Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for providing me an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review. Netgalley requires me to rate books and I did not want to mark this as a DNF on Netgalley because I have many thoughts about this book.

I had to DNF this book after chapter 5. I believe this is the author's first book and unfortunately, it reads like one. Unwritten had great potential but the execution is abysmal. The characters are completely one-dimensional, especially the main character and her father. The magic is never clearly defined or explained. The author throws explanations at you but they don't stick and it just felt like I was reading bullet points in a rough draft. The action scenes moved way too fast and were confusing with characters popping up left and right out of nowhere. Plot devices were conveniently thrown at you. The "character test" that Beatrix had to perform before entering the book world made absolutely no sense.

I can see a lot of readers picking up this book due to its cover but this book is a perfect example of "don't trust a book by its cover". If you want a story about a girl who travels in a magical land within the pages of a book, please just go read [b:Inkheart|28194|Inkheart (Inkworld, #1)|Cornelia Funke|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1538266636l/28194._SX50_.jpg|2628323]. Inkheart masterfully captured this storyline 18 years ago and it still holds up today.