Awaken

This post first published July 31, 2011.

Author: Katie Kacvinsky
Published: May 23, 2011
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books
320 pages (hardcover)
 
Awaken takes place in the year 2060, where most everyone is constantly “plugged in” to a machine or computer of some sort. Everyone is always online, behind profiles and aliases, in chatrooms and blogs. School has become completely digitalized; there is no need for classrooms anymore, just join an online school. Even when people go out, they always have their eyes glued to some sort of electronic device or another.

Our main character, 18 year old Maddie, is the daughter of a famous and influential man, the inventor of digital school. Maddie’s interesting because while she is happily content living in her digital world, she also feels like there should be something more to life, which is what led her to join some anti-digital school rebellious groups when she was 15. She was caught and has been on probation ever since. She continues trying to live her digital life as normally as possible, but she is once again conflicted when she meets Justin, a guy who loves face-to-face interactions. As Maddie gets to know him, she falls in love with him, but when she finds out he’s a part of an anti-digital school group, she wonders if he is simply using her and her status as a means to an end.

I was super excited to read this when I first heard about it. It’s a very relatable story, I feel. We’re already living in a world where social networking online is huge, and this book takes that idea to the next level by envisioning it to the extreme. I love the idea, but unfortunately, I think the story fell a little short of living up to its potential.

The actual story was actually a little boring to me. It wasn’t very exciting. I don’t really know what else to say about it — I just wasn’t feeling it, I suppose. It didn’t have enough intrigue to really have me glued to the pages. I cannot think of any scenes that left an impression in my mind.

I also didn’t really understand what the huge conflict was. Digital school was created because in the story, there was too much violence, drug usage and teen pregnancies occurring in schools. The years before the digital school programs began were filled with school shootings and bombings. So they made digital school and all kids are safe and secure inside their own homes while still getting their education. While I understand how important socializing is for kids, I didn’t understand why it was presented as the single biggest threat to personal freedom. It could be just me, but I couldn’t connect the idea of digital school with losing freedom and being controlled.

Then there is Maddie. Her actual character is quite okay, quite likeable — up to a point. When she met Justin (who I felt she had no chemistry with, just a lot of  “Omg, he is so gorgeous” rephrased in a million different ways), Maddie’s life suddenly revolved around him instead, and there was a lot of pining for him when he wasn’t around, which really isn’t the most exciting thing to read about.
Justin was also a very cookie-cutter male love interest, in terms of recent YA novels. He’s apparently drop-dead gorgeous but doesn’t know it, is protective and caring and selfless and an all-around saint, so how can Maddie not fall in love with him? He also has a personal reason as to why he cannot be with Maddie, despite being in love with her and she with him. They have a love full of anguish (sound familiar?) It was all just very predictable.

I really wanted to like this book. Despite being a technology lover, I wanted explore the idea that it may also be de-socializing people. And I did really enjoy Maddie’s diary chapters where she wrote about her changing perspectives and attitudes toward technology. Those were great and were the few times I was fully engaged in the book. The writing was also great and flowed well — this is not a badly written book. It was just boring.

My Rating: 2/5