Review: Awaking

Awaking (The Naturals, #1) by Madeline Freeman
Published September 21st 2013 by Createspace
Pages: 186 pages

Morgan Abbey's life is about to change. Just weeks before the beginning of her senior year, a mysterious stranger approaches Morgan with information that turns her world on end: First, the psychic ability she believes she had just been pretending to have since middle school might actually be real. Second, her mother, who disappeared abruptly and completely almost a decade ago, might still be alive. Morgan finds herself drawn into a centuries-old struggle involving a shadowy group with incredible powers. The Veneret have quitetly coexisted alongside the common people of the world for centuries. Now they believe it is time for them to reclaim their former positions of power-and that Morgan is the key to their victory. Every victory comes at a price-but is it one Morgan will be willing to pay?

Morgan didn't know what tomorrow would hold, and she found she didn't want to. For the moment, she was safe. Despite the questions racing in her mind, she almost felt peace. And, for now, that would have to be enough. 

- Madeline Freeman, Awaking

Honestly, I don't have a clue where to begin. I wanted to like this book much more than I do know, so much more. There was something about it which caught my attention. So maybe it was the outstanding cover, but I expected something more. Right now, my thoughts all agree on one statement: a huge disappointment when it could have surprised me in a very good way.

The biggest problem I had with Awaking were the plot and premise behind it. I couldn't find a single thing that stood out, or even made this book special. I didn't manage to make it to my list of books with an outstanding concept. Throughout the entire thing I kept flying through the pages, but not in the way I wanted it to be. I was searching for something which would manage to hold my attention. It felt like yet another one, filled with your common cliches when reading a Young-Adult novel. That kind of book where the girl realises she has powers and a secret organization wanting to take over the world. I can count several books on my fingers that have a very similar plot, and thus does nothing good for this one.

I feel like I can go on and on by saying how unoriginal Awaking is. Even when it comes to the characters, I don't think I have anything to say about originality. The cliches didn't stop when I was talking about the plot. No, it went even further than that. Ladies and gentlemen, here I present to you: the most common cast of characters you have ever seen. There's the bitch, the main Mary-Sue heroine, the cute guy who's suddenly into the protagonist, and the best friend who has everything. That's when I came to the conclusion they all had little to no development and were all really flat characters. The only one who stood out enough for me to fall in love with him, was Lucas. Undeveloped, but so adorable and sweet.

There was also quite the confusion for me while reading. Every character in here all seemed to have this "OK, whatever" attitude. That may or may not had to do with them being not developed, but it just confused me. Everything that happened didn't freak them out, not just a little bit. They all go with the flow, and no one seems to at least think about what was happening. Last but not least, almost every character in this book got to have physic abilities. When I thought it was rare to be a Natural, because it was stated multiple times, the author went all surprise! Everyone in the protagonist's environment is one, too! Yet another reason to add to my list of unrealistic events that happened in Awaking.

In the end, Awaking was just an average novel in the average world of Young-Adult. Don't think I didn't like it, because I did. It had a nice pace, I have no complaints about the writing which was actually really good and Lucas was the reason I managed to kept reading. Yet looking at the book, from characters to plot, there was just nothing special about it.