Unlocked

4.0

4.7 (2)

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Author(s)

Margo Kelly

Publisher

Merit Press

Genre(s)

Age Range

12+

Release Date

October 01, 2016

ISBN

9781440593598

A provocative thriller involving hypnosis, mystery, love, and friendship! Someone has been moving the stuffed pink elephant in Hannah's room. She thinks. And ants crawl over her hands, across the steering wheel, all the time. Don't they? They're what made her crash the car on the way home from the fair, and she wouldn't have freaked out, wouldn't have caused her friend's death, for no reason. But she doesn't know if a person is messing with her, if the paranormal is messing with her--or if she's just going psychotic like her dad before her. When her friends bail, Hannah is left floundering. Not even her boyfriend Manny believes her, and new girl Chelsea is practically replacing her at school. Only artsy outsider and self-proclaimed occult expert, Plug, agrees to help Hannah find out the truth about hypnosis and demons, and even he can't help Hannah reclaim her mind from whatever's taking over. She'll have to do that herself if she wants to save her friends, her mom and herself.

Editor reviews

2 reviews

Great Thriller for the Start of Fall

September 25, 2016 (Updated: September 25, 2016)

Overall rating

4.0

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Once the leaves start to fall and the weather gets the chill in the air, I love to grab my favorite Chai Tea (French Toast) and curl up with a book ready for a scare or a thrill. Unlocked by Margo Kelly is the perfect fit for fall.

Margo Kelly does a fantastic job with making her characters as realistic as possible, creating a sense of trust then distrust at every corner. From the very first page you can tell that things aren't what they seem. The carnival sets a creepy feeling right from the bat. As a reader you are thrown into Hannah's world. I love that you can't tell if Hannah is reliable enough for you to believe her. But at each turn of the plot, it is a guessing game as to who is good and who has evil intentions.

After a night at the carnival and a hypnotist show, everything takes a horrible twist. Weird things start to happen to Hannah and it seems like the entire school is against her. The doctors are questioning her every action and wonder if she needs to be hospitalized. Is she really losing her mind? Is everything really in her head? or Is something more sinister happening?

My recommendation-pick up Unlocked in the fall and curl up with a blanket. Then, get ready for a thrill ride you won't be able to get off until you turn the last page.

Good Points

Page turner

Joanne Mumley, Twitter Manager Top 50 Reviewer 217 reviews

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User reviews

2 reviews

Overall rating

4.7

Plot

4.5(2)

Characters

4.5(2)

Writing Style

5.0(2)

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

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Unlocked by Margo Kelly

October 11, 2016

Overall rating

4.3

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Although I did like the premise of the book and the general story lines, I do think there were a few things that I struggled with. The pacing of the story was somewhat off for me. Toward the middle of the novel, if felt like the incidents Hannah was experiencing were just repeated over and over. I was also confused by the story part of the time. I couldn’t figure out which parts were real and which parts were products of Hanna’s imagination ( I know this was the author’s intention but left me confused to what was happening). The characters of Manny and Manny’s mother were also a little flat and, I felt, a little unrealistic. For example, Manny’s mother kept calling Hannah child seemed strange. Manny and his mother also had personalities that varied from scene to scene.

My Final Take

‘Unlocked’ is a complex paranormal young adult thriller. It mixes the paranormal, hypnosis, and romance. This is a great book for anyone looking for a YA book with a unique twist. This is a good fit for paranormal lovers.

Good Points

What I Loved

Unlocked is an interesting take on YA paranormal. Throughout the story, Hannah, is convinced she is going crazy. She sees dark shadows, hallucinations, and apparitions.

Though Hannah was once popular, she begins to lose friends, not care about appearance, and do poorly in school. This all lends to an air of mystery and suspense throughout the novel. The element of hypnosis added a bit of nuance to the story. The author was not afraid to make the scenes gritting and scary.

I did love the character of plug, I think he was complex and interesting. His character grew and changed throughout the book. I also liked the character of Kyla. Her personality was sweet and friendly while her appearance is described as avant-garde (with shocking hair colors). I loved to hate, Chelsea. She was the typical high school mean girl.

The subplot of Hannah dealing with her father and friend’s deaths added depth to the story and made Hannah’s character more realistic for me.

Finally, the cover is amazing. Retro and mysteries at the same time.

Karen Klein, Staff Reviewer Top 100 Reviewer 95 reviews

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A new thriller by Margo Kelly

June 24, 2016

Overall rating

5.0

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Margo Kelly’s Unlocked is a suspenseful thriller all the way to the very climatic ending! This good vs. evil story had me guessing the ending until the final pages. Kelly is very descriptive in her writing and details that I felt I was there right along with the main characters. Think that carnival side shows are harmless? Think again!

Good Points

Ever since she participated in a hypnotist show at the county fair, Hannah isn’t feeling quite herself. She feels guilty and upset about a causing a car crash that hurts her friends, and now she’s starting to see things, like crawling ants and pink elephants, and she’s not quite sure if they’re real or not. Back at school everyone is treating her horribly and she ends up being placed in an art class where she meets some new students that are a little different from her normal group of friends. Hannah feels confident with her new friend Plug, and he begins to help her try to understand what is happening to her, even setting up camera monitoring software on her computer. Meanwhile Hannah learns the truth of what happened to her father and is worried that she may end up like him.