Guest Review Amber: As I Wake

As I Wake

Author: Elizabeth Scott
Publication Date:  September 15th 2011
Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers

Pages: 269

Rough estimate of time it took to read: 20 (Over a weeks period)

Source: Gifted by Kirsty (Because she also hated it, and she likes to pass on the torture, and she's probably evil eyeing me whilst setting this up) Yes, yes I am.

Ava is welcomed home from the hospital by a doting mother, lively friends, and a crush finally beginning to show interest. There's only one problem: Ava can't remember any of them - and can't shake the eerie feeling that she's not who they say she is.

Ava struggles to break through her amnesiac haze as she goes through the motions of high-school life, but the memories that surface take place in a very different world, where Ava and familiar-faced friends are under constant scrutiny and no one can be trusted. Ava doesn't know what to make of these visions, or of the boy who is at the center of them all, until he reappears in her life and offers answers . . . but only in exchange for her trust.

Well I don't know what to think of this book. It's complicated. On one hand the main character was interesting to follow. But on the other, the storyline was so scattered it made the entire book difficult to read. Although there are parts where the plot is good and strong, the majority of the book felt rushed and confusing. It's really messed with my mind this book and it kills me to say this but... over all when thinking about the entire book - story - plot - layout - characters ect ect, I have to say I don't like it. And i really wish I did for Ava's story sake.

I found quite a few chunks of the story I had to re-read them 3-4 times before I could continue reading as they just really didn't make sense grammatically. It was almost like someone had gone onto Google translate and had translated a chunk of a different book from a foreign language into English and slapped it at the beginning of chapters or paragraphs and it threw me off completely.

I liked Ava a lot, I really did. But, the rest of the book was filler and not very good filler, in my opinion. Parts of it were a good read but others I did feel like I was slugging through and I absolutely HATE the ending of this book. Part way through the beginning of the book it starts to build up into something big...and fizzled out completely. I had high expectations of a good ending for this book and were severely let down I honestly think the book could've been better even shorter (and it's already short, so there we go).

There's enough plot and story in the book to get a good grasp on the characters but the way this book is written out just makes the majority of that just seem a bit pointless. Over all disappointing read.