at the same time, we know that it's always been S + Z = 1609. I actually felt sorrier for the new girl, because it's that feeling, you know when you see a couple broken up and how they are meant to be together, despite another one moving on. We've seen this countless of times in other books and movies and TV shows. I didn't hate Xaria, I actually felt bad for her because I knew without knowing, that she would be the one to get hurt. And the lack of mentioning her after a certain point in the story only leads further credence to that feeling. 

The end was probably the most shocking though! I was expecting something big and we got that and then some. I was sort of making speculations that kinda led to the ending we got, but I was definitely missing a few details. Why the ending did bring a tear to mind, it also brought a smile to my face. It's definitely an ending of mixed feelings.

Overall Unchanged was a spectacular ending to an amazing trilogy! I would love to see where the characters go past the ending...but that's usually something left to the reader's imagination! If you're looking for a unique Sci-Fi series for Young Adults, then the Unremembered trilogy is simply perfect!



Overall Rating 4/5 stars