Awake

by Natasha Preston

Summary from GoodReads

Scarlett doesn’t remember anything before the age of five. Her parents say it’s from the trauma of seeing her house burn down, and she accepts the life they’ve created for her without question—until a car accident causes Scarlett to start remembering pieces of an unfamiliar past.

When a new guy moves into town, Scarlett feels an instant spark. But Noah knows the truth of Scarlett’s past, and he’s determined to shield her from it...because Scarlett grew up in a cult called Eternal Light, controlled by her biological parents.

And they want her back.

Thoughts on the Book

I got this book at BEA, there was a huge cool stack of them done in this pretty circle.  The cover is gorgeous, and it came in this dust jacket type thing that added to the mystery of it.  I'd been itching to pick it up and give it a read, so I happily grabbed it when it made it's slow way to the top of my BEA pile.

My Review

This book is about Scarlett, who doesn't remember anything before the age of four.  Everyone things this is completely bizarre, especially the new guy, Noah.  Right when Noah shows up Scarlett falls for him, and the feeling is mutual.  Everything changes when Scarlett is in a car accident and she begins to remember things from her early childhood.

When I began to read this I was like "Oh, okay, we're going with the main character falling for the new mysterious boy meme, it's not horribly overdone yet, so sure".  That part actually wasn't too bad, it wasn't insta-attraction/obsession a la Twilight, it felt a bit more natural, they were friends first then began dating.  But where shall I begin?  Let's stick with characters first.

Scarlett was an okay protagonist, she wasn't a great heroine and she did make stupid mistakes.  But she is a sixteen (or almost sixteen, I couldn't figure that out, it kept switching back and forth) year old girl, they're bound to make a dumb mistake or two.  Especially involving a guy.  Trust me, I once was one, I know this from experience.  At the end of the book when she really needed to stand up for herself she was so weak, she spent most of the time crying.  I get that what she was going through was hard, and she did make the wise choice of pretending she would go along with stuff, but she really spent too much time crying.  It got annoying.  Fast. 

Noah was another solidly okay character.  He's supposed to be this big mystery, who is he, what does he want with Scarlett? But he's just boring - a good guy who likes Scarlett.  Who everyone forgives way too easily.  The other characters are stupid.  Imogen?  Completely pointless, the other "best friends" that I completely forget the names of because they were so insignificant - pointless.  The members of Eternal Light, so stupid, if they're important enough to be mentioned they should at least have some sort of personality.

The parents were weird.  The first time Scarlett goes over to Noah's her parents insist on following to meet him, they then talk to his parents.  This right there should have negated the entire story, but NOPE!  After that point her parents completely love Noah.  They spoke to him for like 5 minutes before he and Scarlett left for the movies.  Noah's parents were also weird, or at least his dad was.  How was the end even a thing?  No father would do that, especially a father who has spent the last 18 years raising his son.  Oops was that a spoiler?  Oh the horror!  Noah being 18 was such a big reveal at the end, despite the totally awkward "foreshadowing" (if you could even call it that) right at the beginning. 

Now for the stupidest part of the whole book.  Lately, completely unrelated to this book, my friends have been talking about how little they remember before the age of 5 or 6.  I remember quite a bit from my preschool years, as does one other friend, the rest don't remember much of anything.  So why, WHY is it such a big deal that Scarlett can't remember anything earlier than her 4th birthday?  Most people can't!  She, her parents, Noah, everyone makes such a big deal about how weird it is that she can't remember anything.  She even goes to a shrink to try to remember!  SO STUPID.  Maybe it would be weird if it were like anything before the age of 10, because that's a solid 4 years that most people do remember parts of.

Overall I give this book a 3/10.  I nearly stopped reading it, but I hate leaving things unread, and I feel like I can't properly hate on a book without finishing it.  And as I've said before, I'm a masochist when it comes to bad books, I have to finish them!