Saturday, July 20, 2013

Indie-Fever! "Awake" Review - free Kindle version



It’s time again for an indie book review for b00k r3vi3ws Indie Fever Reading Challenge 2013. Today, I have the opportunity to review Awake, a horror story by Matthew Blake.


Awake is a decent story about a successful novelist, Lee, who has a rare, genetic and fatal insomnia disorder. Once he learns that the disorder is incurable, he decides to purchase an RV and go traveling across the country with a best friend. After picking up a couple of “hot” hitchhikers, the four enjoy the tourist’s life with an unlimited budget – Lee’s dying, so why not enjoy his stored loot? Only, along the way, a demon follows in pursuit, taking over seemingly unaware tourists, and gives him demonic stares. This, of course, freaks out the writer. Lucky for him and his best friend, the hitchhikers are perfect mates, and Lee  now has his soulmate by his side while traveling the sites, trying to get in enough sleep to keep going, dreams of the demon in pursuit when he does sleep, and viewing the demon at almost every stop.

The characters and dialog are realistic; however, the repetitive nature of the story goes on for too long. It makes you think that this is a buddy traveling story, not quite what I was expecting. I was also not sure why Lee remains so terrified of the demon who does nothing but takes over the form of a tourist and glares at him. Though the nightmares are sufficiently scary, at least I feel I’d be scared if it was me having them, they are very short. The other worlds Lee happens into is another good sidetrack of the story, that should, instead, be the main part. The demon and Lee’s disorder have very little to do with the story at least for half of the book, again being a buddy traveling book.

The ending has a sufficient amount of action, though the resolution seems a bit too un-supernatural. All-in-all I did enjoy the characters.

Awake is available in print for $10.40 and free for Kindle at: Amazon

It bothers me that this review seems more negative than I intend. I enjoyed the read and continued to think about it and what was going to happen, which drew me back to it each time. I’m not too much into horror, so that this book did not have very much horror wasn’t an issue. I’m glad I’d read this book.

Until next time! Have a wonderful weekend.


9 comments:

  1. He would be named Lee! Made me shudder.

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  2. I don't think you have any reason to apologize when you wrote an honest, fair, and balanced review. In fact, considering you don't really like horror, I'm amazed your review was a impartial as it was. (I adore horror, but the blatant and rather cliche cover turned me off right away.) I hope the next book you have to read for Indie Fever is more to your liking! :-)

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    1. Thanks for your comments Lexa. It's sometimes hard to know if it does seem balanced or not. The books I read are of my choosing, as long as they're indie books.

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  3. Nice review, Nancy. I think it's wonderful your reviews are balanced and honest, instead of being filled with a lot of fluff.

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    1. Thanks Demetria. It's good to have you back around.

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  4. Thank you for the review! I agree with the other commenters. An honest review is a good thing and you didn't tear down the book or the author at all.

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    1. Thank you Sarah. I appreciate you guys' comments a lot.

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  5. No offense Nancy but a demon is a demon and a body snatching one is terrifying no matter what it does. Thanks for commenting on my Breathless review and I have to agree that a horror story should probably be more scary than this one. But I think it's good this author took a shot with his story. Plus you were just honest, your post is actually an encouragement to improve than a harsh review.

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Your comments add wonderful flavors. Thank you!

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