The unseen: DON'T TELL THEM YOU CAN SEE

by Kavya Minnie Carman, Anjali VanDrie (Editor)

Genres: Dystopia, Fantasy, Mystery, Mystery Thriller, Romance, Fiction

328 pages, Paperback

Published November 24, 2025

Reviews

[X]

I am proud of this author for writing a complete novel at 14 and hope that she keeps writing and improving long into the future, and that she does not get discouraged by long-or-short-winded Goodreads reviews, especially in the early days of publication.

This book is based off a popular internet prompt that (I believe?) originated on Reddit, although the author got it off Pinterest. The author wrote her own spin on it, using the prompt as the inciting incident at the beginning of her story (like one would for a short story in English class) before expanding into a classic dystopian underground revolution story. I don’t mind this because as someone who grew up reading fanfiction, I recognize that sometimes the same old tropes can be done in new ways, or in the same old way, and as long as you’re the type to enjoy that trope, you’ll usually find some enjoyment in it.

This is ya-fiction and reads like it. Even if written to be an adult character, each character voice is YOUNG and similar in tone (with slight variations depending on archetype). This would likely be enjoyed far more by someone who is actually a teenager (not me) and should be advertised heavily towards that audience rather than saying that all-ages can enjoy it equally. If you’re an adult about to read this book, be prepared for shallow characters and to use the plot/world as your reason to keep reading. The plot and world aren’t anything spectacular, it’s all kind of a net of tropes woven together, but I do feel like that’s the most compelling and intriguing portion of the story, even if sometimes there’s some occurrences that feel a bit too easy and coincidental for the characters. Still, there’s worse books out there; this book wouldn’t be out of place in the teen section of a library.

Again, this author was 14 when she wrote this book and I feel that with time and practice, worldbuilding and intricate plot will be her biggest strengths in other works she publishes in the future. Just keep writing and do not get discouraged by criticism. There is such an abundance of negative discourse about books that authors are bound to hear far more unpleasant things about their books than positive, and it’s so important to continue to write the books that you would want to read (which are not necessarily the books you want to write) in the face of all that.

[Jessica]

1/5/2026 saw this on tiktok so will read this once more ppl have read it based on reviews

[Jennifer Dziak · Rating 5 out of 5]

This author is a captivating storyteller and I'm so glad I took a few hours to read her work. I was honestly entertained throughout the novel, even though its aimed for a younger audience. I'm really excited to see what the author continues to write as she ages!! I would say I wish she had an editor, though. I almost DNF because the amount of spelling or punctuation errors were overwhelming. Nearly every page had one error or more, which amounts to *hundreds* by the end of the book. At the very least, using Word spell check would've prevented a lot of them. For many readers, those errors (especially at that frequency) can be very distracting. OVERALL: The Unseen had a strong narrative from beginning to end, a bit of 'expected' twists perfectly balanced with unexpected twists, themes of betrayal and resilience and revolution, plus well-developed characters. I would totally recommend it (or even read it again!)

[Carrie Wilhite · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 ⭐️⭐️💫

for a 14 year old to have written this book is absolutely awesome. there was actually lots of potential as the story was simple to follow and had high stakes. enjoyable read and some sections had great description of what was happening. i do wish it was a bit more thrilling, especially in the first 10% of the book

but overall, the formatting, spelling, and dialogue issues kept throwing me out of the novel and truly made my reading experience not so great. get an editor and it’ll truly be 10 times better. keep it up!

[Sophia Allen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel bad leaving this review after learning the author is 14…great concept for a book just executed very poorly with some big plot issues in my opinion. Uglies meets Fourth Wing vibes. The editing needs WORK.

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really developed story to be written by someone who is only 14. I hope the author continues to write. This book is a concept i would’ve never considered, breeding questions of the possibilities of our own world, government and meaning of the spiritual world. This would be a really good movie, too!

[jess · Rating 2 out of 5]

i have found out this author is 14 years old and i will say i am impressed at the fact she even had this vision for a book at that age. this book was like birdbox meets the rain and i did really enjoy the concept of the storyline i just don’t think it was executed as well as it could have been. it felt quite rushed and it was hard to keep up with some of the characters and the purpose they served. i was shocked that one of the characters was killed off as i did not think it would go that way so that was a good little twist. the hunger games mention was good because we all love the hunger games out here. i think the only negative to this book was the spelling errors which stood out to me quite abit because i was having to re read sentences. i would be very proud if i was this author because to have published a book at 14 is so impressive.

[Jessie]

I did end up DNFing the book. I like the premise of the book but couldn’t get past all the spelling errors. Would love the opportunity to read it again if the author comes out with a proofread version but in the meantime, it will be a no for me just due to that. Still recommend that y’all give it a read to form your own opinion!

[Abby · Rating 2 out of 5]

For a fourteen year old, the book had such great potential. But it fell so completely flat. The grammar was horrible, author doesn’t use the correct your most of the time, missed capitalized letters, misspelled words. Plot was boring, the book doesn’t go into depth.

This reads like a completely unedited draft. Needs some HEAVY editing. Shouldn’t be published.

[jordy ♪(´ε｀*) · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF
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i just couldn't get into it. might try again one day !

[Mia · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5

[Megan Fraser · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars
I didn’t hate it, but didn’t love it unfortunately.

[Riley Schmidt · Rating 4 out of 5]

So goooood, It took awhile to get into but once I got like deep into the book, I was hoooked!!! Cant believe how goood this was