Review: Wake by Amanda Hocking

Wake

Author: Amanda Hocking Series: Watersong, #1

Blurb: Fall under the spell of Wake—the first book in an achingly beautiful new series by celebrated author Amanda Hocking—and lose yourself to the Watersong.

Gorgeous. Fearless. Dangerous. They're the kind of girls you envy; the kind of girls you want to hate. Strangers in town for the summer, Penn, Lexi and Thea have caught everyone's attention—but it’s Gemma who’s attracted theirs. She’s the one they’ve chosen to be part of their group.

Gemma seems to have it all—she’s carefree, pretty, and falling in love with Alex, the boy next door. He’s always been just a friend, but this summer they’ve taken their relationship to the next level, and now there’s no going back. Then one night, Gemma’s ordinary life changes forever. She’s taking a late night swim under the stars when she finds Penn, Lexi and Thea partying on the cove. They invite her to join them, and the next morning she wakes up on the beach feeling groggy and sick, knowing something is different.

Suddenly Gemma is stronger, faster, and more beautiful than ever. But her new powers come with a terrifying price. And as she uncovers the truth, she’s is forced to choose between staying with those she loves—or entering a new world brimming with dark hungers and unimaginable secrets.

First and foremost, I have to say how much I was looking forward to reading this book. I loved Amanda Hocking's Trylle trilogy so much and I've never read a book about sirens but wanted to. I've seen a lot of people liking the Watersong series so I thought that I would also, but unfortunately that wasn't the case for me. 

I liked the storyline the best. The whole concept of the world that Amanda was trying to create was a wonderful idea and that's mainly why I kept reading. And because I know that sometimes it takes reading a few pages to really get a feel for a book and get used to the voices of the characters. Sadly that never happened. I couldn't get over the bad dialogue and the unrealistic characters. They were always acting in a manner that didn't seem to suit the character and the things they would say just didn't make any sense at all. It was always something that I just couldn't see someone really saying and they would jump to conclusions that I'm pretty certain no one would jump to, and even if they would come to those conclusions, the characters never said it in a way that sounded real to me. It was always something like "Didn't there used to be four of them?" "Yeah, I bet they killed her." I mean, who says that??? And that conversation happened more than once. I kid you not.

The main character Gemma was supposedly the most beautiful girl in Capri and was supposed to be this girl that all the guys loved, but there was never any proof of that except  for when it came to her neighbor Alex, and even he didn't seem like a real person. He was unbelievably shy and was constantly apologizing for things, and the relationship between them was so unreal to me that I couldn't even connect to it. I won't even go into Gemma's relationships with her sister Harper or her dad. And her mother was the least realistic of them all. I could've believed her child-like nature at all. Had her character been written well I may have been able to handle it, but she wasn't. 

Overall, this entire book was a huge letdown for me. I've never rated a book less than 3-stars and I'm very sad to say that Wake will be my first 2-star review. I have the second book in the series on my bookshelf right now, because I was so certain that I would enjoy this series, but I didn't. I'm still not sure at this point if I'll even continue on with the series. I hate to let the book just sit there on my shelf unread though, and I've seen a few reviews of Lullaby that say it's better than Wake so I might pick it up at some point.


I rate this book:

The Watersong Series

Elegy is expected to be released on August 6, 2013