Reviews

Awake by Natasha Preston

madison_jewel's review

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

4.0

kayleewooldridge's review

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • 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

3.75

barwik_17's review against another edition

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1.0

What a disappointment. It's been a long time since I twisted so much internally from embarassment

chasemarie's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

trashconnoisseur's review

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3.0

Apparent sappy romance meets creepy and dangerous. Your past will catch up to you one day, even if you don't remember any of it.


2,5 Stars for this thrilling novel that may very well be reality somewhere.


Clickety click for more rambling about books

I received a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A love story that, in the beginning, feels as sappy as Twilight and it made me pause after the first few chapters and praying that it wouldn't be like that throughout the whole book. It became evident rather soon that I had nothing to fear. Or at least not an overly sweet romance. This isn't your typical high school romance full of 'I-love-yous' and a happy ending.

Don't get my rating wrong. I enjoyed the book, I really did. It was different from everything I'd read up to that point and I couldn't anticipate what was going to happen or what was really going on and the reason behind all this. Heck, until about halfway through the book I wasn't even sure whether a fantasy element would pop up or not.

But.

Oh, such an evil little word.

The fact that Scarlett can't remember anything from the time before she was for is supposed to be weird?! I don't remember anything from when I was a kid save for a few images . But isn't it like that for a lot of people? I'd find it more weird if someone told me they remember something before their fourth birthday.
The author should've used a different age. Around ten or so would've been much better and more believable. Every time this fact gets mentioned in the book or someone just barely points in its direction I get really itchy. This was a poorly used and executed plot device which dampened my enjoyment of the overall story quite a bit.

Aside from that I found the dialogue lacking. It all felt kind of flat and did very little to give me the feeling of getting to know the characters better.

Well done on the other hand how the author managed to creep me out when Noah's POV came up. Creepedy creep creep.


It's scary what strong believes and fanaticism can make people do and one doesn't have to look far in order to see similar things in today's world. The story isn't far fetched and that's what makes this novel that tad bit scarier.

The overall story was good and I enjoyed it. Alas, all the things that bothered me like dialogue and poorly used plot devices that failed when used as sort of character trait left a huge dent in my rating.

ruxiemcgouth's review

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dark medium-paced

2.25

cats_cool's review

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

1.5

Didn’t like this book. I just didn’t like the style of writing or the plot.

carolineinthelibrary's review

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1.0

I don't think I've ever read a book that I DIDN'T like so quickly. I think my motivation was writing this review...

I felt like I was reading an ARC copy of this book at times. There are so many weird spelling, grammar, and structure errors, whoever edited this book should be ashamed. But that's me being picky.

My real issues with this book had more to do with continuity, pacing, and voice. It's also just recklessly unbelievable and has little to no twist. I could see everything that was coming from a mile away. The book is riddled with clichés and it's painfully redundant. It's a sappy, fall in love in one chapter kind of book but the characters pretend like they're not in love every other paragraph, or like they're trying to stay away from each other but just couldn't possibly *swoon*.

I feel like the concept is okay, but poorly executed.
Spoiler I really didn't like that the "twist" was that Scarlett's family (and Noah in the end) are formerly members of a cult, but somehow *~* love *~* made them completely abandon a life that they wholeheartedly believed in. Anyone who knows anything about cults (true crime junkie here, hi) knows that there's so little chance that overnight, or literally in the middle of a cult ritual in this case, someone would just change their mind about everything they've been led to believe. Noah has a few moments of challenged morals but for the most part, his flip from cult believer to non-believer is instantaneous. HE MEETS A GIRL AND SUDDENLY HIS 18 YEARS OF EXISTENCE MEAN NOTHING. also the part where they decide to lose their virginity to one another is cheesy and I hated it.



On the whole, would not recommend wasting time on this one. It also ends on a cliffhanger that I don't think will ever get resolved, which is frustrating.

londoncallnme's review

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1.0

DNF at page 90. This book is awful. If a teenager had written it, I would provide constructive criticism. As it is I can only recommend not reading it.

ainhoarey_'s review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5