Rating: 4.5/5 There are times when you read a book and it genuinely touches your heart. The characters are raw with realism, the plot claws its way into your bloodstream, and, word by word, you find the story consuming your soul. Awakening is one of those books. It feels so deeply intimate that you think you’ve discovered something special, something you want to desperately share with the world but can’t help but want to selfishly keep guarded as well. Exceptional in its exploration of grief, self-acceptance, and love, this epic series starter is one you won’t want to miss. When you’re eager to sing a book’s praises, it’s hard to know where to begin, so I’ll start with what impressed me the most: character depth. When a novel’s characters leave an impression that is so real -- one where your heart beats in rhythm to their own fictional palpitations, ebbing and flowing based on a spectrum ranging from blissful happiness to oppressive despair -- magic happens. Burke crafted such vulne
Reviewer: The Banned Bibliophile Received: Physical Copy from Publisher Release Date: November 2018 Moons: 4/5 Goodreads Summary: Fourteen-year-old Peter Green can't remember how he died. All he has are his pajamas, a silk tie, and a one-way bus ticket to Mrs. Battisworth's Academy and Haven for Unliving Boys and Girls, a strange and spooky school for dead orphans like himself. But that's all he needs: the Unliving Academy has everything, from vampires in the hallways, to monsters in the cafeteria, to ghosts in the basement. And that's just the teachers; the students are far stranger. As Pete learns to fit in with his new supernatural schoolmates, he starts to discover his own uniquely undead abilities, and even begins enjoying his life after death...but he just can't shake the feeling that he's forgotten something (or somebody!) important. Somebody he left behind in the land of the living. Somebody he loved very much. Somebody who's in terrible dang