“Do you think she recognizes you?” the doctor asks from the doorway, remarking upon the strange, almost whimsical look on the girl’s face.
Yes … always yes.
“No,” the young man answers quietly. “She’s never met me before.”
But as he turns back to the girl and allows their eyes to lock again, a faint, lopsided smile finds its way to his lips.
She doesn’t know him. She doesn’t remember him.
But she will.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Ideas may come from a single spark of inspiration. But ideas don’t equal finished books. Ideas don’t put stories in the hands of readers. They don’t edit, market, hand-hold, support, love, encourage, critique, or make you laugh when all seems lost. You need people for that. Brilliant, funny, supportive, extraordinary people.
Thank you to the unparalleled team of superhumans at Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group: Simon Boughton, Joy Peskin, Allison Verost, Caitlin Sweeny, Kathryn Little, Angus Killick, Molly Brouillette, Lauren Burniac, Jon Yaged, Lucy Del Priore, Katie Halata, Jean Feiwel, Liz Fithian, Courtney Griffin, Holly Hunnicutt, Kate Lied, Ksenia Winnicki, Mark Von Bargen, and Nicole Banholzer. A super-bubbly, jazz-hands thank-you to Janine O’Malley and Angie Chen for pushing me to make these books the best they could be and for always saying “yes!” when I asked for more time. To Stephanie McKinley for being a fangirl, friend, and beta reader! Elizabeth Clark for designing the three best glitching covers ever. And Chandra Wohleber for copyediting the crap out of this beast and for calling the ending “perfect” when I needed to hear it most.
Mary Van Akin, you deserve your own line. Your own paragraph. Your own book. You make being awesome look easy. But you make finding the words to express my gratitude so very hard. Thank you for being my champion, friend, travel buddy, confidante, master strategist, and, oh yeah, publicist.
Thank you to my incredible agents, Bill Contardi and Jim McCarthy, for your never-ending wisdom, enthusiasm, encouragement, and patience (it requires a bold and courageous spirit to undertake a career working with writers). Thank you to Marianne Merola and Lauren Abramo, the queens of foreign rights! Also thanks to my amazing film agent, Dana Spector, and super-savvy entertainment lawyer, Mark Stankevich.
Thank you to Soumya Sundaresh, Deepak Nayar, Tabrez Noorani, and the amazing people at Kintop Pictures and Reliance Entertainment for bringing Sera’s story to sparkly Hollywood. And especially to Soumya for holding my hand through this exciting yet scary yet remarkable process.
Across the pond, thank you to Claire Creek and everyone at Macmillan Children’s UK for your amazing support and kick-arse covers!
No matter what we authors do to perfect our characters, the booksellers, librarians, and teachers are the real heroes of any young adult story. Thank you to every single person who has placed my book in a reader’s hand and who has said the magic words “I think you might like this.” Especially thanks to Cathy Berner at Blue Willow, Caitlin Ayer at Books Inc., Jade Corn and Cori Ashley at Phoenix Book Company, Carolyn Hutton and Kathleen Caldwell at A Great Good Place for Books, Crystal Perkins, Maryelizabeth Hart, Courtney Saldana, Amy Oelkers, Julie Poling, Heather Hebert, Damon Larson, Mike Bull, Sandy Novak, Dennis Jolley, Sherri Ginsberg, and Allison Tran.
Because of the sheer talent, skill, and awesomeness of Nikki Hart at Multi-Designs, Mel Jolly at Author RX, and Dan Martino and Janey Lee at Haney Designs, I am able to stay sane, organized, and appear relatively on top of things.
I am so grateful for my “tribe”—the people who actually “get” it. My Fierce Reads sisters: Emmy Laybourne, Anna Banks, Leigh Bardugo, Gennifer Albin, Ann Aguirre, Nikki Kelly, Lish McBride, Elizabeth Fama, and Marissa Meyer. My Girls Gone Sci-Fi warriors: Tamara Ireland Stone, Jessica Khoury, Lauren Miller, Melissa Landers, Sophie Jordan, Victoria Scott, Alexandra Monir, Gretchen McNeil, Beth Revis, Megan Shepherd, Meagan Spooner, Debra Driza, Amy Tintera, and Anna Carey. My Traveling Story stars: Robin Benway, Kevin Emerson, Megan Miranda, and Claudia Gray. My Steamboat Soulmates: Marie Lu, Morgan Matson, Brodi Ashton, Jenn Johansson, and Jennifer Bosworth. My dear friends Brad Gottfred, Robin Reul, Carol Tanzman, Lauren Kate, Alyson Noël, Carolina Munhoz, Raphael Draccon, Nadine Nettman Semerau, Mary E. Pearson, and Joanne Rendell. And a very special thanks to Michelle Levy, who is responsible for pretty much the coolest thing to ever happen to me!
Thank you to my beautiful and supportive family: Laura and Michael Brody (a girl can’t ask for better parents. Well, she could, but she’d never find them!); Terra Brody (the founding member of Team Zen); Cathy and Steve Brody, who are always genuinely excited about whatever I do (You wrote a book? Yay! You went to the dry cleaner? Yay!); and my fur-babies: Honey Pants, BooBoo-Shush, Gracie-Kins, and Baby Baby. No matter how long I disappear for, you are always happy to see me. And, of course, Charlie, my rock and my Zen. Thank you for always keeping your feet on the ground so I can fly.
At the risk of sounding completely crazy (too late!), I want to thank Seraphina and Zen. You are as real to me as anyone else on this page. I will miss you.
And now comes the hard part. How do I properly thank you? The person responsible for all of this. If you’re holding this book right now it means you made it to the end. You took the whole journey with me. There were so many other things you could have done with your time (played Candy Crush, watched The Mindy Project, eaten a bagel) and yet you chose to spend it with Sera and Zen. Even though I make a living stringing words into sentences, I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to effectively convey how grateful I am that you’re here. That you came along for this ride. You might just have to trust me. You might just have to believe.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jessica Brody is the author of several popular books for teens, including Unforgotten, Unremembered, 52 Reasons to Hate My Father, and The Karma Club, as well as two adult novels. She splits her time between California and Colorado. Visit her online at jessicabrody.com, or sign up for email updates here.
BY JESSICA BRODY
THE UNREMEMBERED TRILOGY:
Unremembered
Unforgotten
Unchanged
52 Reasons to Hate My Father
My Life Undecided
The Karma Club
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Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers
175 Fifth Avenue, New York 10010
Copyright © 2015 Jessica Brody
All rights reserved
First hardcover edition, 2015
eBook edition, February 2015
macteenbooks.com
eBooks may be purchased for business or promotional use. For information on bulk purchases, please contact Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department by writing to [email protected].
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Brody, Jessica.
Unchanged / Jessica Brody. — First edition.
pages cm. — (The Unremembered trilogy; book 3)
Summary: “As more secrets are revealed, more enemies are uncovered, and the reality of a Diotech-controlled world grows closer every day, Sera will have to choose where her true loyalties lie, but it’s a choice that may cost her everything she’s ever loved”—Provided by publisher.
ISBN 978-0-374-37989-6 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-250-07359-4 (trade pbk.)
ISBN 978-0-374-30178-1 (e-book)
[1. Amnesia—Fiction. 2. Genetic engineering—Fiction. 3. Space and time—Fiction. 4. Love—Fiction. 5. Science fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.B786157Um 2015
[Fic]—dc23
&nbs
p; 2014040382
eISBN 9780374301781
CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Epigraph
0. Before
PART 1: The Unknowing
1. Updated
2. Amiss
3. Mated
4. Reminders
5. Watchful
6. Fortunate
7. More
8. Threats
9. Sense
10. Gaps
11. Released
12. Unearthed
13. Leaves
14. Sequenced
PART 2: The Unveiling
15. Encapsulate
16. Reactive
17. Hospitality
18. Ruins
19. Silenced
20. Styled
21. Entrance
22. Falsify
23. Rebirth
24. Invitation
25. Unwelcome
26. Conviction
27. Breakage
28. Recall
29. Summons
30. Abnormal
31. Paradox
32. Ruptured
PART 3: The Unraveling
33. Cleansed
34. Strangers
35. Heroism
36. Leader
37. Off-Line
38. Parts
39. Pretenses
40. Nourished
41. Incentives
42. Heritage
43. Tainted
44. Answers
45. Staged
46. Subtext
47. Insults
48. Legacy
49. Unclean
50. Illogical
51. Requests
52. Surprises
PART 4: The Undoing
53. Detached
54. Chamber
55. Below
56. Ripped
57. Tempest
58. Crossing
59. Equality
60. Mourning
61. Hopeful
62. Trespass
63. Wounds
64. Appeals
65. Rearranged
66. Converted
67. Her
68. Somewhere
69. Now
70. Legend
71. Light
72. Unblinded
73. Resemblances
74. Inherited
75. Favors
76. End
77. After
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by Jessica Brody
Copyright
Unchanged Page 34