Serra ElinsenRezensionen

Obviously a one star book, but a five star parody. Lindsay Ellis is a genius.

Mixed feelings about this. Been waiting to read it for years. I was watching the show as Lindsey and Nella were figuring out if they were gonna go with the Lovecraft Mythos and was pretty into it all but I somehow delayed buying the book. Maybe I should have tried it when I was really excited about it.

I wish they had released it openly as a parody, accepted the publishing deal and gotten an editor. It has many funny parts and the "subtle" critique of the genre is ingenious. I rewatched the series before starting it and this turned out to be a huge bonus since it not only made me feel "in on the joke" but also helped me pay attention to the structure of the book and how each element is taken from an existing cliche of popular teen paranormal romance novels.

The main problem with Awoken is that it needed a re-write or an editor to cut out some mundane parts, like 3 pages of clothing descriptions. Some of these parts that are more faithful to the teen-romance formula act like a giant pause button to the flow of the text.

On the other hand the other big problem this book has is that it's not faithful enough to the formula. It had WAY more plot than the usual novels of the kind and was really consistent with the Cthulhu Mythos. This made it obvious that it was a parody written by fellow nerds. Only it wasn't supposed to be that way; the intention was to be believable as a Twilight knockoff.

This imbalance of not being 100% one or the other (parody or teen romance) was very annoying. The book's still enjoyable but it has many boring parts that slow down the reading process and take a lot of the fun away.

I wish it were better, my expectations were too high and were inevitably crushed. I don't regret buying or reading it though.

Awoken by Serra Elisen (the nom-de-plume of Lindsay Ellis, Antonella Inserra, and Elisa Hansen) is the rare parody that stands as its own work of fiction rather than simply riffing on the original. Unlike Harvard Lampoon’s Nightlight, Elisen’s Cthulhu-themed story breaks down the problematic tropes of the teen supernatural romance genre, including the romanticizing of controlling & abusive boyfriends, tokenism of BIPOC characters, and the subtle endorsement of young women forgoing their agency in order to be with a man. Even as the story uses these tropes to advance the plot and comment on the genre, the tone of the story makes clear that Ellis, Inserra, and Hansen do not themselves endorse it. In-jokes from their respective YouTube work abound, including main character Andromeda “Andi” Slate loving Phantom of the Opera and the use of antiquated language in places when characters exclaim something. Those familiar with their work will enjoy these references, but a knowledge of the authors is not necessary to appreciate them. Best of all for horror fans, Elisen invests a great deal into accurately referencing parts of H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos, directly quoting Lovecraft’s 1928 short story “The Call of Cthulhu” and his 1936 novel, The Shadow of Innsmouth: “ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn.” As a self-aware parody of supernatural teen romance and its own story, Awoken is a lot of fun.

The perfect homage to Fifty Shades of Grey, this work captured the romance and the pacing of the original, while adding elements of Lovecraft and Phantom in just the right amounts.

I can't rightly give this book a rating. I just can't do it.

I found this book via YouTube (those in the know know where) and the more I followed the creation process the more I knew I *needed* to read this.

I didn't count on actually enjoying the read - I was thinking that it would be like pulling teeth to get through it. But, strip away the characters, the style and tone, and like every thing else, you're actually left with a semi-decent plot? It's absurd. The "author" did too good of a job in places for what they were trying to do.

This was also great for me on a personal level, since I've been in a reading slump and have been taking months upon months to finish a single book, and on top of that I think I started reading a HP Lovecraft starter kit like three years ago and I'm only halfway through so this is great motivation for me.

All in all, I would actually read a sequel to this, just for the giggles it gave me.

I'm not sure if I'm supposed to admit this, but I was reading this as though it were parody, and I think it best to review it on those grounds as well.

As far as the parody of the melodrama of YA romances, this was very on point and over-the-top. At times, the melodrama was so believable one could almost belive that this were a straight YA paranormal romance.

For me, the most interesting (and disturbing) part of this parody was the main charater's relationship with her best friend. When I was watching the video and Lindsay and Nella were talking about how they had to make this relationship a balance of toxicity disguised as friendship, I was like "yeah, yeah, yeah" but I wasn't really interested in that as an aspect of the parody until I actually read the book:

"Bree Fifan [and I] had become inseparable over the past couple years, but I could still never quite figure out why someone like Bree would want to hang out with me. She was just so full of life in a careless way... She was as loud and quirky as her Goodwill clothes. and being the de facto leader of the school's 'thespians' (as she liked to call them) came naturally to her. On top of all that, she had the annoying habit of being crazy smart in just everything--nothing seemed to difficult for Bree, not even dealing with the taunts and catcalls that her edging-towards-marshmallow curves occasionally earned her... Being friends with Bridget Fifan could really make a girl feel inadequate. Not that is was her fault! Bree would never do anything to put a person down. I just couldn't help it. Bree was just so much... more than me."

The above passage really upset me when I read it, and I realize that there is a lot of that kind of friendship between girls in YA novels, it's just usually a lot more subtle. But, then again, that's the point of parody, isn't it?

Regardless of the well0constructed parodical elements, this was also an incredibly clean draft--there were few spelling/grammatical mistakes, which annoy me in self-published works.

Kudos for a good book and a point well made.

The best book for the worst in YA!
Only it really failed to be THE WORST after my recent read. I honestly was liking the book as I was reading it and it got touching in parts. The end climax however got silly in parts with the repetition of words. However overall it's a good "worst" book. It could have been more horrible in parts, so that was very lacking. I mean if you are going to be racist, don't half-ass it. The misogyny was almost non-existant. We had Epistola that was the promiscuous scorned woman and Andi was the insignificant female to her might man man. Past that however I didn't see enough girl hate, super blatant racism, nor horrible domestic abuse that is "sooo romantic".
 
Still it was an enjoyable read and it certainly needs a movie!

This book parodies both Twilight and the Cthulhu Mythos by combining them into an eldritch, incandescent abomination. In brief, Awoken features a personality-less teenage girl called Andromeda Slate who falls in love with the Great Old One Cthulhu, incarnated as a 16yo highschooler called Riley. Will Cthulhu return her love?

I must say that I found it a surprisingly entertaining read, on both levels -- as a by-the-numbers supernatural romance, and as a not-so-loving parody, with its romanticized depiction of an unhealthy, abusive relationship that drags its muddy Converses all over Lovecraft. The studiedly fanficky writing and purple, thesaurus-supported prose is delicious, the victim-blaming is face-palm inducing and the climax is just too silly for words. In addition, much enjoyment derives from the obvious fun the writing team behind this book had in creating it, and their amusement is infectious. In all, Awoken is gloriously ridiculous, but in a good way, and it made me giggle on several occasions. I could not ask for more.

I was torn on how to review this, but in the end, I really couldn't divorce myself from knowing the background details and read it straight.

I will state, for the record, that I suspect I would have loved this book, read straight, in middle school/early high school. An age where I was reading both YA romances and H.P. Lovecraft. I don't think you can get more spot on a target audience for this book. Also, I was a less critical reader back then, so lines like ""Sigh," I exhaled aloud." wouldn't have bothered me.

But I'm older, and that line caused me to laugh instead, because I knew this book was an affectionate parody of the Twilight type of paranormal romance. As such, I really enjoyed it and could appreciate the deliberate lack of research, the bad prose flourishes, and deal with the flat characters, creepy attitudes, and victim blaming as part of the genre they were parodying.

If you know there were actually eight authors involved, the fact its pretty cohesive is even more remarkable.

Overall, it was an enjoyable parody, but probably not one I'd be eager to reread, except maybe the parts with Uncle Neil.