Review: Awakening

Title and Author:
Awakening (Redeemer Chronicles Book 1)  by Julie C. Gilbert
Name of Reviewer:
Jolyn Safron

Rating: PG
Reason for choice of rating:
Marking this PG due to a number of fights/attacks in this story with many "bad guys" getting killed. The injuries/deaths that occur are not graphically described.

The Review:
I didn't enjoy this story as much as I thought I would based on the other stories I have read by the author. I think this was primarily due to personal taste though because the story was not badly written.

Finding out that Victoria's Uncle Jack had taken out a hit on his sister, Victoria's mother, on page 2 of the story didn't bode well for the remaining story since I am personally bothered by stories where family members are out to get each other (the reason I have never liked Lion King). I don't like zombies and avoid zombie stories so having zombies as the featured monsters in "Awakening" was an unpleasant surprise. I didn't realize that 'undead' in the story description meant zombies. Despite all the zombies and other bad guys, it seemed that Victoria went from one danger to the next with very little consequence until the very end of the story making it hard for me to get concerned about her or the other characters. I found the pattern of changing the speaker for every chapter to be a little jarring. I had to figure out who was speaking with each new chapter and then get back into the story.

A number of the characters in the story were interesting. Victoria was funny in the first chapter as she described all the bad things she had been through. I can just imagine a teenager saying these lines that open the book: "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that my life has gone the way it has. Some people are just doomed." I was looking forward to hearing more from Victoria but the book seemed to turn primarily to action in subsequent chapters and I didn't get to hear more of her wittiness. Katrina and Tellen were good friends to Victoria and they were always watching out for her to keep her safe. Shadow was also very interesting. Is he a good guy, a bad guy, hard to say but intriguing.

While I didn't love this story, I would still encourage others to read it. If you don't have the same personal issues with zombies and crazy, evil relatives that I do, you will probably enjoy the story.

Ideal Audience:
Those who like zombies and non-stop danger

What mood did this book leave you in?
Disappointed - I had expected to really like this story but that did not turn out to be the case

Applicable Tags:
Shape-Shifter, Zombie, Action, Magic, Quests, Young Adult