Review: The Awaking, Madeline Freeman

Awaking by Madeline Freeman
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I won a copy through a librarything.com member give away. Contains some plot spoilers. Spoilers hidden behind + signs, click to read.

The basic plot of the novel was interesting, a regular girl, Morgan, discovers she is the Chosen One of a secret race of people with special abilities called the Veneret. While the idea was a good one....I found the story to be rather flat. Too much telling and not showing, and....it just didn't work for me.

There was a standard cast of high school characters, the funky best friend, the queen bee and her minions, the popular gorgeous jock who was much nicer than you think, a cool teacher, another bitchy girl. A mysterious sexy boy. Nothing particularly different from a load of other YA paranormal. Including a missing/possibly dead parent.

It was interesting enough that I read it in a few days, I found the idea of the Veneret and their powers quite new and original, but Morgan just seems to take it all without...doing much about it. Until the last few chapters where everything happens in a rush.

Morgan arrives at party with best friend, attracts attention of mystery guy talking to Queen Bee, Queen Bee pissed and sets her minions on Morgan and friend, words are exchanged. Guy has brief conversation with Morgan dropping hints about he knows something about her mother's disappearance. So she agrees to meet him and it goes on from there.

I wanted to see some more emotions from the main character, other than her distaste at how the Veneret become powerful. She's thrown into this new world, discovers nicer than she thought jock boy is there and another boy she knows is actually one of them, they have powers. It just plods on while they learn very little other than Venerets think they should be ruling the world and Morgan is the One who will lead them to power. While new powers are cool, I would have thought that Morgan should have been way more freaked out and have way more questions than she did.

It picked up a bit towards the end, and I was quite pleased that Morgan tried to stand up for something she thought the Venerets were doing wrong, but the twist thrown in just made me roll my eyes. Then she's rescued from the bad guys. It is concluded, but left open for a sequel. It had a lot of potential, but just...not for me.

Thank you librarything.com for the win, but I will not be continuing with this series.