** - Awakened

AWAKENED

LAURA ELLIOT

**

Science has stolen sleep and awakened a world of horror.

“I’ve been an insomniac all of my life, but I’m not Sleepless and I won’t become Sleepless, just as long as the chips that were put into their heads never get put into mine. There’s little chance of that, since I won’t put the machinery into my brain and neither will Edgar and neither will the Professor, and we’re the only three left who could. I don’t want to be Sleepless…”

Civilisation has ended. In a bid to make us more productive, to give us more time, science took sleep from humanity. But sleeplessness turned people into feral monsters and now a small group of scientists are trapped in the Tower of London, consumed by guilt at what they have done and desperately searching for a cure. And then one day, as the last ravens circle, two miraculous survivors walk into the Tower.

Are they the answer or a terrible question?

MY REVIEW

**

'Science has stolen sleep and awakened a world of horror.'

Scientists have retreated to the Tower of London, desperately trying to survive an onslaught that they were responsible for bringing upon the world. Microchips embedded in people’s brains to stop them sleeping have backfired and the world has changed dramatically with it.

What a concept, what a premise! I was so excited to start this book and even bumped it up my ARC pile in my anticipation to read it. However, what I was left with was some great ideas hidden beneath sadly poor execution.

The book is laid out in diary entry form and we are immediately thrown into a science experiment, as the group of survivors attempt to examine one of the Sleepless. This creepy, zombie-like creature is well portrayed, and the events captured my attention from the off. We are then time jumped forward to the next month and two survivors enter the fray. I was intrigued by their story, who they were and what happened to them, but again, after introducing them and piquing my interest we then time jump a month again. Laura Elliot is trying to get to specific date at the end to make part of the plot make sense, but in doing so sacrifices the reader’s engagement with what is happening.

There are also flashbacks to how the Sleepless came to be which is interesting, but they aren’t well signposted in the novel, so I was confused in places which timeline we were in. There are also a lot of ramblings about ethical dilemmas, science and philosophy. These started out ok but began to slow the pace and distract from the storylines that I wanted to progress, as well as becoming repetitive at times. I just wanted to learn more about the survivors, find out what happened to bring the Sleepless to the world and reach some kind of conclusion and any of the padding that wasn’t relevant to this just irritated me.

I was ready to give this book 3 stars until I got to the ending which was sadly very disappointing. I loved the very last shock twist which pulled some of the flashback plot together, however everything afterwards was disjointed and confusing and the ending fizzled out without an actual conclusion.

Overall Awakened has a brilliant premise and an interesting plot - it was just disappointing that the odd timelines, confusing ending and rambling chapters distracted from it. Thank you to NetGalley & Angry Robot for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

LINKS TO BUY

Amazon

Waterstones