zoeyreadsbooks 's review for:

Awakened by Laura Elliott
3.0
dark emotional tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Thank you to NetGalley and Angry Robot for an ARC of this book. 

“Sleep, those little slices of death, carving out ever-greater chunks of life until precious little of the waking world was left.”

This book had such an intriguing and unique concept, and I am always drawn to dystopian stories. I've never struggled with insomnia but I tend to have some weirdly dystopian dreams. Laura Elliot includes some profound thoughts on sleep that I had never considered before. However, I found myself more interested in the situation than the people involved. 

Thea seemed somewhat like an unreliable narrator to me, her mind constantly bouncing between the present, past, and sleep. I found myself a bit bored by the flashbacks even though I wanted to know the cause of the situation. Furthermore, I was in Thea’s head the whole book yet I felt that I barely knew anything about her personality, and I knew close to nothing about most of the side characters. The plot felt kind of meandering and I don’t know what to make of the ending. 

Overall, the book intelligently examines sleep and the effects taking sleep from people might have on civilization. I felt that the concept of this book was excellent, I just wish there was more exploration of the characters.