Awake in Olaiya is an interesting dystopian novel set in an apparently ideal community within the Old Los Angeles Area, which is called Olaiya for short. The main character is Nat, a unit “brother” who wakes up one night in Olaiya and realizes the other brothers who share her unit aren’t just men, but a mix of male and female persons. Newly aware of her own femininity, Nat wonders why she can’t remember her life beyond the few days she’s been “awake” in Olaiya, and why both male and female residents are referred to as “he”. Determined to find answers, Nat seeks out a secret group known as the Rebs, who may hold the answer to why she is in Olaiya and why she can’t remember her past. But as Nat becomes more awake, her ability to blend in with the orderly and supposedly perfect community becomes harder. Not only must she keep pretending that everyone in Olaiya is male, she also can’t let anyone know she is starting to remember things that happened days before when no one is supposed to even remember yesterday.

As Nat struggles to find out her past, the perfection of Olaiya begins to fall away, revealing a dark secret hidden within the community’s heart. Nat needs to get out of Olaiya before the Masters who run the community put all the unit brothers back on a drug regime that will erase their memories for good.

I found the concept of this book to be quite interesting. Nat is a solid character, although I did find some of the secondary characters to have a bit more “oomph” to them. The book is fairly tight, well-written, and engaging, with only a few typos scattered throughout. I felt it could have been streamlined a little more, with some of the scenes trimmed down, but overall, this was a decent dystopian book that kept me interested through the final chapter. I would be likely to read the sequel. It had a little bit of a Maze Runner feel, with people struggling to remember their pasts and understand why they were where they were, as well as a bit of a Matched feel, with a community bent on controlling the people through drugs and manipulation. Dystopian lovers should give this one a look.

Review of a physical copy provided by the author

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language: None

Violence/Gore: Many instances of violence and gore, including but not limited to: many separate reports of different characters being questioned; a character is terrified and remembers a nightmare; a character scratches her own arm; a character is badly beaten by another character; a character loses her temper and accidentally breaks dishes; a character frequently has bad dreams; a character is angry and recalls reporting someone and unintentionally getting them hanged; characters are slapped, smacked, and beaten; report of blood dripping from boat decks; report of characters getting shot and others being brainwashed; report of characters’ families being threatened with torture and death; characters trip and fall; a character is struck on the hand until her knuckles bleed; report of characters getting killed for being “awake” and off a memory-inhibiting drug; report of guards getting food poisoning; a character almost falls off a ladder and scrapes her wrist; report of characters found dead hanging from a tree; a character vividly imagines the deaths of people she cares about; a character is taken to a prison cell; a character is violently beaten and hosed with icy water; a character is in pain after running out of pain medication; a character tells about being investigated and how many people had their memories wiped; a character recognizes two people in real life who tried to kill her in her nightmares; a community will undergo a new series of brainwashing drugs; report of a drug overexposure resulting in brain damage; characters plan an escape despite threats of questioning, torture, and/or death; report of buildings housing prisons, torture rooms, and rooms where outrageous experimentation is done on test subjects; characters are surrounded by guards and people are beaten and dragged away; characters are missing from different units; a girl bites the inside of her lip until it bleeds.

Sex/Nudity: A character wakes and realizes she is female; male and female members in the same unit are all called “brother”; a character starts to differentiate men from women; a man and a woman swim together (not sexual); report of characters deciding women must be treated as men, and men and women are to be referred to as “sir”; a girl pulls up her shirt to show bruising on her back and stomach; characters occasionally hold or squeeze another character’s hands in friendship/comfort; a character asks a man if he loves a woman; characters deliberately touch other characters to help them get comfortable to being touched and acclimated to human touch when they have not been exposed to it previously (this is all non-sexual); a character holds another character’s arm; characters are occasionally said or shown to shower, but scenes are not explicit; a woman tells another woman “I love you, friend” (non-romantic and in friendship); a man and a woman hold each other; a man kisses a woman’s forehead.

Mature Subject Matter:

Death of a family member; death of friends; socioeconomic issues; murder; insanity; brainwashing.

Alcohol/Drug Use:

Characters are given a sleeping draught; a character spits a vitamin into the toilet; a character takes a vitamin and feels sick; characters are given drugged water; a character confesses he will give others drugs to protect his secret; report of characters being weaned off a “purple” drug; a report of a character being double-dosed with drugs; report of rebels meddling with a dangerous drug treatment; a character is given and takes pain pills for injuries; report of a character being put through seven rounds of brainwashing drugs; a character hands out spiked water.