The Awakening – Book Review

My premonition that I would quickly consume the sequel to the first book in the Darkest Powers trilogy was correct, but was it everything that I wanted?

In short, yes. This was easily another 4.5/5.0 read for me. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it even managed to get into my dreams last night.

I have a rule that I will not allow myself to begin a new book until I have reviewed my most recent one… and I am dying to read the last instalment of this trilogy so this review is being written mere hours after finishing The Awakening.

Without further ado, the review:

The Plot of The Awakening

It’s no longer a question of whether these kids are crazy—they are, just not in the way that legitimises their stay in a mental asylum. What they truly are, is crazy good at causing trouble and life as fugitives.

By book two, we know that the magic is real, but we don’t yet know the depth of its darkness.

Upon leaving Lyle House, Chloe, Rae, and Tori wind up in a nice, but high security lab. Derek and Simon are surviving on the outside until Chloe can escape with Rae. Obviously, things don’t go to plan, and somehow Chloe escapes with Tori, leaving Rae behind, but not before discovering the truth about their group.

Primarily, Liz is dead, along with other kids from Lyle House that Chloe never met in life, and the scientists are considering the same fate for Chloe and Derek. Worse, Chloe discovers that the experiment that sealed their fate is also responsible for her overwhelming necromantic power.

Romantic power is another unintended result of this experiment, as the group seek relief from the tensions of their many ordeals.

Being a YA series, the romance is fairly tame, but it’s enough for me! The characters are also doing their best to avoid the distractions of their own beating hearts, but some fluster seems unavoidable when pressed together on the road.

Best Bits of The Awakening

I said in my review of A Curse for True Love that I’m a sucker for the one bed trope—that doesn’t come up in this book, but the fugitive narrative is another favourite of mine that is present in this series.

There’s something about the ‘us against the world’ theme that really sings to me, but perhaps that’s because I can be a of a Derek.

Speaking of Derek, I very much enjoyed his presence in this book. He’s an ass, and his bad temper is unforgivable, but his rapport with Chloe is very enjoyable. Chloe’s first person narration makes their fumblings together fairly hilarious, as the awkward teenagers both strive to ignore the romance brewing between them. I particularly enjoyed Chloe’s nervousness around his lack of clothes during the transformation scene, but my favourite scene between them was probably their clean-up post werewolf-fight. As a bonus note, I do enjoy Chloe’s obliviousness to the love triangle she’s in.

Relationships in The Awakening

I enjoyed the relationships in The Summoning, but The Awakening shakes things up in a way that threw me at first. I believed in the depth of Rae and Chloe’s friendship in book one, and perhaps I was taken in by their ‘otherness’ compared to Tori, who is the obvious ‘popular’ mean girl.

So naturally, it shook me hard when it was revealed that Rae is actually fairly self-serving, and is the reason that the escape plan fails in book one.

I am glad that I am reading this trilogy back-to-back, as I was able to remember lines from The Summoning that suggest that Rae isn’t quite the fast friend she pretends be.

On this point, Tori joining the side of the heroes is certainly interesting. I enjoy how she breaks up the established routines between Chloe, Derek, and Simon. Her jabs are cruel but often amusing, and her talents ensure that she isn’t completely dislikable. Tori has made some grave mistakes in this series, but by the end of The Awakening, I’m actually rooting for her.

I’m really hoping that she gets a chance to prove her loyalty to our main team (Chloe, Derek, and Simon), and that she chooses friendship and camaraderie over the crushing loneliness that is consuming her.

Conclusions

I find this series somewhat comparable to Stephanie Garber’s Once Upon a Broken Heart series—they’re both fairly girly with fun romance twists—but for me The Darkest Powers is a league above, and it’s all to do with the depth of the relationships.

With the cast of The Darkest Powers, I can imagine how they might talk to one another outside of their main quest objectives. When this story is over, I can see how these characters might continue their friendships, or even romances, and it’s only book two!

By the end of the OUaBH series, as much as I enjoyed it, I can’t say I felt that way about any of the relationships described within it—romantic or platonic. Also, OUaBH struggled to create female-female relationships with depth, something that The Darkest Powers seems to achieve with ease.

The description might be a tier above in OUaBH, but if I was going to recommend a feminine Young Adult series to a teenager, I would choose The Darkest Powers.

Suffice to say, I’m very excited to begin book three, The Reckoning—read my review for it now!

(Find more Kelley Armstrong book reviews here!)