Unboxed Review

By: Non Pratt

Rating: 5/5

Source: Waterstones

Unboxed is about four teenagers who come together after several months apart. In previous years, they had put together a time capsule about their best summer with a friend who was dying. Now that their friend has passed, they reunite to open the box.

I read Unboxed as a part of my Readathon a couple of weeks ago, and yes while one of the appealing qualities of the book was it's size, had I known I was going to be crying so early into the twenty four hours I might have held off on reading this one. Do not let it's 140 pages fool you, this is an emotional kick in the metaphorical balls, disguised as a nice, easy read. 

Unboxed sees the journey of four friends, and a tagalong partner, who delve into a time capsule in honour of the fifth member of their group, Millie, who has sadly passed away. So okay, I should have seen the emotions a mile off, but I was naive and thought I could handle a few upsetting anecdotes because I'd be finished the book in under an hour. 

Alix, Dean, Ben and Zara are our main characters. The story is told from the P.O.V. of Alix who is struggling with more than just the recent death of her friend, she hasn't come out to the group yet and something in the time capsule could change everything. Dean is a bad boy and no one really knows why he agreed to show up, maybe he's misunderstood. Ben always had a soft spot for Milly and has returned home even though he moved to London years before. Zara has brought her boyfriend, Ashish, along for the ride -or did he just decide he was coming with? He doesn't seem like the most understanding of boyfriends. 

This was a really moving story about friends reuniting in hard times, and gave a great look into a very relatable childhood. I know that this group of friends reminded me of my own group when I was younger, their stories were my stories but luckily I haven't lost any of my school friends in the way they lost Millie. I've grown apart from a lot of people I went to school with so there was a lot of emotions around that too.

I would recommend this to any fans of YA but particularly to anyone who is in a bit of a reading slump, it's such a short and meaningful read with so much character development that you'll be confused as to how Non managed to squeeze it all into just 140 pages. You can finish it over a lunch break and even though you might shed a tear or two, I promise you'll be so glad you read it.