Wake
Author: Amanda Hocking
Series: Watersong #1
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal Romance, Fantasy
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
My Rating:
Summary:
Gemma seems to have it all – she’s carefree, pretty, and falling in love with Alex, the boy next door. He’s always been just a friend, but this summer they’ve taken their relationship to the next level.
Then one night, Gemma’s ordinary life changes forever. Penn, Lexi, and Thea invite her to party with them at the cove, and the next morning she wakes up on the beach feeling groggy and sick, knowing something is different.
Suddenly Gemma is stronger, faster, and more beautiful than ever. But her new powers come with a terrifying price. And as she uncovers the truth, she’s is forced to choose between staying with those she loves – or entering a new world brimming with dark hungers and unimaginable secrets.
First Sentence: The engine made a bizarre chugging sound, like a dying robot llama, followed by an ominous click-click.
My Review:
First thought as soon as I finished the book: Yay! Thank goodness, I’m finally done! The torture is over!
Sadly, yes, Wake was that bad.
I loved Amanda Hocking’s Trylle trilogy, although I wasn’t completely satisfied with the last two books in that series. However, Wake is completely different. It lacks the writing, the plot, and the flow that the Trylle trilogy has. In fact, Wake is so different that I’m thinking that maybe it’s a lie that Amanda Hocking wrote it, maybe it’s someone else pretending to be her…
Let me start with the cover. Online, it looks gorgeous. However, when you have the actual book in your hands, it’s downright…different. First of all, the cover is shiny. Yes, shiny. If you reflect it in the light, you can see the rainbow-colored shine appear on the book. It’s downright annoying. The girl on the cover also looks weird.
Wake is told from the third person point of view from two characters: Harper and Gemma. While other authors can easily pull this off, Amanda Hocking makes it sound downright awkward. It just doesn’t flow. Harper and Gemma is simply stating stuff, not showing the readers (sort of a show, don’t tell thing) and that strongly stands out in the writing, and not in a good way.
All the characters also endlessly annoy me to no end, with the exception of Daniel. Harper was too overprotective, although I understand why after whats she’s been through. I have a younger sister and I always watch over her, but I don’t obsess over her that I have to know every single detail of her life like Harper does. No, I let her live out her life, as long as she’s responsible. Gemma, on the other hand, is just plain selfish. I wanted to throttle her until she realizes what she’s put her family through. Can’t she stop being so selfish and not swim in the bay at night? I know she loves it, but try to compromise. Go five times a week or just don’t come back home that late. Is that so hard to do? But no, according to Gemma, everything is about Gemma, Gemma, Gemma. And let’s not get me started about Alex. He’s basically the stereotypical geek-gone-hottie crush, nothing special.
Wake never really starts until two-thirds of the book. The first two-thirds was pretty much introduction chapters describing Harper and Gemma’s lifestyle, relationship problems, and the three girls that suddenly appeared. It’s not until two-thirds of the book that the real action starts, but by then, it was already far too late. All I wanted to do was finish reading Wake so I could rant on and on about how it made me suffer in boredom when I could have been busy reading other great books.
However, I have to give major credit for Amanda Hocking’s version of a siren. To change the original singing siren that lures men to their deaths to a women eating cannibal takes some major brain power. Sadly, we don’t know much about Amanda Hocking’s version of a siren since it wasn’t until way past two-thirds of the book that Amanda Hocking wrote about the truth about them.
I’m happy that I never brought Wake since I was so tempted to. It was everywhere in Barnes & Noble and Amanda Hocking was one of my most anticipated authors. Thank goodness I decided to read the book first, then decide whether or not to buy it. If I brought it, I would have never forgave myself for wasting my money like that.
I’ll check out the sequel, just because of the breathtaking cover. Hopefully the cover doesn’t have the annoying shiny problem that Wake does. If Lullaby is as bad as Wake, then I might as well just drop the series although it pains me to do so.
I was afraid of this :/ It sounds so interesting. I’m still debating reading it, but now I’ll probably wait til summer so if it sucks I won’t feel like I wasted my weekend
Good luck with this one Elaine!
Kelly recently posted…Waiting On Wednesday [32]
I tried to read Wake; but, since I picked up its ebook version last year, I’ve been delaying reading it. Well, obviously, it was for a good cause. :/ The cover looks good, though.
I don’t really like the cover either. It’s too foily for my taste. :l
Kelly recently posted…Waiting On Wednesday [32]
I liked Wake, but didn’t love it. Alex was a character I wanted out of the book, and I felt myself wanting the plot to focus on Harper and Daniel’s relationshop instead! It was so much more intriguing than Gemma’s character. I agree with you on the Trylle series too. For some reason, Amanda Hocking’s books always have this element of boredom in them, yet I can keep on reading due to the amazing worlds she creates.
Yeah, Harper and Daniel’s relationship was A LOT more interesting. I wish the entire book would have focused on it. :P
Kelly recently posted…Waiting On Wednesday [32]
Wow. I have read many mixed reviews for this one, and sadly I don’t know if I want to pick it up anymore. I do like the premise for this one. Sorry it didn’t work out for you.
Great review! :D
~ Maida
Literary Love Affair
Maida @ Literary Love Affair recently posted…Release Day Blitz: Charmed by Cambria Hebert – Excerpt & Giveaway
I guess you should give it a try Maida. Maybe you’ll like it a lot better than others did.
Thank you! (:
Kelly recently posted…Waiting On Wednesday [32]
I don’t know what to say! I bought this book a month ago when I was on a crazy book shopping spree. But since then its been on my shelf all new and shiny. Since I have bought it I might as well read it. Hopefully I will like it better than you did (Fingers crossed) !
Gayatri recently posted…Waiting on Wednesday (3)
Hopefully you’ll enjoy it a lot better than I did Gayatri! -crosses fingers for you-
Kelly recently posted…Waiting On Wednesday [32]
Wow. Being glad when you finish a book so you don’t have to go through the torture of it is never good. I’ve been through it too much lately. lol. Too bad you didn’t like it more though. I read it last year but wasn’t too into it either.
Great review! :)
Stephanie Verhaegen recently posted…Stacking The Shelves #34
It sounds like I wasn’t the only one who didn’t enjoy it much either then. o:
Kelly recently posted…Stacking the Shelves [43]
Good review. Too bad the book was a miss. It sounded really good and I like mermaid type/water books. <3
Yeah, I’m pretty sad that I didn’t like Wake better than I did. It had the potential to be so much better. ):
Kelly recently posted…Summer Road Trip Giveaway Hop
UGH. That is all that I can say about this book. I made it through it, but it wasn’t easy. I just don’t believe that I can read the next books. Don’t have it in me….. But the covers sure are pretty!
Agreed Jaime. Like, ugh. Wake was SO hard to get though. I really was struggling to finish it. I want to read the rest of the series though.
The covers are not only pretty, they’re gorgeous too. Such a waste of a gorgeous cover. D:
Kelly recently posted…Stacking the Shelves [47]
I will agree that Wake wasn’t great. I had loved the Trylle trilogy by Hocking, but was a bit disappointed with this. Like you though, I knew I would go ahead and give the next book a chance, and I have to say I felt the series did get better. I will have to go check out your other reviews now for the rest of the series.
Lisa Mandina recently posted…Storm (Swipe #3) by Evan Angler
Yeah, the Trylle trilogy was definitely better than the Watersong series.
I did read Lullaby, the sequel to Wake, and it got better, a little bit better, but still better. I still have to read Tidal and Elegy though. :P
Kelly recently posted…Stacking the Shelves [52]
Aw, I just got this book. Bummer that you didn’t enjoy it. Maybe I won’t even read it now. Thanks for sharing your honest opinion on it.
NO! Since you bought/got it, you must give the book a try. Who knows, maybe you’ll like it a lot better than I did! :D
Kelly recently posted…Stacking the Shelves [52]
Great review!! This book is actually one i liked–i didnt love it though… I think the books get better as they go..my favorite was the last one!!!
Thanks Sarah! (:
I’m really glad to hear that this series gets better with each book. I’m losing hope for each one as I read Lullaby. Hopefully Tidal and Elegy would be as good as you said it was!
Kelly recently posted…Judge A Book By Its Signature: Just One Day – Gayle Forman
I love the cover and have this book in my TBR pile. I’m disappointed to read how much you didn’t like it! Having the book written from 2 points of view usually makes it more interesting but it doesn’t sound like that happened here! I may still have to read it for myself but will definitely put it lower in the pile! Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Two points of views are usually more interesting, but it’s sadly not the case for this one. Both point of views were boring. D:
I hope you’ll like this one more than I do when you get to it Suz!
Kelly recently posted…Book Review: Marie Antoinette, Serial Killer – Katie Alender
I can totally understand why you gave Wake a 2 out of 5 rating. I felt like the first book was a bit slow too. I’m actually worried that the last two will be as slow since I expect them to pick up the speed but I don’t want to have too many expectations in case I’m let down. What I did like about the first book is that we get to learn a lot about each character. I got a feel for all of them and I got to see which ones I liked more than the others. Hopefully I finish the series and see whether the curse was broken or not :)
I’m quite worried about Tidal and Elegy too. With the way both Wake and Lullaby went, Tidal and Elegy doesn’t look so good.
Yeah, we got a lot of feels for the characters, but it was boring to read, which in the end, doesn’t matter to me much.
Kelly recently posted…Top Ten Bookish Things I Am Thankful For