Loud Awake and Lost

 
3.8 (2)
 
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Author(s)
Age Range
12+
Release Date
November 12, 2013
ISBN
9780385752725
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LOUD. There was an accident. Ember knows at least that much. She was driving. The car was totaled. She suffered back injuries and brain trauma. But she is alive. That's the only thing left she can cling to. AWAKE. Eight months later, Ember feels broken. The pieces of her former self no longer fit together. She can't even remember the six weeks of her life leading up to the accident. Where was she going? Who was she with? And what happened during those six weeks that her friends and family won't talk about? LOST. One by one, Ember discovers the answers to these questions, like a twisted game of dominos. And little by little, the person she used to be slips further and further away. In the wake of her critically praised young adult psychological thrillers, Tighter and All You Never Wanted, National Book Award finalist Adele Griffin has created another triumph. Loud Awake & Lost is an unflinching story of loss and recovery.

LOUD. There was an accident. Ember knows at least that much. She was driving. The car was totaled. She suffered back injuries and brain trauma. But she is alive. That's the only thing left she can cling to. AWAKE. Eight months later, Ember feels broken. The pieces of her former self no longer fit together. She can't even remember the six weeks of her life leading up to the accident. Where was she going? Who was she with? And what happened during those six weeks that her friends and family won't talk about? LOST. One by one, Ember discovers the answers to these questions, like a twisted game of dominos. And little by little, the person she used to be slips further and further away. In the wake of her critically praised young adult psychological thrillers, Tighter and All You Never Wanted, National Book Award finalist Adele Griffin has created another triumph. Loud Awake & Lost is an unflinching story of loss and recovery.

Editor reviews

4 reviews
Overall rating
 
3.8
Plot
 
4.0(2)
Characters
 
4.0(2)
Writing Style
 
3.5(2)
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N/A(0)
Loud Awake and Lost
(Updated: February 10, 2014)
Overall rating
 
3.7
Plot
 
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Loud Awake and Lost is the intriguing glimpse into the life of a survivor of a car accident trying to pick up the pieces of her life. Seventeen-year-old Ember Leferrier doesn't remember much that lead up to her horrific accident that nearly took her life. Only bits and pieces come to her, including questions that no-one including her parents, BFF Rachel, or ex-boyfriend Holden will answer. Then she runs into Kai and she gets a spark of something. But will the 'truth' be too devastating for her?

What worked had to be how Ember puts together the pieces of her life before the accident even if it might be too painful to face. Her struggles/conflicts resonate and the reader can't help but want to know what really happened on the night that took away so much from her.

I also liked the chemistry between Ember and Kai. It's sudden and very intense. You want to follow him and discover what he might know but on the same hand can't help but wonder if the key he holds might shatter Ember.

What I had problems with had to be the pacing. There are some passages that felt drawn out and went on for too long. Also some of the descriptions didn't work for me. Now this is just my opinion. There is one scene where Ember compares kissing Kai as not knowing what is happening around her similar to the 'twilight sleep' a dentist puts you under when getting wisdom teeth out. That pulled me out because, I don't know about anyone else, but my own experience was very painful. Now that's just me but I thought that was an interesting way to show what Ember might have felt.

Overall though Ember's quest is one that was intriguing enough for me to want to follow her to the truth which is surprising. Also Ember arcs as a character on realizing what she really wants and draws on her inner strength to confront not only her past but her future.
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Lost and Found in NYC
Overall rating
 
4.0
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Adele Griffin delivers a haunting and powerful story in Ember's recovery from a near-fatal car accident. Ember has lost 6 weeks of her memory before the accident, and this is her journey to discover who she was at that time, and who she has now become.
This books is real yet fantastical at the same time. It takes place in Brooklyn, and with Griffin's description of the locale it feels like you're really there, like maybe it's where you grew up once upon a time. ember has difficult relationships with her parents, her best friend Rachel, and her ex-boyfriend Holden. Teens can definitely relate to these relationships - she fights against her parents' being over-protective, she keeps secrets from her bff, and she is attracted to her ex like a moth to a flame.
There is this eerie and fantastic element to the story as well. Ember's fading in and out of reality because of the memory damage from the accident is disorienting and confusing. She grasps at her lost memories, then holds on tight and struggles with them until we're not sure what's real, what's a memory, and what she fabricating from friends' stories.
Ember's story is a page-turner, a thriller, a haunting romance and shocking tale of self-discovery. When she discovered the truth about her accident I was shocked, despite the hints leading up to it. I felt for her, and it hurt, but I just had to keep reading and turning those pages until the very end!
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