Awaken (Awaken #1)

/Awaken/ left me feeling luke-warm. I didn't hate it, but it didn't pull me in and leave me wanting for the sequel either.

I'm starting to think I've become a cynic when it comes to the whole "young love" thing. I scoff when a girl goes "my heart beats faster and my palms get sweaty when I'm around him, why is that?" Hello, it means he gives you the happy tinglies. Just because you haven't experienced it before doesn't mean you're ignorant. I roll my eyes whenever she (I'm pretty sure I've never gotten this from a male POV) goes on about how "he is my air, my everything! I can't live without him!" Now, I've totally been there before, but I could still pick myself up out of bed on the days I knew I wouldn't get to see him.This isn't all on /Awaken/, though. It's mostly just the one that pushed me over the edge.

I really wasn't a big fan of Justin, either. I really can't get down with the whole I-love-you-but-I-shouldn't-and-you-deserve-better thing. "You deserve better" is a line that should only be used once, in my opinion. Either you say it and the person walks away with a "yeah, I do" or you say it and they say "no I don't, because there's nothing wrong with you." If it's the first, there's obviously no reason it'll come up again, but if it's the second then you should graciously accept and not insult your loved one by trying to convince them otherwise. And it seriously drove me nuts how Justin would continuously talk about how the cause was his life and basically not listen to anything Maddie said on the subject. She never once asked him to give it up, just tried to reason with him.

Finally, there's the dystopian world. The backstory and setup was interesting, but I kept poking holes in it quite easily. If everyone relies so completely on technology, how do regular jobs get done? Do people work in grocery stores? Who grows the food? Ships the food? What about doctors? Who delivers a baby?

The Nutshell: I know my review is basically one big rant, but I promise /Awaken/ isn't a terrible book. I think my disappointment can be largely attributed to my mood and cynicism. If you already wanted to read /Awaken/ then you might still want to give it a try, but I can't put my recommendation stamp on it.

Near Miss

Now that I've read this book the cover makes so much more sense! Wow. I'm pretty sure that about sums up how I feel about Awaken, unless you'll permit me to say FREAKIN' WOW! Yup. That's more accurate.

I think what most drew me in about the world that Katie Kacvinsky builds is how close to home it hits. In Maddie's world, everyone is trapped behind computer screens. Constantly plugged in, because that is the best way to stay "safe". For a long time Maddie has seen this as the norm, and a happy existence. Then Justin enters her life and everything is thrown upside down. Don't think that the irony is lost on me that I'm sitting at a computer screen typing this review. Watching Maddie's life change, and her story unfold hit really close to home. It made me think about how much time I spend behind these devices. If she wasn't living, am I? Thank you Katie Kacvinsky for making me think about that.

Maddie is a character I fell into step with instantly. Her questioning attitude, her need to please her parents despite how she feels, her inability to voice her own opinion, it's all woven into a girl who has been trapped for too long. I felt for her. Then sweet, reserved, and life changing Justin comes onto the scene. The Maddie that exists after this happens is entirely different, and yet the same person at the same time. It's a metamorphosis of the best kind. I promise that if you fall in love with her in the beginning, you'll love her even more as you watch her be born all over again.

It also needs to be said that this is one of the sweetest and most frustrating romances I've read. Justin keeps to himself because that's how he has always been. Maddie used to, but Justin breaks her out of that and now the one person she wants she can't seem to have. Frustrating right? However lest you think that this is another book with a girl pining hopelessly after a boy, Maddie is different. It made my heart soar when one of the characters in the book explained to her that pining never did anyone an ounce of good (not her exact words but I'm paraphrasing here). She tells Maddie that we must learn to love ourselves and feel whole alone, before we can truly be invested in someone else. Are you floored? I was! Thank you to an author for finally saying that! Thank you for showing us a girl who knows she needs to learn to be alone! I'll end my slightly feminist rant here, but that made me fall in love with Awaken even more than I already had.

Point being, if you couldn't tell from my incoherent thoughts above, I completely adored this book. The message is clear, and I fully agree. Maddie and Justin teach us how important it is to get out there and really live, and to do it for yourself and no one else. Awaken crawled into my mind and made me think, and if a book can do that then I'm sold. Pure and honest love is all I have for this book.

Awaken grabbed me from the very first page. The book starts with a journal entry by Madeline, which discusses the fact that people do not write longhand anymore and keep journals this way. Nor do they print books or use paper, what with there not being real trees anymore. A definite dystopia for a librarian and lover of literature! These journal entries are interspersed with the narration. There are only a few, but I think it works, because she only has one journal and cannot write too often or will not have anywhere else to write important things.

Of course, Awaken does have the immediate super duper love thing. Madeline falls for Justin the moment she sees him. From then on, she generally describes each first sight of him in a room thusly: "I instantly felt the energy in the room shift as if the lights dimmed or an air current changed direction" (150). This is definitely a bit much, but perhaps more understandable considering that this is almost the first time she has ever met someone her own age. So if you spent most of your time in your room on your computer, then left to meet a friend you chatted with and he turned out to be incredibly hot, nice, smart and trying to save the world, you might fall pretty hard pretty fast too.

Katie makes a good main character. She's brave sometimes, petrified sometimes, capable of defending herself and others when she needs to, incredibly intelligent and unaware of her amazingness. All of this combines to make her into a real character, a teenage girl trying to figure out her place in the world and what she wants to make of herself. It was always interesting when one of the journal entries would come up, because you could really see her working through the things that preceded. Plus, you got a view into what she hid in front of others, because she likes to really think through possibilities before committing herself to something.

This was a great dystopian read with some fantastic quotes that totally kept me rapt. From the ending of this one, a sequel is pretty much certain and I am most glad of it!