Review: A taut thriller that makes you think
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 28, 2012
The following is an excerpt from a full review featured on the strangeamusements blog:The crux of the tale involves a college student named Tara Spencer, a girl who has remained a virgin for a very pragmatic reason, i.e. to avoid any chance of a pregnancy that would interfere with her life goals, such as going to medical school. One day, she finds out she is inexplicably pregnant. Soon, there are people who are very interested in her "immaculately" conceived baby--some who herald it as a new messiah and want to help her and some who think it's a child of the beast and want to kill her. Caught in this complex and inexplicable situation, Tara begins to watch her life disintegrate.What makes the early parts of The Awakening work is the mystery and intrigue, but also the believability of the crumbling relationships in Tara's life, especially that with her mother. She also loses her best friend who thinks she's lying, and she loses her boyfriend because she never had sex with him, but now that she is pregnant he assumes she had to be with someone else. Ultimately, her life is falling apart for a baby that she knows she cannot logically be having.The pacing in The Awakening speeds along in exactly the way a taut thriller should, i.e. at a breakneck pace. As soon as Tara confirms her pregnancy, things start happening around her, and she is constantly having to maneuver herself from one danger to the next, all while trying to figure out what is really happening to her. At no time throughout is it clear just who is being honest or trustworthy, and as such, the suspense and mystery stay strong for the whole ride. The peril feels real at all times, and her journey for survival and for enlightenment takes her across an ocean and back, always while dodging knives and gunfire and crazed religious zealots.The end result is...an intelligent work that entertains while making the reader think, and for a horror or thriller novel to that, it is definitely doing something right.