Challenge Review: The Awakening by Kelley Armstrong

Title: The Awakening
Series: Darkest Powers Trilogy #2
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Genre: Supernatural Fictions, Young Adult Fiction
Elements: Necromancers, Werewolves, Sorcerers, Witches, Ghosts, Demons, Zombies
Publisher: Harper Teen, Harper Collins
Format: Hardcover, 360 Pages
ISBN: 978-0-06-166276-8
Release Date: May 4, 2009
Source: Borrowed from Wentworth Library
Rating: 4.5/5

Tagline(s): ~NONE~

Summary: If you had met me a few weeks ago, you probably would have described me as an average teenage girl--someone normal. Now my life has changed forever and I'm as far away from normal as it gets. A living science experiment--not only can I see ghosts, but I was genetically altered by a sinister organization called the Edison Group. What does that mean? For starters, I'm a teenage necromancer whose powers are out of control: I raise the dead without even trying. Trust me, that is not a power you want to have. Ever.

Not I'm running for my life with three of my supernatural friends--a charming sorcerer, a cynical werewolf, and a disgruntled witch--and we have to find someone who can help us before the Edison Group finds us first. Or die trying.

Review:

Betrayed by her Aunt Lauren, Chloe and Rae are now locked up in some kind of lab, unable to escape and meet up with Simon and Derek. Worse yet, Dr. Davidoff and Mrs. Enright want Chloe to help them capture Simon and Derek, using  Simon's diabetes as a way to persuade her to give up their location before Simon dies. Unwilling to trap her friends, Chloe gives them false rendezvous points until she can come up with a plan of escape.

When trying to summon Liz, Chloe accidentally summoned Brady instead, who was then taken over by a demon who has been trapped by the Edison Group. The demon tells Chloe of the experiment that she and her friends are a part of. The Genesis II Project is genetic modification meant to suppress a supernatural's power, but not all subjects were successful. Unsuccessful subject's powers are uncontrollable and based on their emotions. Those who cannot be rehabilitated are "terminated." Simon was a success, Rae and Tori are in progress, but Chloe and Derek are left with "???" next to their names.

With an uncertain future and a half million dollar reward out for Chloe's safe return, Chloe's new normal is a dangerous and deadly life on the run, but there is no going back now.

Chloe has really grown since The Summoning. She's stronger, more courageous, and taking a more active part in their escape. She thinks logically and thinks of each scenario that could happen. She's still a little rash sometimes, especially when Derek annoys her. Chloe is even trying to be friends with Tori and trying to make her feel like part of the group, instead of a tag-a-long.

The triangle between Simon, Chloe, and Derek heats up in this book. Simon and Chloe start spending more time together when they begin a comic chronicling the events of their journey. But Chloe and Derek's connection grows as Chloe sits with Derek as he tries to go through his change again. It always seems like Derek and Chloe are being pushed together as their journey continues. I like Simon, but I always wanted Derek and Chloe to end up together. Even though they fight and bicker a lot, they also have a lot in common, and they both have uncertain futures.

I'm glad that I've started reading Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series, otherwise I never would have noticed the references made to the series in The Awakening. One reference made is about how Tori's mother heard about another witch (Eve) bearing the child (Savannah) of a sorcerer (Kristof) and had to do the same. And mix-blood spellcasters are dangerous. And another reference I noticed was when Derek was anxious about being in Syracuse where the Pack lives. He definitely wouldn't want to run into Clay, Elena, and Jeremy. But Derek and Chloe did run into a couple werewolves who remarked that Derek looked like a Cain, in reference to Zachary Cain who was one of the werewolves who went against the Pack in the first book of the Women of the Otherworld series, Bitten.

When I read a series that is either a side story or spin-off of another series, I like seeing the characters of the main series, like with Women of the Otherworld and the Darkest Powers. It only makes sense since these two series take place in the same world.

I mentioned in my review for The Summoning that I was going to pay closer attention to Chloe's necklace. When I re-read The Summoning, I noticed that her ruby necklace was changing color. In the beginning of The Awakening, it was a purplish color, but by the end her necklace is almost blue. I really want to know what the deal is with the necklace. It must be important since focus is being put on how it's changing color.

The Darkest Powers Trilogy comes to a close with the next and final book, The Reckoning. As the title suggests, there's going to be a reckoning and not everyone will make it out alive. I can't wait to see what I notice when I re-read the conclusion to this amazing series that I didn't the first time through.

Book Trailer:


About this Author: 

Kelley Armstrong has been telling stories since before she could write. Her earliest written efforts were disastrous. If asked for a story about girls and dolls, hers would invariably feature undead girls and evil dolls, much to her teachers' dismay. All efforts to make her produce "normal" stories failed.

Today, she continues to spin tales of ghosts and demons and werewolves, while safely locked away in her basement writing dungeon. She's the author of the NYT-bestselling "Women of the Otherworld" paranormal suspense series and "Darkest Powers" young adult urban fantasy trilogy, as well as the Nadia Stafford crime series. Armstrong lives in southwestern Ontario with her husband, kids and far too many pets.