I just finished reading Awaken by Katie Kacsvinsky, a dystopian novel that takes place 48 years in the future. I had to read this for my summer reading assignment. i had never heard of this book before, but I'm glad I have now.
48 years in the future, people's lives all take place online: school, dates, movies, friendships, and you can just delete the parts of you that you don't like. People rarely go outside into the real world anymore. The main character and narrator, Maddie, is perfectly happy with this life. Until she meets Justin on a homework help site.
He takes her outside, shows her what the real world is like. He teaches her how to feel, see things for what they are, and to live in the moment. It makes her think that things should be different. But her father created Digital School. And she's already been caught rebelling against it once, three years ago.
As Maddie falls in love with Justin, she has to choose where her loyalty lies: with her family, and a life plugged in, or with her boyfriend, who is rebelling against all she's ever known, but, deep down, knows is wrong. What she chooses isn't surprising.
This book is more about learning to live, and Maddie's relationship with Justin than rebelling against DS. It's a sweet romance and all, but I like it when all aspects of a story are touched to their fullest. Overall, the characters were pretty flat, except for Maddie. I was very disappointed in the ending, because it left you feeling like nothing had really been solved, except that Maddie has learned about feeling, real people, and the real world. DS is still going strong. It left me thinking, That's it?
I hope that Kacsvinsky plans on releasing a sequel, because I am curious to find out what becomes of all of the characters, and the world around them. The next book I review will probably be When the Legends Die by Hal Borland, the other book I am supposed to read this summer. Until then, arrivederci!
