Review: Wild Awake – Hilary T. Smith

Posted June 26, 2013 by Andi in Review / 0 Comments

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Title: Wild Awake [Amazon]
Author: Hilary T. Smith[website]
Publisher:  Katherine Tegen Books
Genre:  Contemporary
Source/Type: Paperback/ARC
Stars: 3 of 5

Publisher Description:
Things you earnestly believe will happen while your parents are away:

1. You will remember to water the azaleas.
2. You will take detailed, accurate messages.
3. You will call your older brother, Denny, if even the slightest thing goes wrong.
4. You and your best friend/bandmate Lukas will win Battle of the Bands.
5. Amid the thrill of victory, Lukas will finally realize you are the girl of his dreams.

Things that actually happen:

1. A stranger calls who says he knew your sister.
2. He says he has her stuff.
3. What stuff? Her stuff.
4. You tell him your parents won’t be able to—
5. Sukey died five years ago; can’t he—
6. You pick up a pen.
7. You scribble down the address.
8. You get on your bike and go.
9. Things . . . get a little crazy after that.*
*also, you fall in love, but not with Lukas.

My Thoughts:
I’m not sure where I should even begin with this one. I had been really excited for this book when I read the description so I was super excited when I got an early copy. Sadly, the content didn’t excite me as much. The book just ended up being meh to me. Don’t get me wrong, it had its moments or beauty but I struggled a lot and at times thought I may not bother finishing it which kind of makes me sad because it had so much more potential to be better than an okay book.

Wild Awake is about Kiri(who I kept wanting to call Kiki in my head!), a 17 year old girl left on her own for the summer while her parents are on vacation. Kiri has plans for the summer and they involve piano, Battle of the Bands and getting Lukas to fall for her. But what Kiri learns very quickly is the meaning of the saying, ‘the best laid plans’. When a mysterious phone call has Kiri question everything she ever knew about her family and her deceased sister she quickly becomes increasingly unhinged. No longer sleeping or taking care of her responsibilities Kiri becomes obsessed with the life of her sister and what she didn’t know. And as the summer progresses so does Kiri spiral.

I know I say this a lot on my reviews on Goodreads, but I wanted to like this book. I really, really did. The cover was a major draw as was the subject matter. But when all was said and done it just didn’t work for me. Kiri, who I was supposed to feel badly for I think, annoyed me at the end. I HATED Lukas was a firey passion and didn’t understand at all why Kiri even wanted to be his friend. And Skunk wasn’t as developed as he could have been. I felt like his story and the one he ended up sharing with Kiri just didn’t work and came out of left field. I didn’t feel the connection between any of the characters and that didn’t help at all. I also found the book to be very wordy at times which was hard for me. I didn’t really need to be told what was happening every second. And the end really bothered me, and I won’t say more than that as to not give it away.

And now I’m sure you are looking at the number of stars I gave it and scratching your head because it seems I hated it. But the thing is, I didn’t hate it. I wasn’t a fan of a lot of it, but there were some really beautiful moments in the writing that completely shined.  Some of the imagery the author depicted and brief moments in Kiri’s world were really great. Sadly those moments were fleeting for me. But I will say this, there are a lot of people out there that really loved this book and that is the great thing about reading. So don’t take just my word. If you do you may end up missing out on your next favorite book.

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