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Awake is a young adult thriller. I absolutely love the cover of Awake with the rose and the barbed wire, and the concept of a cult, because I don't read too many books with cults in them. I was in the mood for something creepy, and I had heard amazing things about Natasha's last book, the Cellar. Alas, Awake didn't work out quite the way I wanted it too. I liked it alright, but it certainly wasn't my favorite. Most of the reason that I didn't flat out hate this book was because the concept was intriguing to me, and I genuinely wanted to see where the author was going to go with it. Which to me means that Natasha's Preston's writing was not the issue for me. Awake was a technically solid book, as far as writing goes.

First, and this is a minor point, but the summary says that Scarlett couldn't remember anything before the age of 5, but the story has the age at 4. I know that is a little point, but honestly 5 in the story would have been better. Because I can't remember anything before the age of 4! (or 5 for that matter) The things that I do remember, I am pretty sure are not my own memories, but rather memories of stories that other people have told me. But fine, if Scarlett is freaked out because her lack of memories feels scary or weird to her, I could get on board with that. It is everyone else's reactions that had me pulling me hair. They were flat out shocked whenever they found out that she couldn't remember. Like it was the weirdest thing they had ever heard. And that was where the author started to lose me. It felt like a disconnect with the summary and with the story. I know that sounds weird so let me try and explain that means. (I have seen different versions of the summary floating around as I format this post, but the issues with the story remain the same. These things still bugged me even though the summary cleared it up. I am glad that the summary was modified though, I think that will help with other readers checking out Awake.)

My other main issue was with Summary Noah and Noah in the story. In the summary, it makes Noah seem like he is going to be protecting Scarlett from the cult, but then when I was reading the book, it really did not seem to be that way. You do get more answers as the story progresses but I couldn't connect with either of the characters because they just seemed so out there to me. Noah is creepy beyond belief and Scarlett just fell flat for me. I found Awake to be confusing and too many things just didn't jive and add up in my mind to make this story work. Fans of creepy stories and cults and darker versions of people (think really messed up) might get the appeal of Awake. I wanted this book to work out for me, but it just didn't. I didn't hate it, but I really didn't love it either.

This review was originally posted on Book Briefs