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Book review: Wake by Amanda Hocking

WAKE
BY AMANDA HOCKING
PUBLISHED: 2012
AVERAGE RATING: 3.70
309 PAGES
READ: NOVEMBER 3RD - NOVEMBER 6TH 2015
★★★☆☆

A while back I stumbled upon Amanda Hocking's series called "Watersong" in my local bookstore - so I started buying the books in the series because they never had all of them in the store. I had absolutely no idea what they were about, and I kind of thought that they were some kind of dystopia, so I can with a hand over my heart say that I was kind of surprised when I got to the point in the book where it all kind of, revealed itself.

It's not a dystopia, which actually made me kind of sad because I loved Gemma and Harper in the book. Anyways, Wake is mainly about Gemma who's a swimmer and Gemma's older sister Harper. In their home town some strange girls suddenly come during tourist season - and they're beautiful as hell. Everyone wants to be them, only Harper and Gemma kind of think there's something strange about them. Suddenly the strange girls start approaching Gemma, and she's suddenly under their "spell".

It's just as much as a story about love and family as it is the paranormal. Hocking kind of does that right, by making some family dynamics that is interesting to read about, and it's actually that, that makes me want to read further. I can't say that I'm particularly interested in Gemma's love interest, but Harper's. Because I kind of see myself in Harper, the protective older sister who would practically do anything for my two younger siblings. And, by all means, I'm older, and closer to Harper's age than Gemma's - and I can absolutely like her interests in Daniel.

It's not that there's a lot of things that I don't like about the book, but I kind of didn't feel like finishing when I was about halfway through. I don't know if it was because I was kind of sad that it wasn't dystopia, because I was seriously SO sure that it was - but I think it was rather the fact that Gemma was hard to relate to. I mean, the fact that Gemma is a swimmer and knows that this is what she wants to do with her life, then why would she ever miss practice? And the fact that both her older sister and her father kind of hates her going out to the bay in the middle of the night to swim, she does it anyways, because, hey I love swimming under the stars. I get that, but, I don't get it, if you get what I'm trying to incline?

There's a lot of things that I feel like doesn't seem right. First of all, the three girls, why is it that they make everything so public. I mean, if they want to talk to Gemma, why not just talk to her like normal people instead of cornering her at the dock, threatening her? If something like what happened to Gemma happened to me, I would tell my sister, and my father, and probably my boyfriend too. I would be freaking out, not, ah, I had a bruise a minute ago but now it's gone, how strange, well, now I'm going to kiss my boyfriend. It's not how a normal teenager would have acted. And through all of this, it seems like Gemma has no friends whatsoever. She has her sister Harper, and Alex is Harper's friend, and therefore Gemma's friend, but Gemma doesn't mention ONE friend throughout the entire book. Not that I can recall. It's not entirely normal to not have any friends if you're on a swimming team in high school.

Anyways, I could rant about this all day, and I'm not going to do that. It was a book worth reading since I like fantasy, but it's not a book I would consider mentioning for any of my friends until they told me that they liked mermaid books, or greek mythology for that sake. And to mention it, yes, the names of the sirens in greek mythology are correct, and the sake of muses and gods are also correct. So it was good background work by Hocking.

The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan

THE SEA OF MONSTERS (PERCY JACKSON & THE OLYMPIANS)
BY RICK RIORDAN
PUBLISHED: 2006
AVERAGE RATING: 4.22
279 PAGES
★★★☆☆

The Heroic Son of Poseidon, Percy Jackson goes out to retrieve the Golden Fleece against Chiron's wishes, and along with him; his new friend Tyson and Annabeth. On their journey they fight against monsters, an old enemy and meet new and terrifying creatures from all over the world.

I read this book in about 3 or 4 days, and it's as I said in my review about "The Lightning Thief" easy-read books with lots of action. All though they're very childish written, they're funny and kind of feel-good books that makes you believe in a world of the old greek Gods and Demi-Gods fighting for our survival.

What I love about this book is that we get to understand more about Percy's faith, but we also get to meet a new member of his family. There's a big plot-twist at the start of the book, and the twist just grows throughout the book. We don't get to see or meet many Gods in this book, but Hermes, the messenger - and father of Luke, gives Percy help on his way. And even though Percy is angry with his father for not taking contact - he understands that he's watching over him - giving him powers and gifts that shows his affection for his son.

I guess that as long as you remember that these are children's books when you read them - they're incredibly funny to read and you just fall in love with the people you read about!

I think that most people would like it even though it's for children. I think that because of some violence and scary scenes, these books shouldn't be read by children over 8 or 9 years old.

Even though these books are some kind of break for me so that I can get back to reading more heavy books - I feel like this adventure gives me the same kind of feeling I had when I was reading Hunger Games or Divergent, heroes we can identify ourselves with.

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

THE LIGHTNING THIEF (#1 PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS)
BY RICK RIORDAN
PUBLISHED: 2005
AVERAGE RATING: 4.20
377 PAGES
★★★☆☆

Percy Jackson is about to kicked out of boarding school, again. Lately mythological monsters and the gods of Mount Olympus is walking straight out of the pages of Percy’s Greek mythology textbook and into his life, and the worst thing is that some of them are angry with him. Zeus’ lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect.

Now Percy and his friends have just ten days to find and return Zeus’ stolen property and bring it to Mount Olympus. On the way he has to come to terms with his father who abandoned him, solve the riddle of the Oracle, and unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves.

I bought these books after wanting to read them as a kid, and actually bought them from Ida Elise. I started reading, and my first impression is that it’s a lot like Harry Potter in the way it’s written - because it’s a children’s book. It’s easy to read, and it’s exciting. Here you’ll meet a heroic boy, his friends Grover and Annabeth who joins him on his journey to find Zeus’ lightning bolt.

What I love about these books is the Greek mythology, where we find centaurs, minotaurs, furies, and creatures like Graeae (three old women with one tooth and one eye among them), Chiron (Known for training Hercules), Cerberus (the three-headed giant hound guarding the gates of the Underworld), Wood nymphs(beautiful minor goddess women who lives in the forest), Gorgons (Like Medusa), Charon (a ferryman at the river Styx) and many many more.

The books have lots of action for children, and what I love about these books is that Riordan has given life to the old Greek mythology which has always interested me. Once again we meet a trio of brave children, featuring dark forces and creatures from all parts of the world, magic and heroes. This is the kind of book you read and hope that you'll one day get to be a part of this magnificent adventure yourself.

I think that it may suit children and teens from the age of 8-16, it's easy read books with meaningful morals. I think that they're fun to read, sometimes it's nice to just sit down and read something that isn't that complicated.