Author: Amanda Hocking
Date of Publication: April 16, 2013 (Paperback)
Publisher: St Martin’s Griffin
Pages: 320
Genre: YA, Urban Fantasy
Paperback or Kindle: Both
Fiery Fantasy Thoughts
I went into this novel knowing who Ms Hocking was but I
managed to avoid reading any of her work until now, so reading ‘Wake’ was
refreshing as it was not another vampire romance.
This mermaid (or Siren) story is told from two different
sisters viewpoints. Gemma loves to swim and it is her whole world. She is the
free spirit, her uptight sister, Harper isn’t, who loves order and structure.
I liked the opposing personalities and although I found
Gemma’s personality a little lacklustre and wooden, I found Harper more
interesting as she takes on the mothering role of her sister, much to Gemma’s
annoyance.
The three sirens (mermaids) – Penn, Lexi and Thea, were
interesting as I liked their mean girl’s contribution to the story, however I
was a little confused at why they were so dangerous as we were never provided
with any proof to why they would be a real danger and not just mean girls?
This was not the only problem I had with this book – there
was no spark!
I kept turning the page waiting for some kind of exciting
scene or some more depth to be introduced to Gemma’s character but it never
came!
Also, I know that Hocking has been criticized in the past
for her lack of an editor but even with this book being published by St
Martin’s Griffin publishers, I still found pacing issues throughout the
chapters and grammatical mistakes which (if the story had captured me) I would
have overlooked.
If this book focused more on the mythology behind the
siren’s, developed Gemma’s character and gave us a little more interaction with
Daniel (Harper’s potential love interest), I would have been more interested
and less inclined to read her other books.
Unfortunately, I can only give ‘Wake’ 2 wings out of 5 as I
honestly cannot remember any memorable scenes.
