I’m not sure how I feel about this one still. I liked it while I was reading it but I found it very forgettable. I did really like the characters and the story line.

The message is a good one for young adults especially drinking and driving and the consequences that can come with drinking and driving! I was expecting a horror book, but this is an out-of-body experience book. But it has a solid message. It's worth the read!

A great read the characters were interesting and the story was intriguing. Will look out for more by this author.

This had a very interesting plot and I am still not sure if I like this one. It was a very interesting plot. But I also kind of felt bored with this one. I think this book has a very specific target audience and I do not think that was me.

Thank you for allowing me read and review this book .This books premise is actually one of my biggest fears. I loved the whole book I was literally in the edge of my seat the whole time. Recommend this book to everyone .

Awareness is a YA novel that involves a young woman named Eliza. She goes to a party and after ends up in an accident. The next time she wakes up, she’s on an operating table, but they are still in the middle of surgery. I know this can happen and that would be horrific but this book missed the mark for me by miles.

It help one dimension and it wasn't as interesting as the synopsis promised. I had to push myself to finish it and I really didn't want to.

I usually love YA but I do wonder if it would have worked out better in another genre.

Thank you for the chance to read it and thank you netgalley for my free copy in exchange for an honest review.

2 stars

DNF. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the digital ARC of this book. I am sorry I was unable to finish this book.

Actually a 3.5 read

Unfortunately. This isn’t a thriller book as what I’ve expected. The only thing that scared the hell out me was waking up during operation and feeling the pain! Surprisingly, what I liked about the story were:
- i had a visual of what’s life when you are about to die
- you’ll appreciate life because of second chances

This isn't kind of my taste for a "thriller" but this a fast-paced and decent read.
Thanks Netgalley for this free copy!

This book is a lot. I mean, it was always going to be, given the topic, but I was pleasantly surprised at how it turned out. This is the line in the synopsis that drew me in:
After attending a party with her three best friends, the night ends in a terrible accident that puts Eliza on an operating table. Awake yet paralyzed, in a condition known as anesthetic awareness, Eliza leaves her body and begins a desperate search to discover the fate of her friends.

Anesthetic awareness is a crazy phenomenon that actually does exist, and makes me afraid to ever go under for surgery. It’s also something a lot of people don’t know about, which honestly, isn’t a bad thing! I thought the premise was an interesting one, and while I was a little surprised at how far into the sci-fi/supernatural we go, I wasn’t unhappy with it.

Our MC wakes up on the operating table, with no recollection of how she got there, or what has happened to her. Desperate to escape the pain and invasiveness of the surgery, she pulls until she is free from her earthly body, and begins to wander the halls of the hospital.

Honestly, I thought this book was well done. I enjoyed the journey we went on with Eliza, as she pieced together what happened, and how it happened, and who was to blame. There was a lot of introspection, and guilt, and realizations about how everyone else was going to be affected by this accident, not just her. Eliza made some major growth through this short book, which takes place over less than 24 hours. The author did a good job of blending the flashbacks and the present, and we got to learn about all of the other people involved in a way that made you are about them (for the most part*).

There will be people for whom this book doesn’t resonate, and some of that will likely be te sci-fi aspect, of a girl wandering the halls of a hospital while still able to feel the hands of the surgeons inside her. Others may find Eliza hard to relate to, but to me she felt genuine - she wasn’t my favourite person at the beginning, but what teenager is? I remain unsure about the dementia patient being the only person who could see Eliza, but this wasn’t handled particularly badly as far as I was concerned. It wasn’t a “dementia isn’t real, they’re just seeing things”, more of a “there are things beyond our ken” type of situation. I was also pleased to see the way the author explored marital infidelity, and **

* I did think the best friends could have used a little more fleshing out, but it is a story focusing primarily on Eliza, and how her friends fit into her world, so it wasn’t book-ruining for me.

Content warnings: gore, pain, drinking, discussions of drugs (maybe?), drunk driving, car accidents, alcoholism, infidelity, eating disorders, dementia.

Overall Rating: a solid 4 stars.

**SPOILER the fact that we had a male with an eating disorder made me happy, because we need more representation for this.

Bummer. I had high expectations for this book. I really wanted to like it, but unfortunately, I couldn't stand its characters.

Eliza has 'special and unique' sign all over her. She's a free spirit, doesn't care a bit about how she looks, has zero sense of fashion, and also wants to be an artist. Surprise there. She doesn't date anyone because she has her eyes on her best friend, whom she's ashamed of because he is poor and has an alcoholic mom.
She's the most snarky, whiny and judgmental kid to her parents and kind of annoying big sister to her brother.
If for one second there you thought that maybe Eliza redemption will be by her friends, you are dead wrong. They are horrible, just like her.

I tried so hard to keep reading, told myself that she'll learn her lesson and will be a nicer human being, that probably I was the same at the age of 18… but nope, I couldn't do it. I didn't care for her so how can I worry or hope for her when the bad things will happen?

But it's not all bad. The writing in very light and easy to read, so you can finish this book in no time.

I may be too old for this book… I'm 29. Maybe teenagers will love the book and feel Eliza's arty vibes. Give it a shot,

Schedules to post 3/1/22.

Where did I stop? 24% in

Why? I was bored. There was nothing happening. I purposefully held off on reading this because I was having surgery just after I got it. No way was I going to read a horror novel about being conscious during surgery just before I go under. Little did I know I would have nothing to fear, because nothing happened by the time I stopped reading. Literally nothing that would even indicate that actual plotline was going to occur. On top of that, the characters were pretty gross. A lot of antiquated and pejorative slang was being thrown around, along with a lot of tropey-for-the-90s antagonism between the MC and her parents that just screamed forced tension. For a book that just came out this year, it read like it was written twenty years ago. If it weren't for mentions of the pandemic, it might as well could have been. I was just not liking this book at all.

I wasn’t overly impressed with this book, I was hoping it was going to grip me and be addicting but unfortunately it fell flat and I wasn’t engaged

This is the account of a teen who experiences a real but rare condition called anaesthetic awareness. I was ready for a tale of agony but rather this is more of an out of body experience. True accounts explain this condition is upsetting but the patient rarely feels pain, which is the case in Awareness.,

Here is a story of a teen named Eliza who attends a party with her three best friends. There is quite a bit of underage drinking. The fun night ends in a terrible accident by another tern who should have never gotten behind the wheel after many drinks. And there was a DD who failed to stay sober. The wreck ends with Eliza on an operating table with severe and critical injuries. Awake yet paralysed by anaesthetics, Eliza leaves her body and begins a desperate search of the hospital to discover the fate of her friends. She is not seen or heard by staff and while she can’t walk through doors, neither can she open them so she has to wait and slip through when someone else opens. She is unable to make herself seen or heard at least to most everyone she encounters.
She is a good daughter, student and aspiring artist and Eliza Harper doesn’t believe in hell. When she wakes up in the middle of surgery, however, she begins to have a change of heart on that subject. So what is true hell?
For Eliza, this is a journey unlike any other. Torn between life and death, Eliza begins to understand the importance of the people in her life, and what it really means to love unconditionally.
Will this young girl, just beginning her life, get to put into practice this newfound understanding?

Awareness is a quick read which is good because there wasn’t a lot of content. The characters are portrayed a ps shallow and not developed at all. I grew impatient after the bombshell opening. Then it abruptly cuts to high school life described in kind of boring detail up to the day of the party.. But take into account it’s been many decades since this reader experienced high school life.. Young adult readers will better relate.
After Eliza leaves her body the story moves slowly following Eliza as she views the fate of her injured friends and families who grieving their children. These teens are now radically changed both physically and emotionally.

The book ends with the words, “I take the plunge.” I’d like to discuss the ending with another reader or the author. What do those powerful 4 words mean?

The epilogue cuts to the future as the characters learn to “deal with their lot in life.”
Through extensive all kinds of therapy, the teens are trying to make the best of their “lot.”

Definitely an interesting and thoughtful book, but if you are looking for fast paced, leave this one.

Awareness by Amanda Lance.
Eighteen-year-old aspiring painter Eliza Harper doesn’t believe in hell. When she wakes up in the middle of surgery, however, she learns just how wrong she was. After attending a party with her three best friends, the night ends in a terrible accident that puts Eliza on an operating table. Awake yet paralyzed, in a condition known as anesthetic awareness, Eliza leaves her body and begins a desperate search to discover the fate of her friends.
Though unable to make herself seen or heard, Eliza still experiences a journey unlike any other. Torn between life and death, Eliza begins to understand the importance of the people in her life—and what it really means to love unconditionally.
A good read with good characters. It was different. I loved the cover. 4*.