Review of Awakening
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Rana Jazib Rehan
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- Latest Review: Awakening by Tayma Tameem
Review of Awakening
[Following is a volunteer review of "Awakening" by Tayma Tameem.]
In the Kingdom of Hale, a new daughter is born to King Frenar and Queen Esther and a sister to Princess Katja. Coincidentally, the child is also chosen by Brikkir’s spirit to hold him, granting her the powers and forces of winter. We are then taken to a frost-covered forest, twenty-six years later, where a girl is lying with two gold bracelets bound around her wrist, which we quickly find out are unremovable. The “raven-haired maiden” then wakes up to find out that she cannot remember who or where she is, and then sets to look for help in the frost-bound forest when she is interrupted by an Arctic Fox, “ the size of an adult wolf”, who the girl suspects knows who she is. This leads to a whole episode of her questioning it for answers about her previous memories, but eventually leads to her one singular detail: a name: Katja, which she understands to be her own.
From then on, the story keeps switching back and forth from past Katja trying to calm past Amara down and present-time Katja getting accustomed to living in the village and having to deal with the fact that the “wicked” Lady Snow is her own younger sister.
Something that Tayma Tameem accomplishes exceptionally well is the construction of the two sisters. Reading them feels as if listening to what happened to a friend. It was really easy for me to understand their thoughts and decisions, even though there were several times when I would have done the opposite. The amount of connectedness I felt with Katja and Amara made the story much more compelling than it would have been for the author had given lesser importance to the sisters.
In addition, the author was able to create a great plot twist. All the steps leading until the point made me completely believe one way, which Tayma was able to achieve by making any hints to the truth as minute as possible, making it hard for the readers to notice it.
Even though Tayma Tameem has created an exceptionally compelling story, she does not do as great of a job of getting it on paper. The story is concise and followable, but the amount of logistical and literary faults makes Awakening far harder to enjoy when you are interrupted every few pages by another fallacy. Now, I am not speaking for all people, since there are many who can easily pass over simple writing mistakes, just as long as it does not c hinder their understanding, but for a book written by an author that has written several books prior(Or, at least, I think she has since it was pretty hard to get dates around the books, and even then, I was not sure if these were the publication dates) and costs about six dollars, it would probably be a huge letdown for other readers to get a book riddled with that amount of errors.
Staying on the path of bad writing, I would like to state about the horrible twist villain in the story, but not too much to evade spoilers. After we are shown that a character is far darker and is trying to accomplish their plan, which we are hinted at as being an unfavorable one, we are shown more of their emotions where they are still genuinely wanting the good thing to happen. Maybe, this was Tayma's way of making the character three-dimensional by showing that they still care about others, but it just comes off as too hurried, ruining the plot twist.
Even if the book did not have enough typos and grammatical errors to disqualify it from getting a four out of four-star rating, Awakening would still have not received a perfect rating. The book is the perfect read with its beautifully crafted plot twist, an amazing storyline, and the ideal amount of suspense, but that is only if we ignore the hastily added surprise villain who gives off mixed feelings, the several instances of cheesy and amateur writing(“ “You know, you can come here and help instead of lurking around in the shadows like some thief who is up to mischief,” said Solange, without taking her eyes off the counter.”), and the toxic, yet still treated as good, love interests. It was pretty hard to decide whether or not Awakening deserved two or three stars, but the book has left me hungry for answers, and I do see myself recommending the book to people. This is why I believe Awakening to be worthy of three out of four stars, though a more precise and appropriate rating would be between 2.50 and 2.75. Also, please keep this book away from anyone below the age of thirteen or anyone sensitive to death/murder(Both human and animal), torture, pain, and gore.
******
Awakening
View: on Bookshelves
In the Kingdom of Hale, a new daughter is born to King Frenar and Queen Esther and a sister to Princess Katja. Coincidentally, the child is also chosen by Brikkir’s spirit to hold him, granting her the powers and forces of winter. We are then taken to a frost-covered forest, twenty-six years later, where a girl is lying with two gold bracelets bound around her wrist, which we quickly find out are unremovable. The “raven-haired maiden” then wakes up to find out that she cannot remember who or where she is, and then sets to look for help in the frost-bound forest when she is interrupted by an Arctic Fox, “ the size of an adult wolf”, who the girl suspects knows who she is. This leads to a whole episode of her questioning it for answers about her previous memories, but eventually leads to her one singular detail: a name: Katja, which she understands to be her own.
From then on, the story keeps switching back and forth from past Katja trying to calm past Amara down and present-time Katja getting accustomed to living in the village and having to deal with the fact that the “wicked” Lady Snow is her own younger sister.
Something that Tayma Tameem accomplishes exceptionally well is the construction of the two sisters. Reading them feels as if listening to what happened to a friend. It was really easy for me to understand their thoughts and decisions, even though there were several times when I would have done the opposite. The amount of connectedness I felt with Katja and Amara made the story much more compelling than it would have been for the author had given lesser importance to the sisters.
In addition, the author was able to create a great plot twist. All the steps leading until the point made me completely believe one way, which Tayma was able to achieve by making any hints to the truth as minute as possible, making it hard for the readers to notice it.
Even though Tayma Tameem has created an exceptionally compelling story, she does not do as great of a job of getting it on paper. The story is concise and followable, but the amount of logistical and literary faults makes Awakening far harder to enjoy when you are interrupted every few pages by another fallacy. Now, I am not speaking for all people, since there are many who can easily pass over simple writing mistakes, just as long as it does not c hinder their understanding, but for a book written by an author that has written several books prior(Or, at least, I think she has since it was pretty hard to get dates around the books, and even then, I was not sure if these were the publication dates) and costs about six dollars, it would probably be a huge letdown for other readers to get a book riddled with that amount of errors.
Staying on the path of bad writing, I would like to state about the horrible twist villain in the story, but not too much to evade spoilers. After we are shown that a character is far darker and is trying to accomplish their plan, which we are hinted at as being an unfavorable one, we are shown more of their emotions where they are still genuinely wanting the good thing to happen. Maybe, this was Tayma's way of making the character three-dimensional by showing that they still care about others, but it just comes off as too hurried, ruining the plot twist.
Even if the book did not have enough typos and grammatical errors to disqualify it from getting a four out of four-star rating, Awakening would still have not received a perfect rating. The book is the perfect read with its beautifully crafted plot twist, an amazing storyline, and the ideal amount of suspense, but that is only if we ignore the hastily added surprise villain who gives off mixed feelings, the several instances of cheesy and amateur writing(“ “You know, you can come here and help instead of lurking around in the shadows like some thief who is up to mischief,” said Solange, without taking her eyes off the counter.”), and the toxic, yet still treated as good, love interests. It was pretty hard to decide whether or not Awakening deserved two or three stars, but the book has left me hungry for answers, and I do see myself recommending the book to people. This is why I believe Awakening to be worthy of three out of four stars, though a more precise and appropriate rating would be between 2.50 and 2.75. Also, please keep this book away from anyone below the age of thirteen or anyone sensitive to death/murder(Both human and animal), torture, pain, and gore.
******
Awakening
View: on Bookshelves
Latest Review: Awakening by Tayma Tameem
