Review: Wild Awake by Hilary T. Smith

I don't know how I feel about this book. I'm still unsure why I read it. I had seen a lot of people excited for it, so I requested it via Edelweiss, and I got accepted. Then today I looked at the summary again, and I thought that it sounded a bit fun and sweet, so I started reading it. And it was. But yeah. It was a weird book, and I'm not sure I liked it at all. I do want a sequel. And I loved some things. But it also wasn't what I had thought.

The main character in this book is Kiri. And that book is told from her point of view. I sort of liked her as a character. She seemed pretty awesome. But yeah. I didn't like the way she thought things. She seemed a bit weird at times. I didn't understand her feelings for Lukas. But yeah. I did think she was pretty cute and nice. But she also changes a lot in this book. Goes kind of crazy. And I'm not sure how I felt about that at all.

I think one of the main reasons for why I didn't love this book was the writing. I feel a bit sucky saying it, but yeah, I just didn't like the writing. I didn't like the way Kiri was thinking and such. It just wasn't for me. But despite that I did find the book kind of interesting. And while I sometimes considered quitting it, I never did because I wanted to know what happened next. In the end this is a three star book for me. Maybe a three point five. But only at certain times in the book.

I don't know how to explain this book. And I'm pretty sure my review won't be long this time. But yeah. That's just the way it is :) I did love reading about Kiri. She lives with her parents, her brother is at college. She's awesome at music. Her older sister died five years ago. Then something happens that make Kiri see what really happened when her sister died all those years ago. Thing is, I thought it would be a murder-story-book. But it isn't. And that disappointed me. I wanted it to focus on that more.

Anyway. There are a lot of things happening in this book. I'm not sure how to describe it all, so I'll just mention a few things. Kiri is very good at playing music and singing. And I did love that. But then she goes a bit crazy later on. Sigh. But before that she's sort of in a band with her best friend Lukas. Who she totally have a crush on. I disliked that a bit. The way she was thinking around him; it was weird. But anyway. I just didn't like Lukas. He seemed very selfish and mean, to be honest. Not a nice person.

Things go bad for Kiri when she gets a phone call from someone who claims to have some of her dead sister's things. She goes downtown to get them. Things go a lot worse from there. But also better. She meets Skunk. Who I adored. But I wished we had gotten to know him even more. But I did love what we did know about him. He's kind of huge. But so sweet and kind. He has a Thing. And it was a bit heartbreaking and I hated it but also loved it, because I loved Skunk and he was an amazing character.

Another one I loved was the old guy calling Kiri, Doug. He was sweet. Well. Okay. Not really. He was a drunk and kind of bad. But I did adore him a bit. I loved his three legged cat. We get to read about him a lot. And so much about Skunk. Skunk and Kiri has a great romance, and I loved that, but yeah. I wish it hadn't been so damn crazy. I wanted this to be a sweet book with maybe a bit horror or mystery. But it wasn't. It was crazy, full of drugs and other crazy things. I sort of liked it, but I didn't like it enough.

I don't want to spoil anything else, and I don't really have much else to say about this book. I hated the drug use. How crazy Kiri ended up getting. I didn't like it at all. Sigh. But I did like the ending to this book, and I do want a sequel, because I want more of Skunk. Anyway. Wild Awake was an interesting book. I did enjoy reading it at times. But it wasn't perfect. At least not for me. Others might like it, but I just didn't. I had too many faults with it. But yeah. Skunk was a bright point for me. I loved him a lot.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Katherine Tegen Books, and Edelweiss for the chance to read and review this book early. <3 I'm still unsure how I felt about it. But I am glad I read it. I think :)

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