Book Review: The Waking Dark by Robin Wasserman

The Waking Dark

By Robin Wasserman

Release Date: September 10, 2013

Source: Publisher

Summary: They called it the killing day. Twelve people dead, all in the space of a few hours. Five murderers: neighbors, relatives, friends. All of them so normal. All of them seemingly harmless. All of them now dead by their own hand . . . except one. And that one has no answers to offer the shattered town. She doesn't even know why she killed—or whether she'll do it again.

Something is waking in the sleepy town of Oleander's, Kansas—something dark and hungry that lives in the flat earth and the open sky, in the vengeful hearts of upstanding citizens. As the town begins its descent into blood and madness, five survivors of the killing day are the only ones who can stop Oleander from destroying itself. Jule, the outsider at war with the world; West, the golden boy at war with himself; Daniel, desperate for a different life; Cass, who's not sure she deserves a life at all; and Ellie, who believes in sacrifice, fate, and in evil. Ellie, who always goes too far. They have nothing in common. They have nothing left to lose. And they have no way out. Which means they have no choice but to stand and fight, to face the darkness in their town—and in themselves.

Review: I saw A LOT of hype about this book before I even thought about reading it. Reviewers described Robin Wasserman as the George RR Martin of YA. Yeah, you could say that had me intrigued. So I had no idea what to really expect going into this one, but I knew I was going to like it. 

Oleander, Kansas was your typical quiet town with your typical small town people. Until Killing Day came. 12 people died with no explanation, simply murders that were far too coincidental. But Oleander pushed that under the rug, and continued their quiet-town lives. But Killing Day was just the beginning. There's something lurking underneath and as Oleander slowly starts to spin out of control, 5 teens are the only ones who seem sane enough to try and save the town from itself. Can they save a town, though, that doesn't seem to want to be saved? 

Wow. Just, wow. I'm not really sure what to say right now. I can definitely tell you that I've never read a book like this one. Ever. People die left and right, and you have absolutely no idea what's going on. Which makes this book actually pretty cool. You follow the lives of 5 people in the town, and they all seem like they have nothing to do with each other. But as the book progresses, their lives slowly move together until they all collide in a huge way. It was pretty cool how the characters all intertwined by the end. 

The writing style of this book is really interesting, and pretty much perfect for this kind of book. There's a ton of unknown, so it's basically all the current emotions and thoughts of the characters. Things are raw and there are events that happen that literally left my jaw hanging wide open as I read them. Did that really just happen? Yup, pretty sure it did...

Because of all of the mystery, some parts of the story tended to be a bit confusing while other parts seemed to just drag on (it's a 452 page book). I can't say much without entirely spoiling the book, but it was still really fun and engaging to read. I was definitely kept on the edge of my seat with this one, and the characters were all so different yet had to deal with the same trauma and emotions. How they dealt with what they went through, leaving behind their stereotypes and who they were in high school, was pretty cool and I liked how they all ended up at the end of the story. 

Very rarely are books able to super surprise me, but Robin Wasserman pulled no punches when it came to the world in The Waking Dark. I had no idea what would come next and was always shocked with pretty much every flip of the page. Like I said, things were kind of drawn out in this one, and the ending was a little rushed for my taste, but in the end the surprises and unique storyline really made this book as good as it was. If you want something that's completely unlike everything you've read and throws something new at you around every corner, then I'd recommend picking up a copy of The Waking Dark.