When I read the description of Bearly Awake, I must admit that I was intrigued. I have always been a fan of a shape-shifting character such as Beorn from the Middle Earth universe. Thus, the cover was the first thing that drew me in. The description made me think of a shape-shifting story set in a school much like Hogwarts.
First off, I liked the play on the name Barely and Bearly. I thought it was a clever title for this book.
Bearly Awake is told in first person narrative. It does switch from character to character, but Perry does list the character’s name that viewpoint is in at the beginning of the chapter. I find that the character jumps are very easy to keep track of due to this.
I found this novella to be well-written and descriptive. Despite how well-written it was, there were some grammar issues, but not much. The style and rhythm of the text were easy to follow. I would have liked a wider variety of words. For example, I found this snippet of a paragraph to be very repetitive. “There more books and we can check out and hit the dining hall.” The other books I wanted were all in easy reach behind me.
I loved the characters. When we are introduced to Bobby in the first chapter, we learn that he is a shifter, and much like the image on the cover, I guessed that he would be able to morph into a bear. From his actions in the beginning part of the first chapter, I inferred that shifters take on some aspects of his or her animal. For example, Bobby is exhausted and can sniff out if someone was a human or not. But, then as the chapter progressed, I learned that I was wrong about that.
I found the pacing of Bearly Awake to be much too slow for my liking. I did like how real world pop culture was thrown in. It made the story somewhat relatable, but there were times where it came across heavy handed.
While I loved the character building, I would have liked to know more about the intricacies for PCC. I found that one or two sentences devoted to PCC do not give me enough incentive to care about the going-ons of the magic school. In fact, to me, this made the world around the characters feel flat.
Overall, this is a very easy read. I would recommend Bearly Awake to any student between the ages of twelve to eighteen who yearns for a paranormal romance.