Hell's Gate: Awakening

by Chrystal Anne

Adopted from Tokyo, Celeste and her family move to the United States to get away from their past and start a new life together. Everything seems wonderful until at the tender age of fourteen, Celeste’s adoptive mother passes away under mysterious circumstances. Now, years later she has picked up her life and even becomes engaged to the man of her dreams. However, shortly after her 24th birthday strange things begin to happen. The truth of her past is scratching at the surface and once it breaks free, the world may never be the same. Who is she and just where did she come from? Maybe some secrets are better left unknown.

202 pages, Paperback

First published July 6, 2013

About the author

A Dallas native, Chrystal Anne writes science fiction and fantasy. Along with several short stories Chrystal is the author of the Hell's Gate trilogy, and will be releasing the second book of the trilogy in the late fall of 2014. In order to write an accurate portrayal of Japanese culture Chrystal has traveled to Japan several times, and looks forward to going back again as soon as she can.
Chrystal also hosts to her own nerdy podcast on SoundCloud called Personafied, where she interviews local creators, talks Japanese culture and myths, and narrates her own short stories.

Reviews

[Maddly Peculiar · Rating 2 out of 5]

This first half of this book was moderately interesting. It slowly began introducing ideas of supernatural things going on. However, about halfway through the book just shifts and nothing makes a whole lot of sense anymore. Everything happens all of the sudden and there’s no time to process anything. The characters all kinda sucked and I especially didn’t like the main character.