Wake

Wake
by Anna Hope

Genre:  Fiction
Published:  2/11/14 by Random House
Pages:  304
Format:  ARC

My rating:
2 out of 5 stars






Wake by Anna Hope is a novel set in the aftermath of World War I, intertwining the stories of three women who were affected by the war: Hettie, Evelyn, and Ada. All three women had men in their lives who were either killed, injured or emotionally affected by the war. As they all attempt to move on with their lives, it is obvious that though the war may be over, its effects will last for a very long time.

There were moments when I thought this could be a really good novel. At times, pieces of each woman's story would draw me in and keep me reading. But overall, the novel felt disjointed and the plot was ambiguous and slow. I had a little trouble keeping Evelyn and Hettie's stories separate as their characters seemed fairly similar.

As I was reading, I was really waiting to judge this book until I read the ending. I kept wondering if the story was leading anywhere, and if it did lead somewhere good at the end, then I might have liked it more. But here's the problem...the story didn't lead anywhere at all. It just stopped mid-sentence. I had an advanced reader's copy of this novel, and I am really hoping that perhaps my copy just wasn't finished yet. Because the other option is that the author actually chose to end the book this way. Perhaps she thought this was a clever literary device. But if that was the case, I didn't get it. At all. I usually enjoy an ending that is left a little open without wrapping everything up into a neat bow. But this book left everything completely unwrapped and strewn about everywhere. I was not a fan.

I received an advanced reader's edition of this book through LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.