Hello friends! Welcome to our discussion of Zodiac Academy: The Awakening by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti. This discussion is part of our 2022 Book Exchange. This is one of Jacilyn's favorite book series so she has chosen the first book in the series as her Book Exchange choice and has given it to Michaela to read.
Trigger Warning!!! This book contains situations and subjects related to: extreme bullying, blood, violence, sexual harassment.
Spoiler Warning!!! This post is full of spoilers for Zodiac Academy: The Awakening by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti.
Discussion:
Jacilyn: Hello friends, and welcome to the second discussion of our 2022 book exchange. This time, we’re discussing The Awakening by Susanne Valenti and Caroline Peckham. This is the first book in the Zodiac Academy series, a series full of some of my favorite literary characters ever created. In this first book though, you’re not left with many fuzzy feelings at the end. I hated the bullying in this book, but I liked the book enough to keep reading the series, and I’m hooked. I knew this would be a more difficult read for Michaela, because I knew she also wouldn’t enjoy the bullying, but I chose this one for the exchange in the hopes that the other aspects of the book might tickle her fancy.
Michaela: The bullying in this book is quite extreme and to be honest if I had been reading this just for myself and not for book club it would have been a DNF just because of that aspect. I was bullied in school so this whole aspect of the book was not okay with me. I don’t think bully romances are my thing because I do not forgive easily, especially when it comes to bullying and I surmise that the twins end up with some of the bullying characters at some point. The general idea of the book/series is really interesting though. That being said there was a lot of ideas crammed into this book, it felt like it was trying to be like 5 things at once so it’s a bit hard to take in all those aspects. Not only do we have the whole academy thing, but we have the 12 zodiac influences, elemental powers, the orders, and then also the entire fae society we have to keep track of, which along with that comes a war between the fae and nymphs. It’s a whole damn lot for one book.
Jacilyn: Yeah, this definitely isn’t a book that is built to stand alone. It’s really meant to just be a starting point for the sTory as it unfolds. Because the twins are new to the world, you kind of learn with them as the sTory progresses. I, personally, felt like all of those parts of the sTory were cohesive as I read this, that they were meant to work together, not as separate things thrown in. When it comes down to it, it all comes back to the stars and the importance they have on fae life. What did you think about the protagonists?
Michaela: I think all those parts can work together but it’s all thrown out at one time rather than gradually learning each new aspect. This book felt rushed on that side but slow on the like world and character progression side. It felt more like the first half of a first book rather than a whole first book. So I would assume things start to pick up nicely in the second book in the series.
I think the protagonists have a lot of potential to grow into really interesting characters. The writing really starts them off at that “not like other girls” level of character which is pretty normal but can be annoying. I really enjoyed the twin connection part of their relationship, I love those kinds of relationships or friendships in sToryes. I liked Darcy a lot more than Tory, for some reason Tory just rubs me the wrong way at times. It was confusing that the authors wrote these characters to be like really tough and untrusting of others and yet throughout the whole book they are constantly trusting the people who are straight up tormenting them. I also fucking love Sophia and Diego, the cutest couple in this whole world. However, I don’t think Diego was written very well as a Latinx character; he’s a good character but the Latinx part of his character wasn’t represented overly well. Basically, you can definitely tell it was written by two white British women. I didn’t think it was disrespectful, just inaccurate, but I am also not Latina so I can only say how I interpreted him. Also, I listened to the audiobook in this one so correct me if it’s different in the written version, but Geraldine’s southerness….oof, again definitely written by non-Americans. Entertaining nonetheless though, she’s so sweet and just a little dumb, she’s annoying but you also can’t help but enjoy her parts of the story.
Jacilyn: I also am drawn more towards Darcy than Tory. Tory is definitely more hardheaded, much to her detriment sometimes. Geraldine annoyed me when I first met her, not going to lie, but she grows on you. She’s just very enthusiastic!
Tory and Darcy are trying to figure out what their Orders are in this book. Did you happen to notice what was refilling their magic reserves while you read?
Michaela: Geraldine is hella annoying but I also care about her character a lot. Which is really fun to read. I tried to pay attention to what the hints to their orders were but I could not single anything out really. There was a lot to pay attention to so I did not catch it. I feel like they are not werewolves or vampires, I also don’t think they’d be sirens but I can also see it happening at the same time. Not a fan of how vampires just have a right to people's bodies, I realize it's part of the whole fae culture thing. I’m not a fan, it feels very assault-y and it makes me cringe every time. So I’d rather the twins weren’t vampires. I feel like each twin will have a different order though because their personalities are different enough.
Jacilyn: What I’ll say is that their magic replenishes around fire, but that doesn’t narrow down their Order very much. Speaking of orders, I had to google what a Hydra was the first time I read this. I am fairly familiar with Greek mythology, but I did not remember exactly what it was. Sounds and looks absolutely terrifying though.
The book ends with an awful attack by the Heirs, and the murder of Professor Astrum AKA Falling Star. If anything was likely to get the twins to leave Solaria or at the very least, the academy, it would be those things - which, of course, was the point. Now, it seems like one of the twins’ only allies among the faculty, who could help them learn about their pasts, is gone. I was so surprised when they killed him off, not going to lie. I thought that he would end up being a lifeline for the twins as the series progressed, but that was not to be.
Michaela: If phoenixes are a thing in this world then I can totally see that being their order, particularly Tory. The authors take a different take on some of the magical creatures which is interesting. I loved the unicorns until it turned into a douchebag, absolutely betrayed!
I was shocked when we saw the burned body, I was not expecting that. I was especially not expecting it to be Professor Astrum. The tarot card flying into Darcy’s hand was wild, I love the tarot magic in this. I’m hoping that there’s an ally of Astrum’s that will pop up later for them, he was killed off before he could tell them anything. At first I thought Falling Star was baiting them into bad situations, in particular the alleyway incident with the shadow chasing them.
Speaking of shadows, the nymphs in this world are crazy creepy, that is a very interesting part of the story. I want to know how and why that whole war started, and along with that the twin’s birth father being the “savage king”. I am confused why everyone is being so secretive about it, like it's obviously public knowledge, the twins could also just go research it but they don’t. Like if I had just arrived in a new realm and knew nothing about it or myself I’d be going straight to the library, not these girls though. Just winging it apparently; driving me nuts! Also, why is everyone just glossing over Sophia LITERALLY being DRUGGED when they went out drinking? Please someone besides Sophia acknowledge that that happened.
There are tons of interesting parts of this book but unfortunately the bullying is so extreme that I feel really disconnected from the story. It really just throws me off that much. They literally almost killed Tory at the end of the book. Then the back and forth between trusting the heirs and not trusting them was a little exhausting. The spicy scenes were nice but the characters they’re with just gross me out at this point because of the bullying. I think if that part had been dialed down like 20 notches I would feel better about it, or even if it was just more like angsty hatred and arguments rather than actual torment. That would have been much better for me as a reader. The drama in this felt very high school influenced rather than college/adult influenced, which to be fair the characters are still pretty young but the drama felt it was approaching in an immature way to me which also threw me. Maybe the next books’ writing grows up a little bit more, which I think would make the story a whole lot better.
This book is extremely popular and I can see why. It’s also disliked by a lot of people too, which I can see why. It’s definitely not for everyone. I liked a lot of the elements to this book and there’s others I really did not like. I don’t know that I will keep reading it, maybe I will if I’m in the right headspace for it because it does interest me. Jacilyn has read quite a few of the books in the series and I know she loves it. We don’t often disagree on books so this has been a fun experience for our first book exchange.
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