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Chioma
Title: Asleep Author: Wendy Raven McNair
Age Range: 13+
Publication Date: April 23, 2009
Pages: 422
Genre: Romance, Heroes, supernatural
Rating: 10/10
Synopsis from Goodreads: Adisa Summers doesn't know her boyfriend, Micah Alexander, can fly. Micah's odd emotionless behavior, rigid posture, and vacant eyes are a mystery sending mixed messages to Adisa. When a flash of lightning sends a tree crashing down on her, Adisa is shocked to see Micah actually flying to her rescue! In an instant, Adisa is in his arms, looking up at the sky over his shoulder as they fly parallel to the ground. Micah shifts, shielding her completely with his body. As the tree explodes against Micah's back, Adisa feels him shudder with the impact and the air fills with wood chips and sawdust. Miraculously, they aren't smashed into the ground. They safely continue flying. Micah finally begins to open up to Adisa about his secret life as a superbeing and she discovers another shocking secret. Micah burns for her--literally as well as figuratively. ASLEEP is a superhero teen love story setting modern day Atlanta that's filled with thrills, romance, and suspense.
Initial Reaction: "Finally! Characters that remind me of myself, I can't wait."
End Reaction: "Sure Daimon's a bad boy, and Edward sparkles, but my new man Micah can fly!!!"
Review: Asleep combines the best of a hot romance, the teen angst of growing up, and the exciting and suspenseful supernatural aspects of novels that I love. Adisa is just living life. She goes by living in the shadow of her two perfect twin sisters, and finding solace in the childhood superheroes she has loved all her life. Then mysterious, fine as heck, and stoic Micah comes and begins to show the smallest, emotionless interest in her, does she begin looking outside the usual limits of her life.
Adisa rocks the house. She is such a silent force. Yeah she is quiet, but she has a strong as heck mind under all that silence. I love how through the book Adisa doesn't lose herself. In some books when I flip from the front to the back of the book after I finish it, I found that the main character seems to be two different people, but Adisa doesn't change, she grows. She comes out of her shell after finding a part of herself that she never knew was even in there.
Micah, Micah, Micah... Tall, dark, fly me into the night Micah. What can I say, he is so close to perfect, while being no where near there, (if that makes sense). He has a really soft spoken personality that distinguishes him from the typical male characters in YA. Yet, he is always prepared to save the day when it comes to Adisa, even when the people he is saving her from are those closest to him. I am definitely looking forward to reading more and getting to better understand who Micah really is in the next book.
The entire plot of Asleep is something totally different. I don't even know if I should categorize it as paranormal, maybe I'll call it supernormal or parasuper (supernatural + paranormal???). The entire superhero world Wendy McNair has created is nothing like I have ever read before. Not just your typical paranormal vampires, werewolves, faeries Oh My. More along the lines of supernatural healers, fliers, people who have the ability to hurl fireballs from their hands. And not just the characters, this whole idea of a different superhero world with leaders, laws, courts, prophecy's and everything else right under the noses of all the normal people amazes me.
Everything about this books intrigues me. The intense yet shy romance between Micah and Adisa that I could actually see building and getting stronger and closer. The mystery that is Micah: his world, his family, and his very existence and how Adisa fits into it. Something I really loved about the book is how everything connected. That initial attraction between Micah and Adisa wasn't as initial as was thought; there is a background story to every mystery, which usually ends up opening a new mysteries.
Overall, I loved and adored this book so much. It was exciting, beautifully written, and has me checking everyday for word on the release of the sequel.
Recommendations: I recommend this book to romance lovers, paranormal and fantasy lovers, mystery lovers, and those looking for a great addition to their POC Reading List!!!
Characters: 10/10
Plot: 10/10
Originality: 10/10
Entertainment: 10/10
Ending: 10/10
Writing Style: 10/10
Cover: 10/10
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Review: Asleep by. Wendy Raven McNair
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5 comments:
I would like to read this one. Great review!
I enjoyed this novel too, there's not many books about superheroes in YA fiction. It's an original idea and I'm looking forward to seeing where the story goes.
I'll check back for the author interview and I'm so glad we finished AP exams :)
Thank you for the review, as the publisher's blurb was not one that would make me think to pick the book up. It just seemed too melodramatic.
Oh my gosh, she lost her edited notes in water?! I'd have cried my eyes out if I'd lost so much hard work in such a small amount of time.
I don't really see a lot of African American leads in books, and I wonder if I gravitate towards characters similar to myself or if it's just really that uncommon in the genre?
I am currently reading Ship Breaker and the main characters are very diverse, with Nailer being Indian and the two lead girls being darker and lighter shades of black and even a hybrid human-like character.
I don't feel like I go out of my way to select books with characters like me(Caucasian), but it's hard to say because I honestly haven't read many books with characters of different races. Maybe about 15-20% of my books have races other than Caucasian and even then, Ship Breaker is the first I've read with an African American as one of the main characters (but still not the MAIN, main character.) And it's one of two books with an Indian character as the lead (the other is Holly Black's White Cat.)
I will certainly be picking this book up to give it a read. Thanks for throwing this out there for me, I've never really thought about it before.
The synopsis kind of makes me think of Micheal Grant's Gone Series. With the super powers and all that. Like I said in the author interview, I will be reading this soon. :)
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