Barely awake

Melissa Nicolas

Alive By Scot Sigler
February 6, 2017

Submerged into blandness and engulfed by boredom, what can anyone do when they're trapped reading the same thing over and over again with no climax and seemingly no resolution. This will be my second review of Scot Sigler's novel Alive. The book starts the readers off with a powerful and suspenseful beginning. We meet our mysterious, no named,  protagonist who awakens surrounded by darkness and isn't sure where she is nor who she is. To reflect, a young girl awakens chained in a coffin completely in the dark and has no idea how she came to be like this and has no memory of who her family is or even her name. With all the strength, she can muster she breaks free of her casket. Only to realize she is in a room filled with a dozen casket with bodies waiting to be awoken. The only information she knows is that her name must be M. Savage because it was in her coffin and that she is definitely not twelve years old anymore. The storyline is unlike any other book I've reviewed. I was quickly captivated by the characters and plot of the book. To my dismay, when I initially reviewed the book giving it praise I hadn't anticipated that everything I read in the first couple chapters was all the book had to offer.

Once readers find themselves half way into the book they realize that the characters trapped underground have made no progress getting out or finding their true identities. This fact is the reason for the drastic change in my review of the book. I cannot identify a single point in the book where I was truly on the edge of my seat and turning pages left and right. This is not a recommendation to readers, unless you are the type that enjoys slow paced books without climactic excitement and lack real resolution. Towards the middle of the book, I suspect is where many readers have lost interest in the storyline and even the characters. The only praise the book deserves is the diverse and wildly entertaining and wildly different characters created by Scot Sigler that reside in this book. Characters like Yong (the only piece of identification given to the audience), who was highly combative and arrogant but kept the book exciting with his sharp tongue and short temper. " His arms are crossed again; his head is tilted slightly to the right. He is a walking challenge, daring anyone to contradict him. Something about his presence promises pain" (Sigler 41). Characters like O' Malley weren't nearly as captivating. If he was meant to be the brooding, handsome love interest that young girls are entranced by then he came off more as having an emotion deficiency and the audience couldn't learn to love him. " He [ O' Malley]  doesn't seem suspicious or angry. When someone talks, he looks, at them... he's analyzing, he's measuring" ( Sigler 237).

I still believe that this book can be salvaged and could potentially be a good read for other people. I still recommend it to readers that like slow paced science fiction book but if not then I would stay away from this book unless you are in need of some sleep.