Book Review: Awaken

 

Title: Awaken
Author: Katie Kacvinsky
Genre: YA Dystopian Novel
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Publication date: 23 May 2011
Source:  NetGalley

 

 

Maddie lives in a world where everything is done on the computer. Whether it’s to go to school or on a date, people don’t venture out of their home. There’s really no need. For the most part, Maddie’s okay with the solitary, digital life—until she meets Justin. Justin likes being with people. He enjoys the physical closeness of face-to-face interactions. People aren’t meant to be alone, he tells her.

Suddenly, Maddie feels something awakening inside her—a feeling that maybe there is a different, better way to live. But with society and her parents telling her otherwise, Maddie is going to have to learn to stand up for herself if she wants to change the path her life is taking.

In this not-so-brave new world, two young people struggle to carve out their own space.

- from Goodreads

My thoughts:
The world Maddie lives in didn’t seem that scary to me.  I think we are not such a long way from being IN that world already.  It might be a bit unnerving to someone that isn’t real comfortable with the online world but to the rest of us, it seems pretty easy to believe.

Maddie goes to school online, watches movies online, meets her friends online.  There is really no reason to ever leave her home.  Because of a hacking incident a few years back, her online life is totally controlled and monitored by her father, the founder of Digital School.  And for the most part, Maddie is okay with this.

When she meets Justin and he convinces her to meet him face-to-face at a study group, her whole outlook on life changes . . .  because Justin likes to live IRL and Maddie wants to be with Justin more and more. 
This is where our story really begins, when Maddie steps into the real world.  Justin draws Maddie into the underworld of people trying to oppose the Digital School system.  And soon the mutual attraction (and danger) grows.

From the beginning the love story between Maddie and Justin were very real and had me willing their story on.  I was grinning like a mad person when they shared their first kiss. 

I loved this book and read it in one sitting (with lots of refills of the hot water in the tub – lol).   The ending was a bit unsatisfying but only because I am such a romantic.  I am hoping that we will get to read a sequel pretty soon.