Reviews with content warning for Alcohol - The Awakening

Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

The Awakening by Susanne Valenti, Caroline Peckham

56 reviews

silverrae's review

4.0

After accepting the egregious amount of run on sentences, out of place British spelling, and the occasional typo, it turned out to be an entertaining read.

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lestie4short's review

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adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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kinsportch's review

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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zabeishumanish's review against another edition

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adventurous dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I totally understand why this series is so popular. Tory and Darcy are super compelling characters and the world-building here is insanely complex yet still comprehensible. Bully romances are really not my thing and all of the magical aspects incorporated into the bullying made the story a bit too intense for my taste. If you're a fan of bully romance though this probably won't bother you.

The story isn't a romance, despite romantic elements (bully romance specifically), the book ends on a cliffhanger with no happy relationships in the book.

There are a ton of consent issues in this book. While none of those issues are around sex, the twins have no bodily autonomy whenever a vampire decides to feed on them and no mental autonomy in terms of the coercion magic, and emotional manipulation from the sirens. These consent issues being brushed off as part of the fae power structure makes sense in the world-building but has the potential to be more triggering than direct violation of sexual consent.

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mberezin95's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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arys_library's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I really really loved this book! A great introduction to this giant series. I’ve heard a lot of mixed reviews on it and I agree with a small part of all of them.

Someone said the first book is like a really long first chapter of a book. And while I agree, it’s a damn good first chapter. It’s an introduction to this fantasy world, but was so easy to understand, there was very little info dumping.

I absolutely loved how all of the characters were built and their development. Their personalities, even the bad annoying characters, were so prominent it made the book so lovable and entertaining. Certain times when a character would appear I would get so excited to read their parts, no matter how small. And for a book that is mainly an introduction have that much character impact shows how great the character building and storytelling is.

I will say I wish there was more internal turmoil between the two main characters Tori and Darcy. Their whole lives have been turned upside down and everything they’ve ever known is taken from them. And we don’t get to see much into their minds on how they are processing so much new information. It really lacked depth in that area. It was like after something incredibly strange happened, the girls thought about how weird and crazy this event was, and then just went along with it 2 minutes later.

I loved the double povs between the twin mcs. But it would sometimes be confusing. I got a good grasp around 3/4 of the way into the book but before that I was having trouble deciphering between the two. There were many times where I was questioning which girl lived where, who has which power, etc.

Also super random but the artwork on the beginning of each chapter was so beautiful but there were times where it wood cover up the words and I couldn’t understand what was happening. It didn’t happen every chapter but it happened enough for me to be annoyed by.

Overall I really enjoyed this book, I’m so excited for the rest of the series so I could see more of each of the characters!

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zanazy's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I finally caved in and decide to read this much-hyped book series. The setting in a prep academy, the twins, the overly hot boys… I seriously thought this was headed for disaster. I found myself pleasantly surprised if not also annoyed. This was also a fairly quick read. Let’s get some things out of the way…. This is classified as a bully romance which I didn’t know was a thing until recently. I was warned by a friend who DNF and the general YA/NA book community that this book/series would be hard so I was prepared for the worst.

Perhaps this says too much about my upbringing and life experience yet I’ll admit, I didn’t find the bullying to be off putting and it was not until the end that I felt its impact. That said, there is a ton of bullying done through the whole book so if that’s not your thing… be warned. It’s beyond mean girls and crosses a lot of lines. Physical and emotional bullying/abuse is hard to read and there is a lot in this story. Underneath the bullying there is some plot driven acts that add to the mystery.

I haven’t read much on this series, but already, I have some theories and suspicious people that I don’t think are supposed to be obvious…yet. We’ll see how that goes.

The Vega sisters are walking contradictions and frustrate me… especially because they walk right into too many traps that are screaming DON’T. Their sisterly bond and love for each other is admirable and one of my favorite parts. For that alone, and the fact that deep down they care about others they consider friends/allies keeps me rooting for them.

The boys are all a**hol**. Yet, I can’t help but feel some of them are not wholly corrupt… more to come there I suppose.

Caleb and Darius are the two I get the sense have deeper layers. I thought Seth was in this too, but after that ending… IDK. I have a thing with hair. I am also thinking there is some serious teacher-student romance hints here so not sure. Orion and Darcy are too close for comfort. It feels like a lot of triangles are being setup.

Ok so on to my theories….

Caleb truly cares for Tory
Seth cares for Darcy?
Orion cares for Darcy
Diego is sus and may be a harpy?
Diego spiked the drinks but Sofia foiled his plan and is working with the harpies

The book ends on a cliffhanger but it’s not a I will die if I don’t find out what it is. The setup is there to have an uphill climb until the Reckoning during which we’ll know if the Vega girls can survive. The series is long so I imagine that is only Act 1.

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moiranetty's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Honestly didn’t like the first half of the book, the writing felt a bit clunky. The story started to pick up in the second half it felt like it picked up. I like maybe 3 characters in this book, the rest are just stupid assholes. Something that confused me was the twins are supposed to be from Chicago but use British terms?

“my uniform or sports kit”
“Darius to be slating her behind her back”
“put on some thongs, my feet aching too much to bear being confined to any shoes.”

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hiddeninfantasy's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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ka_ke's review

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I tried. Like I REALLY tried to like this series. But I just could not get into it. Maybe it was the horoscopes, maybe it was the basic plot, but it definitely shouldn’t be compared to Harry Potter as an adult version with *spice*.

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