Lousy, Awkward and Lost

By Someone Who Did Not Include a Byline

I read the book 'Loud, Awake and Lost' by Adele Griffin. This book follows the life of the young Ember after she comes home from a rehabilitation center. While at this rehab, she was relearning how to be normal again. After a terrible car crash that left who she believes is a stranger, dead, she tries to pick up the pieces of her broken life and put together her memory. Ember fights every demon in an attempt to remember what she has forgotten.

                This piece had many strengths like its building of characters and how they interacted with each other. I liked all the descriptions because they were so beautifully written that I could picture every detail of what was happening, the roof scene with Kai, or Ember driving over the bridge and having a panic attack. I felt each one of these as events that happened to me. And every sad part was like a punch in the face.

                While this piece did have many strengths it had double the amount of weaknesses. For example, the first few chapters, I was glazing over because there was no way that what was going on, made any sense. It was choppy and didn't flow very well for me to truly like it. The ending was absolutely terrible, it was similar to the beginning, first it's one thing and the next it's totally different.

                This book made me feel like I was below my reading comprehension level. I wouldn't read it again. It had good concepts and a great plot but the way Griffin went about executing it, was awful. You shouldn't read this book, unless you like extreme confusion and feeling as if you've missed something important.