As I Wake, by Elizabeth Scott Review

As I Wake, by Elizabeth Scott

Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Dystopia, Romance

Rating: 1.5/5 stars

Publication: September 15, 2011

Format: Hardcover (borrowed)





Goodreads Summary: Ava is welcomed home from the hospital by a doting mother, lively friends, and a crush finally beginning to show interest. There's only one problem: Ava can't remember any of them - and can't shake the eerie feeling that she's not who they say she is.

Ava struggles to break through her amnesiac haze as she goes through the motions of high-school life, but the memories that surface take place in a very different world, where Ava and familiar-faced friends are under constant scrutiny and no one can be trusted. Ava doesn't know what to make of these visions, or of the boy who is at the center of them all, until he reappears in her life and offers answers . . . but only in exchange for her trust.

Review:

"I see everything, and it's like I'm being pulled in two but no one is pulling me, it's all in my head, my empty head that seems to be full of things I shouldn't know but do and I don't understand this, don't understand me, and who I am? Who am I, really? I close my eyes."

Before reading this, I actually never knew that Elizabeth Scott has written a dystopia. I'm used to the crazy, tearjerking deep stories that rock me around until it's all over. Since this was one of her "older" novels, (compared to her newest ones) I wouldn't expect something amazing. But surprisingly, I was very disappointed with this book of hers.

Ava...

You usually can be able to stand and get through with a character. You might dislike them, but there has to be something else in the novel that kept you going. Sure, I made it through this novel without DNF-ing it, excluding me skimming through the last 30 pages or so, but I hated Ava as a protagonist. I just couldn't relate to her. She was such an emotionless person. It was like I'm reading the POV of an android or robot. Cinder did a job 10050 times better than this clueless person. 

This was a dystopia about an unknown person. Ava wakes up in a hospital not knowing who she is, where she is, and who's part of her surroundings. She feels emotionless. She doesn't know what's going on. She's going through a deep part of amnesia, and she doesn't know who to trust, and if everything around her is a lie or not.

The story began okay. It was going well until Scott tried to add a plot twist... Which didn't work out so well.

Unlike her other novels, she just couldn't get it going well. I got bored, and the story went out of control and useless and confusing. There really was no romance going on (besides the fact that I did like the male characters) and I couldn't see the whole dystopia part coming to life although the author did make some tries.

Throughout the rest of the novel, there were no changes. The plot went less defined and less defined until the point where I lost contact with relating to this book and its story. The writing became boring and I was disappointed.

Ava was hideous. As I mentioned before, she was one of the worst protagonists I've ever read about. No confidence, no independence, just mute. She was like not even a person. She went around walking like a piece of concrete. No feelings, no emotions. I didn't understand her at all and I don't know how others did.

Elizabeth Scott just really made everything confusing here. As a standalone, things should've been more detailed and all. I didn't know what was happening and the ending was all ?_? for me. There were things needed to be answered, and a lot had to do with Ava and her past. All we got was her walking around in her school not knowing who is who and her trying "so deeply hard" to remember the people in front of her.

I seriously don't know why I kept on and went on reading this book until the end. It's been a while, but to this day, I'm clueless onto why I did. Recommended? Absolutely not. This was one of the worst books I've ever read. Surprising, coming from a greatly favourited author of mine.