Awaken by Katie Kacvinsky
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
“Life should be a risk. It’s more than a straight line that you can see clearly from one point to the other. It dips and curves and you never know what’s around the bend sometimes until you get there. That scares a lot of people. But that’s the beauty of it.”
I had a copy of this book for quite awhile now and I don’t really know why I never did get a chance to read it until now. Not until I’ve read [b:First Comes Love|12180204|First Comes Love|Katie Kacvinsky|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328837002s/12180204.jpg|17043516] and seeing her good writing expertise on that book, I was convinced that I should definitely check out this book of hers.
The book cover was pretty lovely though it’s really unexpected that behind that beautiful and colorful cover is an unexpected dystopian world. I’m thinking this book would present to me a typical YA read but then after reading its first few pages, I’ve proven myself wrong because it was more than your typical YA-dystopian read.
Awaken, is one of the most believable dystopian book I’ve read. In an age where technology mostly ruled our life, it’s not really hard seeing the world now being turned into the world that this book presented. Set in a world of advanced technology on the year 2060; the world of digital school, constant electronic distractions and the lack of human connection and fear of mingling with other people. The world that is built on this story was well done and you could really see the environment that this story presents really happening. It was filled with fear and so much relevance to our present time that just thinking about it seems to be scary.
Maddie, the protagonist – was extremely intelligent, confident with her own opinions and thoughts and the digital lifestyle she live. The story mainly focuses on how Maddie understands the society she lives in, understanding her own self and in choosing her future. It is really nice to see her standing for her own throughout the story.
Justin is one compelling character and not like most of the people in Maddie’s world because rather than spending his time and life in front of a computer screen, he prefers to experience what really life is by mingling with other people. Though he may seem aloof and has that villain aura within him, I still like him. He is passionate about what he believed in and his different views that it tend to make him distant from other people most of the time and he clearly hate entanglements. Along the way of reading about him, it’s pretty nice seeing him unclenched and balance things and became more understanding with things as he grew closer to Maddie. He shows Maddie the real life experiences and that begins to awaken her.
In all, the dystopian world was well-constructed and even the characters keeps me hanging on until the much bit of end. I really wanted more from this book. It left a lot of unanswered questions for me and I can’t wait to get a hand on its sequel. Awaken left me definitely plugged-in and I just can’t wait to know what the characters are going to do next and how their decisions and choices will ultimately affect the digital world around them. It was a pretty good read that left me with fascinating but definitely frightening look on the future.
