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The world is over, and all that's left of humanity are the scientists that created the apocalypse and their handful of companions, trapped in the Tower of London, surrounded by the Sleepless, the feral humans with chips implanted in their brains. When two survivors arrive, Thea and the others are forced to consider if a cure is truly possible, and if it is, what that would mean for humanity.

I thought this book had a lot of interesting things to say about disability, technology that claims to fix our lives, and what is truly monstrous. I generally enjoyed the narrator, who was unreliable and very detached from her emotions. I thought it was more of a dystopian book than horror; although, there were plenty of parts of the book that were horrifying.

I found the ending of the book very confusing, and I was overall left with a lot of questions about what was actually happening in that compound. I enjoyed it, and I think I'll continue to think about a lot of the book, but I don't think I fully understood it with just one reading.

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I've had to really ponder my feelings about Laura Elliot's Awakened. While technically a dystopian novel, I'm not sure how I feel about that label. I feel like it's a truly genre-defying exploration of chronic illness and its profound impact on both the individual and their loved ones.

Elliot's portrayal of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (M.E.) is remarkably vivid. She's clearly made extensive research or first-hand knowledge shines through, offering an unparalleled look at the condition and the medical establishment's approach to it.

Awakened is incredibly surreal and kept me completely enthralled for most of its duration. However, it unfortunately lost its way in the very final part. While the first half, with its slow pace and focus on characters and build up, was captivating, the shift towards Vladimir and increasingly metaphorical science led to a dip in engagement for me. The abstract and inconclusive ending further contributed to this feeling.

Despite these reservations, Awakened held my interest from start to finish. It's a debut brimming with ambitious ideas and compelling character development. While the execution fell slightly short of my expectations, I'm very eager to see what Laura Elliot writes next.

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40/100 or 2.0 stars

This was such an interesting concept, but the writing style just really did not work for me. I couldn't get invested in what was going on in the story, which is unfortunate, since I was expecting to really like this based on the synposis when I requested it.

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If you asked me to pick my favourite quote from this book then I would have an extremely tough time of it. I loved the writing style and just the words used to convey every emotion and plot point that was going on. There was some great commentary on everything from medical mistreatment to what it means to be human what can be justified in the name of ‘saving the world.’ Not only was it written excellently but it was super easy to read, which is not always the case with dense or even just thoughtful prose.
The struggles of our main character to see herself and the world as they really are was effective as well. Her arc develops naturally through the book and you can just see where it’s going and how everything is going to change by the end. The ending is a lot of reading between the lines and looking for what the imagery is telling you, so I didn’t find it the most compelling and it was a little abrupt but the buildup was absolutely there.
The cast of characters were not particularly focused on or developed outside of our main character but they definitely served their purposes in the story. I didn’t care for any of the romantic elements or storylines. There was less of them at the beginning than in the last third so I find myself having enjoyed that a little more.
Again, the commentary and horror elements that feel like they could happen in the real world was where I found my enjoyment in this read.

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Awakened by Laura Elliott (book cover is in image) tells a tale of how, after the end of civilization the world is plagued with feral monsters created by tech implanted into humans that is supposed to prevent people from sleeping. Scientists, after finding a man who is not affected, believe that there is now hope to find a cure and save humanity.

The Narration by Antonia Beamish was excellently done. This was my first experience with her, and I will be seeking out more from her.

Thank you, @angryrobotbooks, @dreamscape_media / @dreamscape_lore and @netgalley, for the opportunity to read this ARC. All opinions are my own.

Rating: 4 Stars
Pub Date: Jun 10 2025
Audio Release: Aug 07 2025

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The blurb for this debut novel immediately hooked me as it felt like something straight out of Black Mirror, and I’m happy to say it delivered on that premise. Set in a dystopian world where sleep has been “cured” in the name of productivity, the result is a chilling breakdown of humanity and a haunting exploration of scientific ambition gone too far.

The concept is original and unsettling, and I loved the literary tone the author took in unpacking the consequences. The pacing did feel a bit stretched in places, and I think the story could’ve been tighter overall, but the atmosphere, themes, and thought provoking premise more than made up for it.

Thank you Angry Robot, NetGalley, and Dreamscape Media for the e-ARC and ALC in exchange for my honest review.

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I really enjoyed this as a horror novel, it had that tension that I was looking for and was hooked from the start. I was invest in what was what happening and enjoyed the overall concept. I loved getting to know the characters and how everything worked together with them. Laura Elliott wrote this perfectly and was glad I read this, it uses the scientific elements in this universe and was glad it worked overall.

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Thank you to NetGalley and Angry Robot for an Advanced Reader’s Copy in exchange for an honest review.

Awakened is set in London some thirty-five years in the future and follows the story of Doctor Thea Chares, a woman whose mother fell ill with chronic fatigue syndrome when Thea was just a girl. In an attempt to cure her mother’s illness, Thea worked as a doctor on a team of experimental scientists looking for a way to give the human body full function without the need to sleep. They succeed, but the neural chip they invent goes haywire, creating a quasi-zombie apocalypse of ‘Sleepless’.

Elliot’s prose is consistent, well done, and emotional. The story gives real insight into Thea’s background through present scenes and relevant, poignant flashbacks to her life prior to the apocalypse, living in the wake of her mother’s illness. Elliot also crafted fleshed out secondary characters that added fresh and important angles to the story.

The plot has a great balance of tension, conversation, and introspection. The final 10% of the novel lost me a little bit. Other than the ending not sticking the landing, I found this to be a solid and compelling dystopian novel that offered a fresh perspective on an oft-written narrative.

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I’ve had to sit on this review for a while, trying to decide how I feel about the book.
Awakened I suppose it’s technically a dystopian novel but that doesn’t really do it justice, it’s genre defying. It is the exploration of a chronic illness, how it changes the life of the individual with the illness but also the effects on their loved ones.
Laura Elliot has either done impeccable research or has first hand knowledge of M.E. I have never seen such a vivid exploration of it and how the medical establishment treats it before.
Incredibly surreal, Awakened had me completely enthralled until the last 5% or so. After this unfortunately I feel like the book lost its way otherwise this would have been a 5*

Thank you to NetGalley and Angry Robot for the eArc

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Bleak and horrifying in the best possible way. I loved the depths this book goes to and was surprised by how relatable I found it. Examines feelings of shame and regret in such interesting ways. I didn't see any of the twists coming and gasped out loud at some of them.

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I found that I enjoyed the first half of Awakened a lot more than the second - I appreciated the slow pace and emphasis on the characters within the tower. However, as focus pulls towards Vladimir (and the science becomes more metaphorical), I wasn't always as engaged. The ending follows this trend - it feels very abstract and inconclusive, and lost me a little. That said, whilst my enjoyment fluctuated throughout, Awakened held my interest from beginning to end. This is a debut packed full of big ideas and interesting character development - although it fell slightly short of my expectations in the execution, I'm very keen to see what Laura Elliott writes next.
3.5 rounded up to 4.

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This was fascinating and my first read from Laura Elliott. What is the premise of Awakened? Think dystopian London and science gone wrong. To be more specific, a neural chip suppresses human's ability to sleep and is connected to every human who also has a chip. At first it goes great, people with these chips are healing better and their physicality in general is boosted making them stronger. Then, things change. The chips regress their mentality into animalistic, violent, and sleepless aggressors.

This explores a variety of aspects around sleep, and it follow characters exploring what it means to play God and who the real victims of this circumstance really are. We follow main character Thea as she tries to find out if there is a solution to the sleepless and if anything can be done to reverse the social fabric of society that this event has ripped into. I highly recommend it to horror fans, I thought it was great. There is a character introduced in the book that I did predict would turn up, but honestly that didn't take away from the story or the reading experience. I look forward to reading more from this author.

Thank you to Angry Robot and NetGalley for providing this book for review, it was a blast.

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The premise of Awakened by Laura Elliott intrigued me straight away. I loved the idea of scientists trying to fix their own mistake, and I love a good dystopian setting. The idea of a chip that decreases the need for sleep, thus allowing humanity to increase productivity, and the lack of sleep leading to unpredicted side effects over time, was simply amazing. I loved the world Elliott created, in which a handful of scientists are locked away in their tower trying to find a cure while zombie hordes control London.
I read and thoroughly enjoyed the first about 80% of the book, but the plot veered away from the scientific element towards the end and to be honest, I struggled to follow what was happening at the end, and finished feeling confused. I would have liked an ending that felt more like a resolution.

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Awakened is set in the near future, when technology gone wrong causes many folks to be "sleepless", which is basically when their implants glitch, they never sleep, and they become basically zombies. We follow Thea and her cohorts who are still human, living in the Tower of London, trying to fix the problem they created (and also stay alive). Thea and some of the others are scientists who originally made the tech implants that caused this mess, but some of the others are survivors who have joined them in their quest and/or safe dwelling.

Then someone shows up who is neither "sleepless" nor human. He seems to be some sort of combination of the two, and of course the science-minded are fascinated by this. He brings with him a human woman who is unable to speak, so she can't shed any light on the situation. The rest of the novel explores how Thea and company got to the point they're at, and what they're willing to do to move forward.

The book is, as a whole, very introspective. Thea spends a lot of time mulling the intricacies of sleep, and its effect on the body, as well as what makes humans different than the sleepless. There's also a lot of commentary on the messiness of the current health system, as Thea's mom has been dealing with chronic illness without reprieve for quite some time. Because of the level of introspection, the pace can feel a bit slower, but the questions Thea poses are thought provoking and worthwhile. There's a lot of The 100 Season 4 morally gray questioning, and obviously I loved that.

I did not understand the ending though. Like, at all. I hope some of you read it so we can discuss it, because as much as I enjoyed the rest of the story, the end left me confused and as such, rather unfulfilled. My only negative to this otherwise engaging story, frankly!

Bottom Line: Thought provoking and relevant, I enjoyed this morally gray novel, but I really need someone to walk me through the end.

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Brilliant! My first time reading this author but it won’t be my last! I love post apocalyptic fiction and this delivers all of that but so much more! It’s very deep, got me thinking about so much that happens in life! I felt like I was in a dream for parts of this! Loved it!

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this was a book that was very slow beginning and after the middle went faster, it was almost like a diary that our main character did, and where she made light of what was happening and what took place in her past, and how that brought her to today… I couldn’t really connect with the characters that were introduced, but strangely enough I keep coming to know how it would end… it focus much more on consequences and choices… to be honest when the main character told us the names that the other habitants of the tower had give to the new survivors, I had a bad feeling… one is Helen of troy… and the other is Vladimir, shall I explain more? Nahh, thats for me to know and for you to find out…

its a very slow story and theres something that you find out about the new survivors during the present of the story, that gives us a foreboding that something will happen at that time, and since the book gives us dates when things happen, its more daunting… yes, even if it is slow, I came coming back for more… and something I loved about the book, is that it took place in London, survival closer to home gets more real I guess haha.

Thank you Netgalley and Angry Robot, for the free ARC and this is my honest opinion.

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"I looked at us and felt joy, and in that joy I was horrified."

When I started reading this I didn’t have much in the way of expectations as I hadn’t heard anyone talk about it. When I read the first few chapters I sat up at attention like a cartoon character because the writing is BEAUTIFUL.

"There is a yearning within me, to relinquish control and sink into oblivion. To cease."

We’re following a doctor in the wake (ha) of an apocalyptic event where science has taken away sleep to feed the corporate machine. In a devastating effect, those who become Awakened can no longer sleep and become monstrous, roaming the world. In a secure tower in London, two Awakened show up entirely coherent, and now they have to figure out if they are the world’s salvation or destruction.

"We are all of us victims of our own recollections and servants to what they make of us."

This book genuinely feels like it was made for me. It has so many of the things that I like, giving into your inner monster, commentary on economic class, autonomy, and medical ethics. This was messy and fever dreamy in all of the right ways.

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I’ve got to say, the beginning of this was slow for me to get into. I went into it expecting a more thrilling/action dependant apocalyptic read, and instead the story is a dark, intimate, and emotional exploration of the characters mind through topics of survival, ethics, sickness, despair, and humanity.

We’re focused on Thea, she’s one of the scientists who created a chip to stop sleep. Turns out we really do need sleep-now the world is plagued with the “sleepless,” zombie-like beings.
whilst our crew are residing within the tower trying to figure out what they must do, and whether a cure is possible. Some “vampires” show up, unlike the rest.


Such vivid writing that inserts you within the characters mind on a personal level. The story is interesting and still very engaging, however this book primarily shines with Its well-written & dynamic characters.
Now, as a big S. King fan I feel like I see similarities to him lots, maybe I make them up sometimes (🤷) but the characters here really remind me of Kings greatest work.

In short: I’d recommend this to any horror, sci-fi or dystopian fans. I think it’d be a perfect read on a cold, dark winter night!
It’s an uncomfortable and philosophical book at times that will leave you with questions!
Great debut book!

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This book asks a lot of questions, both literally and metaphorically. it asks what one would do in the pursuit of caring for someone you love, in particular whether you would be willing to unleash hell on the world on the offchance it would save a loved one. Thea faces those questions and book records what they do to her.

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This book felt like such a mixed bag. I thought the idea was brilliant. The idea of a group of scientists trying to undo the crisis they created was fascinating, and the whole setup of a neurochip that stopped people from needing sleep and at the same time led to a global disaster was amazing. It very much felt like 28 days later with the unsettling vibes of abandoned London.

I thought the characters introduction was a little clunky. I struggled at first with following who's who aside from our main character and even with time I wasn't sure who was hiding in the tower. But then the middle of the book really delved into deep questions about late stage capitalism and how sick people but also people with disabilities are treated both by the medical establishment as well as society as a whole.

I thought what really brought the book down was the deeper focus on Vladimir. I didn't care either for the love triangle he forces into the story or the more... Supernatural element he brings with himself. I would have preferred if the book focused more on the actual scifi-ish concept of technology bringing humanity to its knees.

All in all this was an interesting book with a concept that doesn't fully deliver but still makes various interesting commentaries on the state of the world as it is now.

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