Wake by
Amanda Hocking
- Paperback
- Publisher: Pan Macmillan
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1447205723
- ISBN-13: 978-1447205722
Gorgeous. Fearless.
Dangerous. They're the kind of girls you envy; the kind of girls you
want to hate. Strangers in town for the summer, Penn, Lexi and Thea have
caught everyone's attention—but it’s Gemma who’s attracted theirs.
She’s the one they’ve chosen to be part of their group.
Gemma
seems to have it all—she’s carefree, pretty, and falling in love with
Alex, the boy next door. He’s always been just a friend, but this
summer they’ve taken their relationship to the next level, and now
there’s no going back. Then one night, Gemma’s ordinary life changes
forever. She’s taking a late night swim under the stars when she finds
Penn, Lexi and Thea partying on the cove. They invite her to join them,
and the next morning she wakes up on the beach feeling groggy and sick,
knowing something is different.
Suddenly Gemma is stronger,
faster, and more beautiful than ever. But her new powers come with a
terrifying price. And as she uncovers the truth, she’s is forced to
choose between staying with those she loves—or entering a new world
brimming with dark hungers and unimaginable secrets.
Hocking's brought to life her characters with their depth and unique personality. In WAKE, the characters develop as the story goes on. The descriptions were vivid and mysterious enough to keep me going. Some readers might find the pacing a bit slow, but it is the first book in a series, so I believe that Hocking is giving the details we will need as the series progresses. The conversation meanwhile, is genuine and humorous.
WAKE, although a mermaid folktale, is more a tale of sisterly bond, that no matter what, a sister is a sister, it's a bond that can't be broken by differences, tastes, or myth. Creepy, beautiful with a different take on mermaid lore, WAKE ends in a cliffhanger that will make everyone crave for Lullaby---the next book in the series.
read more on:
Fresh Fiction
View all my reviews
One
Midnight Swim
The engine made a bizarre chugging sound, like a dying robot llama, followed by an innocuous
click-click.
Then silence. Gemma turned the key harder, hoping that would somehow
breathe life into the old Chevy, but it wouldn't even chug anymore. The
llama had died.
"You have got to be kidding me," Gemma said and cursed under her breath.She'd
worked her butt off to pay for this car. Between the long hours she
spent training at the pool and keeping up on her schoolwork, she had
little time for a steady job. That had left her stuck babysitting the
horrible Tennenmeyer boys. They put gum in her hair and poured bleach on
her favorite sweater.But she'd toughed it out. Gemma had
been determined to get a car when she turned sixteen, even if that meant
dealing with the Tennenmeyers. Her older sister Harper had gotten their
father's old car as a hand-me-down. Harper had offered to let Gemma
drive it, but she declined. Mainly, Gemma needed her own car because neither Harper nor her father
readily approved of her late-night swims at Anthemusa Bay. They didn't
live far from the bay, but the distance wasn't what bothered her family.
It was the late-night partÑand that was the thing that Gemma craved
most.
Out there, under the stars, the water seemed like it
went on forever. The bay met the sea, which in turn met the sky, and it
all blended together like she was floating in an eternal loop. There was
something magical about the bay at night, something that her family
couldn't seem to understand.
Gemma tried the key one more
time, but it only elicited the same empty clicking sound from her car.
Sighing, she leaned forward and stared out at the moonlit sky through
the cracked windshield. It was getting late, and even if she left on
foot right now, she wouldn't get back from her swim until almost
midnight.
That wouldn't be a huge problem, but her curfew was eleven. Starting off
the summer being grounded on top of having a dead car was the last
thing she wanted. Her swim would have to wait for another night.
She
got out of the car. When she tried to slam the door shut in
frustration, it only groaned, and a chunk of rust fell off the bottom.
"This is by far the worst three hundred dollars I ever spent," Gemma muttered.
"Car trouble?" Alex asked from behind her, startling her so much she nearly screamed. "Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."
"No, it's okay." She waved it off and turned around to face him. "I didn't hear you come out."
Alex had lived next door to them for the past ten years, and there was
nothing scary about him. As he got older, he'd tried to smooth out his
unruly dark hair, but a lock near the front always stood up, a cowlick
he could never tame. It made him look younger than eighteen, and when he
smiled, he looked younger still.
There was something
innocent about him, and that was probably why Harper had never thought
of him as anything more than a friend. Even Gemma had dismissed him as
uncrushworthy until recently. She'd seen the subtle changes in him, his
youthfulness giving way to broad shoulders and strong arms.
It was that new thing, the new
manliness he
was beginning to grow into, that made her stomach flutter when Alex
smiled at her. She still wasn't used to feeling that way around him, so
she pushed it down and tried to ignore it.
"The stupid
piece of junk won't run." Gemma gestured to the rusty compact and
stepped over to where Alex stood on his lawn. "I've only had it for
three months, and its dead already."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Alex said. "Do you need help?"
"You know something about cars?" Gemma raised an eyebrow. She had seen
him spend plenty of time playing video games or with his nose stuck in a
book, but she'd never once seen him under the hood of a car.
Alex
smiled sheepishly and lowered his eyes. He had been blessed with tan
skin, which made it easier for him to hide his embarrassment, but Gemma
knew him well enough to understand that he blushed at almost anything.
"No,"
he admitted with a small laugh and motioned back to the driveway where
his blue Mercury Cougar sat. "But I do have a car of my own."
He
pulled his keys out of his pocket and swung them around his finger. For
a moment he managed to look slick before the keys flew off his hand and
hit him in the chin. Gemma stifled a laugh as he scrambled to pick them
up.
"You okay?"
"Uh, yeah, I'm fine." He rubbed his chin and shrugged it off. "So, do you want a ride?"
"Are you sure? It's pretty late. I don't want to bother you."
"Nah, it's no bother." He stepped back toward his car, waiting for Gemma to follow. "Where are you headed?"
"Just to the bay."
"I should've known." He grinned. "Your nightly swim?"
"It's not
nightly," Gemma said, though he wasn't too far off base.
"Come on." Alex walked over to the Cougar and opened his door. "Hop in."
"All right, if you insist."
Gemma
didn't like imposing on people, but she didn't want to pass up a chance
at swimming. A car ride alone with Alex wouldn't hurt, either. Usually
she only got to spend time with him when he was hanging out with her
sister.
"So what is it about these swims that you find so entrancing?" Alex asked after she'd gotten in the car.
"I
don't think I'd ever describe them as entrancing." She buckled up her
seat belt, then leaned back. "I don't know what it is exactly. There's
just...nothing else like it."
"What do you mean?" Alex asked. He'd started the car, but stayed parked in the driveway, watching her as she tried to explain.
"During the day there are so many people at the bay, especially during
the summer, but at night...it's just you and the water and the stars.
And it's dark, so it all feels like one thing, and you're part of it
all." She furrowed her brow, but her smile was wistful. "I guess it is
kind of a entrancing," she admitted. She shook her head, clearing it of
the thought. "I don't know. Maybe I'm just a freak who likes swimming at
night."
That was when Gemma realized Alex was staring at
her, and she glanced over at him. He had a strange expression on his
face, almost like he was dumbfounded.
"What?" Gemma asked,
beginning to feel embarrassed at the way he looked at her. She fidgeted
with her hair, tucking it behind her ears, and shifted in her seat.
"Nothing. Sorry." Alex shook his head and put the car in drive. "You probably want to get out to the water."
"I'm
not in a huge rush or anything," Gemma said, but that was sort of a
lie. She wanted to get as much time in the water as she could before her
curfew.
"Are you still training?" Alex asked. "Or did you stop for summer vacation?"
"Nope, I still train." She rolled down the car window, letting the salty
air blow in. "I swim every day at the pool with the coach. He says my
times are getting really good."
"At the pool you swim all day, and then you want to sneak out and swim all night?" Alex smirked. "How does that work?"
"It's
different." She stuck her arm out the open window, holding it straight
like the wing of a plane. "Swimming at the pool, it's all laps and time.
It's work. Out in the bay, it's just floating and splashing around."
"But don't you ever get sick of being wet?" Alex asked.
"Nope." She shook her head. "That's like asking you,
Don't you ever get sick of breathing air?"
"As a matter of fact, I do. Sometimes I think,
Wouldn't it be grand if I didn't need to breathe?"
"Why?" Gemma laughed. "Why would that ever be grand?"
"I don't know." He looked self-conscious for a minute, his smile
twisting nervously. "I guess I mostly thought it when I was in gym class
and they'd make me run or something. I was always so out of breath."
Alex
glanced over at her, as if checking to see if she thought he was a
complete loser for that admission. But she only smiled at him in
response.
"You should've spent more time swimming with me," Gemma said. "Then you wouldn't have been so out of shape."
"I know, but I'm a geek." He sighed. "At least I'm done with all that gym stuff now that I graduated."
"Soon
you'll be so busy at college, you won't even remember the horrors of
high school," Gemma said, her tone turning curiously despondent.
"Yeah, I guess." Alex furrowed his brow.
Gemma leaned closer to the window, hanging her arm down the side and
resting her chin on her hand as she stared out at houses and trees
passing by. In her and Alex's neighborhood, the houses were all cheap
and run-down, but as soon as they passed Capri Lane, everything was
clean and modern.
Since it was tourist season, all the
buildings and trees were lit up brightly. Music from the bars and the
sounds of people talking and laughing wafted in through the air.
"Are
you excited to get away from all this?" Gemma asked with a wry smile
and pointed to a drunken couple arguing on the boulevard.
"There
is some stuff I'll be glad to get away from," he admitted, but when he
looked over at her, his expression softened. "But there will definitely
be some things that I miss.
"The beach was mostly deserted,
other than a few teenagers having a bonfire, and Gemma directed Alex to
drive a little farther. The soft sand gave way to more jagged rocks
lining the shore, and the paved parking lots were replaced by a forest
of bald cypress trees. He parked on a dirt road as close to the water as
he could get.
This far away from the tourist attractions,
there were no people or trails leading to the water. When Alex cut the
lights on the Cougar, they were submerged in darkness. The only light
came from the moon above them, and some light pollution cast off by the
town.
"Is this really where you swim?" Alex asked.
"Yeah. It's the best place to do it." She shrugged and opened the door.
"But it's all rocky." Alex got out of the car and scanned the mossy stones that covered the ground. "It seems dangerous."
"That's the point." Gemma grinned. "Nobody else would swim here.
"As
soon as she got out of the car, she slipped off her sundress, revealing
the bathing suit she wore underneath. Her dark hair had been in a
ponytail, but she pulled it down, shaking it loose. She kicked off her
flip-flops and tossed them in the car, along with her dress.
Alex
stood next to the car, shoving his hands deep in his pockets, and tried
not to look at her. He knew she was wearing a bathing suit, one he'd
seen her in a hundred times before. Gemma practically lived in swimwear.
But alone with her like this, he felt acutely aware of how she looked
in the bikini.
Of the two Fisher sisters, Gemma was
definitely the prettier. She had a lithe swimmer's body, petite and
slender, but curved in all the right places. Her skin was bronze from
the sun, and her dark hair had golden highlights running through it from
all the chlorine and sunlight. Her eyes were honey, not that he could
really see the color in the dim light, but they sparkled when she smiled
at him.
"Aren't you going swimming?" Gemma asked.
"Uh, no." He
shook his head and deliberately stared off at the bay to avoid looking
at her. "I'm good. I'll wait in the car until you're done."
"No, you drove me all the way down here. You can't just wait in the car. You
have to come swimming with me."
"Nah, I think I'm okay." He scratched his arm and lowered his eyes. "You go have fun."
"Alex,
come on." Gemma pretended to pout.
"I bet you've never even gone for a
swim in the moonlight. And you're leaving for college at the end of the
summer. You have to do this at least once, or you haven't really lived.""I don't have swim trunks," Alex said, but his resistance was already waning.
"Just wear your boxers."
He
thought about protesting further, but Gemma had a point. She was always
doing stuff like this, but he'd spent most of his high school career in
his bedroom.
Besides, swimming would be better than waiting. And when he thought about it, it was much less creepy
joining her swimming than watching her from the shore.
"Fine, but I better not cut my feet on any of the rocks," Alex said as he slipped off his shoes.
"I promise to keep you safe and sound." She crossed her hand over her heart to prove it.
"I'll hold you to that."
He
pulled his shirt up over his head, and it was exactly as Gemma had
imagined. His gangly frame had filled out with toned muscles that she
didn't completely understand, since he was a self-professed geek.
When
he started to undo his pants, Gemma turned away to be polite. Even
though she would see him in his boxers in a few seconds, it felt strange
watching him take off his jeans. As if it were dirty.
"So how do we get down to the water?" Alex asked.
"Very carefully."
She went first, stepping delicately onto the rocks, and he knew he
wouldn't stand a chance of copying her grace. She moved like a
ballerina, stepping on the balls of her feet from one smooth rock to the
next until she reached the water.
"There are a few sharp stones when you step in the water," Gemma warned him.
"Thanks
for the heads-up," he mumbled and moved with as much caution as he
could. Following her path, which she'd made look so easy, proved to be
rather treacherous, and he stumbled several times.
"Don't rush it! You'll be fine if you go slow."
"I'm trying."
To
his own surprise, he managed to make it to the water without slicing
open his foot. When he reached the water, Gemma smiled proudly at him as
she waded out deeper into the bay.
"Aren't you scared?" Alex asked.
"Of what?" She'd gone far enough into the water to lean back and swim, kicking her legs out in front of her.
"I don't know. Sea monsters or something. The water is so dark. You
can't see anything." Alex was now in a little over waist-deep, and
truthfully, he didn't want to go any farther.
"There's no
sea monsters." Gemma laughed and splashed water at him. To encourage him
to have fun, she decided to challenge him. "I'll race you to the rock
over there."
"What rock?"
"That one." She pointed to a giant gray spike of a rock that stuck out of the water a few yards from where they swam.
"You'll beat me to it," he said.
"I'll give you a head start," Gemma offered.
"How much?"
"Um...five seconds."
"Five seconds?" Alex seemed to weigh this. "I guess maybe I couldÑ"
Instead of finishing his thought, he dove into the water, swimming fast.
"I'm already giving you a head start!" Gemma called after him, laughing. "You don't need to cheat!"
Alex
swam as furiously as he could, but it wasn't long before Gemma was
flying past him. She was unstoppable in the water, and he'd honestly
never seen anything faster than her. In the past, he'd gone with Harper
to swim meets at the school, and there had rarely been one that Gemma
didn't win.
"I won!" Gemma declared when she reached the rock.
"As
if there was ever any doubt." Alex swam up next to her and hung on to
the rock to support himself. His breath was still short, and he wiped
the salty water from his eyes. "That was hardly a fair fight."
"Sorry." She smiled. Gemma wasn't anywhere near as winded as Alex was, but she leaned onto the rock next to him.
"For some reason, I don't think you really mean that," Alex said in mock offense.
His
hand slipped off the rock, and when he reached out to steady himself
again, he accidentally put his hand over Gemma's. His first instinct was
to pull it back in some kind of hasty embarrassment, but the second
before he did, he changed his mind.
Alex let his hand linger over hers, both of them cool and wet. Her smile
had changed, turning into something fonder, and for a moment neither of
them said anything. They hung on to the rock like that for a moment
longer, the only sound the water lapping around them.
Gemma
would've been content to sit with Alex like that, but light exploded in
the cove behind him, distracting her. The small cove was at the mouth
of the bay, just before it met the ocean, about a quarter mile from
where Gemma and Alex floated.
Alex followed her gaze. A moment later, laughter sounded over the water and he pulled his hand away from hers.
A
fire flared inside the cove, the light flickering across the three
dancing figures that fanned it. From this far away, it was difficult to
get a clear view of what they were doing, but it was obvious who they
were by the way they moved. Everyone in town knew of them, even if
nobody really seemed to know them personally.
"It's those girls," Alex saidÑsoftly, as if the girls would overhear him from the cove.
The
three girls were dancing with elegance and grace. Even their shadows,
looming on the rock walls around them, seemed sensual in their
movements.
"What are they doing out here?" Alex asked.
"I don't know." She shrugged, continuing to stare at them, unabashed.
"They've been coming out here more and more. They seem to like hanging
out in that cove."
"Huh," Alex said. She looked back at him and saw his brow furrowed in thought.
"I don't even know what they're doing in town."
"Me neither." He looked over his shoulder to watch them again. "Somebody told me they were Canadian movie stars."
"Maybe. But they don't have accents."
"You've heard them talk?" Alex asked, sounding impressed.
"Yeah, I've seen them at Pearl's Diner across from the library. They always order milk shakes."
"Didn't there used to be four of them?"
"Yeah,
I think so." Gemma squinted, trying to be sure she was counting right.
"Last time I saw them out here, there were four. But now there's only
three."
"I wonder where the other one went."
Gemma and Alex were too far away to understand them clearly, but they
were talking and laughing, their voices floating over the bay. One of
the girls began singingÑher voice clear as crystal, and so sweet it
almost hurt to hear. The melody pulled at Gemma's heart.
Alex's
jaw dropped, and he gaped at them. He moved away from the rock,
floating slowly toward them, but Gemma barely even noticed. Her focus
was on the girls. Or, more accurately, on the one girl who wasn't
singing.
Penn. Gemma was sure of it, just by the way
Penn moved away from the two girls. Her long black hair hung down
behind her, and the wind blew it back. She walked with startling grace
and purpose, her eyes straight ahead.
From this distance in
the dark, Penn shouldn't have noticed her, but Gemma could feel her
eyes boring straight through her, sending chills down her spine.
"Alex," Gemma said in a voice that barely sounded like her own. "I think we should go."
"What?" Alex replied dazedly, and that was when Gemma realized how far he'd swum away from her.
"Alex, come on. I think we're bothering them. We should go."
"Go?" He turned back to her, sounding confused by the idea.
"Alex!" Gemma said, nearly shouting now, but at least that seemed to get through to him. "We need to get back. It's late."
"Oh, right." He shook his head, clearing it, and then swam back toward the shore.
When Gemma was convinced he was back to normal, she followed him.
Penn,
Thea, Lexi, and Arista had been in town since the weather started
warming up, and people assumed they were the first tourists of the
season. But nobody really knew exactly who they were or what they were
doing here.
All Gemma knew was that she hated it when they
came out here. It disrupted her night swims. She didn't feel comfortable
being in the water, not when they were out in the cove, dancing and
singing and doing whatever it was they did.
