Wild Awake by Hilary Smith

Wild Awake by Hilary Smith

Release Date: May 28, 2013

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 384

Summary: Things you earnestly believe will happen while your parents are away:

1. You will remember to water the azaleas.

2. You will take detailed, accurate messages.

3. You will call your older brother, Denny, if even the slightest thing goes wrong.

4. You and your best friend/bandmate Lukas will win Battle of the Bands.

5. Amid the thrill of victory, Lukas will finally realize you are the girl of his dreams.

Things that actually happen:

1. A stranger calls who says he knew your sister.

2. He says he has her stuff.

3. What stuff? Her stuff.

4. You tell him your parents won’t be able to—

5. Sukey died five years ago; can’t he—

6. You pick up a pen.

7. You scribble down the address.

8. You get on your bike and go.

9. Things . . . get a little crazy after that.*

*also, you fall in love, but not with Lukas.

Both exhilarating and wrenching, Hilary T. Smith’s debut novel captures the messy glory of being alive, as seventeen-year-old Kiri Byrd discovers love, loss, chaos, and murder woven into a summer of music, madness, piercing heartbreak, and intoxicating joy.

My Thoughts: This one was a touching and intriguing debut. It was catchy, yet exciting, yet sad.

We are introduced to Kiri who is still mourning the death of her sister even after a few years. She also has a best friend named Lukas who she secretly pines for. Of course, he just doesn’t see her the same way.

One night she gets a strange call telling her some guy has her sister’s belongings. Hmm. He wants to meet her to give them to her. She gets on her bike and tries to head to the house. She ends up going to the bad part of town (well, not that bad actually but bad enough) and she ends up meeting another guy. His name is Skunk and helps Kiri fix her bike. Heck, he helps her with a lot of things, way more than fixing a bike.

Kiri is a talented musician. She plays and practices for hours on hours. Things have to be good. She is kind of a maniac I guess. She is very talented and has the drive to succeed but things aren't always easy for her. And now, she is finding out more about her dead sister and who she really was.

This was a nice debut and it was interesting and it kept me wondering what was going to happen next.  But, it also had its depressing moments. I felt at times things got too intense for me and I wanted her to just be happy.  It was a hard one for me to read, just felt really emotional.

I liked seeing Kiri find out more though about her sister. I liked seeing her grow a little bit. And I loved finding out more about Skunk and realizing that he had his own problems to get past and fix.

Wild Awake was a pretty intense one, but I enjoyed it. I had to know what she was going to find out about her sister and how she was going to deal with it, even if it was hard.

Overall: The best part about this one for me was watching Kiri grow a little bit and getting to know Skunk. I liked him. And I liked them together. I liked this book a lot and I liked seeing how things went.

Cover: I love all the colors. Very bright and neat. 

What I'd Give It: