Reviews with content warning for Sexism - The Awakening

Oh holy hell, did I ever expect to like this book? No. Did I absolutely fall in love with it? Yes.

Tory and Darcy Vega are twins who haven't had the best of lives - think A Series of Unfortunate Events - but the hits keep coming and they won't stop coming. They managed to flee their abusive foster father and have been stealing and hustling to make ends meet in their hometown of Chicago when suddenly a mysterious man shows up and claims they're the long-lost Fae princesses of a world they've never heard of. And y'all, that's only the first CHAPTER.

I'm going to get what I disliked out of the way first: the formatting of this book is such a hard pill to swallow. Every chapter had a POV from each twin, meaning that chapters feel like they're double the length they actually are because once you finish one twin's POV, you're often thrust back into the other one. They should have cut their losses and split every POV into a new numbered chapter because I genuinely lost where I even was in the book in the middle. Add in some poor editing, the most "we're new to this world and everything is Awful" plotline ever, some truly TERRIBLE actions by the love interests, some very cringe bullying scenes, and you get a nice little cocktail of a miserable reading experience for the first 60% but...

Then you get past that 60% and you suddenly realize why so many people love this.

I'm planning on doing a whole video about this series where I talk about everything in detail - but I'll leave my loves about this book to talking about the fact that it appealed to the tween in me who so deeply craved these kinds of stories. The stories where the characters are just beaten down at every chance and every turn, the stories where you just can't help but feel terrible for the main characters because no one ever gives them a break or throws them a bone, but they never give up. I thought I'd end up disliking both Tory and Darcy for multiple reasons, but instead I found myself absolutely rooting for the two of them every time someone knocked them back a peg and they turned around and kept swinging.

I will say, I think these books will appeal to anyone, like me, who trolled the depths of fanfiction dot net in its heyday. If you sorted by newest fics because you've read all the others before, if you clicked on OC fics because you wanted to experience the character entering this world you loved for the first time again, if you stayed up until 3am reading hundreds of thousands of words and getting lost in the same world, characters, and story just in different fonts and different scenarios - these are for you.

Onto book two.

A comprehensive video covering the entire Zodiac Academy series will be coming soon from me. I'll update the reviews when I have the link for you all.

content warnings: heavy bullying (a very prominent plot point), child abuse, abuse, sexual content (80% in, light graphic scene), age gap love interest, and some general cringe but once you turn your brain off, it's so much fun.

Content Warnings

micaelamariem's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

Liked this and hated that I liked it because of all the er ethical considerations. And everyone makes me mad

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bethany_l15's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny tense medium-paced

4.5

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magicalmegija's review against another edition

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fast-paced

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

2.0

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cakeboxing's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

1.5

WARNING: THIS BOOK CONTAINS ALL KINDS OF NON-CONSENSUAL ACTS

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS AT THE END

I went into The Awakening with high hopes. It had been hyped up a lot online.

The premise is fantastic and had me excited from the start. Who wouldn't want to read an adult Harry Potter mixed with Avatar the Last Airbender mixed with Acotar?

The character and world building could use a lot of work. Also, there are waaaayyyyy too many direct references to outside works (Harry Potter, Downton Abbey, I think even Star Trek at one point?). It's not a subtle thing, they are literally referenced by publication name. Just a bit cringey in my opinion, but it was easy enough to dismiss.

One of the big things that made this a one off read instead of gunning for the whole series is that THIS BOOK NEEDS AN EDITOR. Seriously, it's like there wasn't anyone going over this book at all. So many grammatical, punctuation, tense, or even just spelling mistakes!! There was at least four alone in the first chapter!

Most of it I was able to brush off, little things I totally understand and I would have been willing to ignore for the sake of the plot. However, when I encounter several within a few sentences of each other it drives me insane. And that happened many many times throughout the book.

Things really started to fall apart for me at the 80% mark. I pushed through and finished it because of the sunk-cost fallacy, but I probably should have dnf'd this book.

As far as the plot goes, the whole book takes place over the span of like 3 weeks, and it's mostly focused on the drama and bullying between students instead of the actual learning, so if you're looking for something along the lines of adult Harry Potter (as it was marketed), you might want to look elsewhere.

- - - - - - - SPOILERS AFTER THIS POINT - - - - - - -

A huge part of the premise is that the twins need to be able to pass The Reckoning at the end of the term or school year or something. We don't find out anything about it except that it's really difficult and super incredibly important that they pass. Everything in this book feels like it's leading up to The Reckoning, but then the book ends after an altercation and betrayal that happens during a school dance that is - surprise! - still at the beginning of the school year. Turns out that The Reckoning doesn't happen until book 3!

Foreshadowing doesn't really exist in this book, at least in a way that makes sense. The authors decided to hold the reader's hand from beginning to end, and there is hardly any, if any at all, 'showing' instead of 'telling'.

Now for the main complaint. I didn't see anywhere (on descriptions, reviews, tiktoks, nothing) any kind of trigger warning or content warnings. THIS BOOK IS FULL OF NON-CONSENSUAL ACTS. I am not one to shame others for their preferences, so if you like this kind of stuff be my guest. We all have our own tastes. I definitely should not have read this book for personal reasons, my mental health definitely took a hit.

It was especially gross when a vampire teacher figure is feeding off of one of the main characters who is a student, and the vampires get to 'claim' their sources for energy, which is also very gross. There's also non-consensual touching (non-sexual) on like every other page.

I do have to hand it to the main characters for not being comfortable with any of this stuff and actually standing their ground. But how many times do they have to say they don't consent to something for the supposed love interests to stop what they're doing??? Almost every single time, the boys end up overpowering the girls to do what they want (feeding, taking energy/magic, etc), until the girls are strong enough to make them stop. So I waited this whole book for a badass boss bitch moment and it never happened.

And we all know that the boys are supposed to get their redemption arcs and whatever as is par for the trope, but I just can't see how they can be redeemed after literally trying to murder one of the twins??!?

I will not be continuing this series.

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allisonbraun's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense medium-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? No

4.0

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hannalizzy's review against another edition

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lighthearted slow-paced

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

1.0

The book was absolute dog water.

First, the amount of grammatical errors and typos is astronomical. I don’t think the authors hired an editor at all, honestly. I was constantly cringing at how awkwardly phased everything was and how unnatural the story progression felt.

Second, the main girls are young, and they are being constantly sexually harassed, in public AND BY TEACHERS, and NO ONE AROUND THEM CARES? They’re just told that “that’s how things are in Solaria” and they better get used to it. Consent? Never heard of her.

The worst part about reading this book (besides actually finishing it) was the overwhelming feeling of profound disappointment I felt at such a cool story idea being mishandled beyond belief. I’m interested in the concept of Solaria, but that is it. The characters were shallow and completely stupid. The whole thing felt like a wattpad fantasy.

To the person who told me this book would be like adult Harry Potter, I’m never forgiving you.

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