A review by multicoloredbookreviews
Awakened by Ciara Duggan

2.0

First things first we start the scene in rever—Sorry. Not the time for Julie & the Phantoms references. Back to the review. I fell under the spell of a pretty cover. Again? Yes, again. I'm a visual person, and as such I have a hard time overlooking the pretty ones. I know I shouldn't judge, and I've fallen into that pitfall more times than I care to admit, but I can't help it. In my defense, though, this book has a very appealing, riveting blurb too. So it wasn't just my shallowness that drove me to pick it up.



If we're talking broad brush strokes, the book was ok. The overall story structure was fine, the plot was interesting enough, I didn't hate the characters and I found no SPaG issues. I think tweens would find this book very much to their liking.



However, I've long since grown out of my tween years, and I don't think this book is particularly suited for an older, more discerning and experienced reader. First, the writing felt VERY clunky. There was a certain amateurish feel to how the sentences were structured. In particular, one thing that kept tripping me up was the recurrent switch of third person narrator types. The fluctuation between omniscient and limited was disconcerting and distracting. Look at me talking about different types of narrators.



Second, because the book had such a strong juvenile vibe, the few gruesome, violent scenes that made their way into this tale clashed really harshly with the overall mood. Picture a character being killed in a very explicit, somewhat bloody fashion in an animated Disney film. It'd be weird, right? It'd feel out of place.



Third, the characters were a bit flat for my liking. Hannah was a very negative, glass-half-empty kind of girl. Her constant dreary, dejected attitude was quite tiring. The antagonist was your stereotypical bad guy girl and the love interest was the cliched, good-looking guy—slightly tortured—but with a good heart (your garden variety Stefan Salvatore, shall we say, since this book is recommended for fans of L. J. Smith's TVD).



I think all the main characters would have benefited from a bit more development.

And that brings me to my last point: I think the author tried to cram too much in too few pages. I think the majority of events even took place within a couple of days. It was all VERY rushed.

Maybe this story would have worked better as a duet, to give the plot more room to breathe. Space for characters and events to be more solidly established and properly fleshed out. To dive deeper into the lore of this world and the ins and outs of magic and the people capable of wielding it. The rhyming spells were very fun and I enjoyed them, but because the addition of magic got reduced to a few rhymes and supernatural creatures, the book ended up feeling unfinished.

I believe Ciara Duggan has the potential to be a great author, but this book in particular just had a subpar execution. However, I still think a specific demographic may find it enjoyable. I think it's well suited to young, casual readers. So I'd encourage people to try it out and see what they think.

**I received an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher**