THE UNWANTEDS

THE UNWANTEDS by Lisa McMann

The Unwanteds has been around for a few years now, but one of my girls just picked it up. The Kirkus Review on the front of the cover compares it to "the Hunger Games meets Harry Potter," but I would say it is a less intense version of both. It is a dystopian novel where every year a group of kids are unwanted because of several different reasons but largely creativity. Everyone thinks the Unwanteds are being put to death, but actually they're rescued and taken to another "world" where their creativity is encouraged and magic is taught (no actual spells are written in the book). At some point the two worlds have to collide, and there are consequences. Overall, I find this to be a pretty mediocre book, until we get close to the end and unwanted kids want to take revenge on family members (for walking away from them when they were deemed "unwanted") by desiring to kill them. Sometimes it works out for the kid, sometimes it backfires on them. I also don't get excited about one of the worlds being led by a High Priestess (it's a terminology thing for me). This really seems to just be for show as she is not worshipped or leading any form of worship. This is the only book I have read in the series, so I can't speak for the rest of the series.