READING : Wake Unto Me by Lisa Cach

Wake Unto Me by Lisa Cach

Publication date: March 31st, 2011
Published by: Speak
Genre: YA Paranormal, Ghosts
Rating: 2/5
Eligible for Debut Author Challenge 2011

A haunted castle, a handsome young man dead for four hundred years, one heck of a scary portrait of a witch, and a treasure hunt -- not to mention a princess for a roommate! -- all await 15 year old American girl Caitlyn Monahan when she earns a scholarship to a French boarding school.

There are secrets behind the stone walls of Chateau de la Fortune, buried for centuries along with the mystery of who killed Raphael, the charming ghost who visits Caitlyn at night. But as Caitlyn unearths the history of the castle, nothing scares her as badly as the secret she learns about herself, and the reason she was chosen to come to the Fortune School.

And nothing breaks her heart as badly as falling in love with a dead guy.

The idea and story behind Wake Unto Me was very good but the execution was very bad, I 'm afraid.

Wake Unto Me intrigued me for the very first moment I read its summary: ghosts wondering around castles in Paris. Awesome, right? And it was, at the beginning. Actually the first 20-30% of it was quite good. But then things started to get really complicated for no apparent reason.
 I understand why a writer would want pay so much attention to detail and I appreciate it. Cach payed A LOT attention to historical facts, which resulted in the book basically losing its "soul", its pace and its vibe. After a while it felt like I was watching a documentary on History Channel. Tons of information which were not necessary to push the story forward. It wasn't needed at all and inevitably I got bored by the end, waiting for the story to actually happen. Which it turns out was nothing special and a bit predictable. The ending was OK I guess but the book was long and by the time I got there, I felt exhausted. Also the ominous prologue was completely unnecessary, it plays no part whatsoever in the rest of the story. 
And just because the story was drained dry due to the endless overflow of information, characters fell flat too. I failed to see the chemistry between Caitlyn and Rafael, a guy Caitlyn falls in love with from the very first time she sees him in her dreams. Yes, in her dreams. Her friends and her professors were all secondary characters. They could have easily been backspaced to oblivion and leave only Caitlyn and Rafael to take the stage.
 I am so angry at Wake Unto Me because I really thought-and still think-that there was such an interesting idea behind it, and ghost stories,we don't get a lot of them in YA. So I really wanted this to work out. Unfortunately, it didn't.
PS. Blogger needs to get its shit together and fast! Sorry for the text alignment...again!