Review--Unleashed by Sophie Jordan

Unleashed, the romantic, high-stakes sequel to New York Times bestselling author Sophie Jordan's Uninvited, is perfect for fans of James Patterson's Confessions of a Murder Suspect.
Davy has spent the last few months trying to come to terms with the fact that she tested positive for the kill gene HTS (also known as Homicidal Tendency Syndrome). She swore she would not let it change her, and that her DNA did not define her . . . but then she killed a man.

Now on the run, Davy must decide whether she'll be ruled by the kill gene or if she'll follow her heart and fight for her right to live free. But with her own potential for violence lying right beneath the surface, Davy doesn't even know if she can trust herself.

It’s been a long time since I read Sophie Jordan’s Uninvited, so I went I finally started Unleashed, it took a bit for me to get into it. Because I really couldn’t remember much at all that had already happened. This duology is one on my only dystopians where there’s not a whole lot of adventure and action, but yet, there was something intriguing about Uninvited in the beginning that led me to read it.

Davy, Sean, Gil, and Sabine have escaped the camp that was training them to be efficient killers. Davy shot another man in cold blood when forced to, in order to save Sean’s life. Now the four friends are on the run and are planning to escape to Mexico because that’s where most carriers go when they want to be safe from the US government.

Davy is being haunted by guilt for what she did. She had to take a life and basically prove to everyone that’s just what they think; a mindless killer. She did it to save Sean’s life, but the guilt eats away at her. There’s a disconnect between her and Sean now. She can barely look at him and not remember what she did for him. She pushes herself away from him from the start. We’re pretty much being set up for heartbreak here, as I liked Sean. I thought he was a great character in Uninvited, but it seems he was never meant to be someone important for Davy…

During their attempt to cross the border, they are shot at by officials intent on bringing them back to their camp. Davy is separated from her friends and is “rescued” of sorts, by a guy named Caden, who just so happens to be a carrier as well. Hello love triangle, I barely knew thee.

The attraction between Caden and Davy is pretty fierce. Much like it was for her and Sean in the beginning. But Davy holds herself back from Caden, because all she wants to do is heal and then go find her friends in Mexico.

Caden is one of the leaders of this fraction group of carriers. They work to make things better for carriers. They are freedom fighters in a way. Caden wants Davy to join them, but she is reluctant, as she wants to find her friends as well.

I guess my second issue is the lack of plot. There doesn’t seem to be much going on in this one except for Caden trying to convince Davy to stay. There’s also a bit of mystery going about, as we eventually learn that there is a traitor among the carrier group. That part did provide a little intrigue, but it ended up being such a small, nonsensical thing. I was a bit upset with that.

There just wasn’t much to this story as the first book. I thought I remembered reading reviews of this one that says the same. And of course, there’s the other ultimate letdown that Davy just seems to connect and move on with a guy in each book. What nagged at me the most was that she was still in some sort of relationship with Sean when she started having feelings for Caden. And yeah, romantic stuff does happen. But since she never spoke with Sean about her misgivings or even officially broke up with him, I felt like she was a cheater. She cheated on her boyfriend, despite there being some kind of disconnect between them. I didn’t like that part at all. I didn’t want to root for Caden, despite liking his character a bit, because Davy was already in a relationship. Had she broken things off with Sean earlier, than I wouldn’t have had any issues with the romance between her and Caden. I’m not a fan of cheaters, even in my reading habits.

We still get the same excerpts of interviews, newscasts, and such that we did in the first book. We see through these working towards resolution. It’s nothing at all from our characters, which again, upset me. I wanted to see Davy and the other carriers perhaps making a stand of some sort or just something from them for carriers’ rights, but nope. Nada.

In the end, this second installment became about Davy and her basically deciding what she wanted to do with the rest of her life. Who she really wanted to be with. There just wasn’t much plot development to this one and it really saddened me. I thought the premise of this duology to be intriguing, but this final installment was a bit of a letdown. I’m also still left wondering what happens to the rest of the carriers’ group. As the ending really makes no mentioning of them whatsoever.

In the end, this is just yet another love story, in some ways. It’s tragic really, because the duology started out so strong.

Overall Rating 2.5/5 stars