Book Summary and Reviews of You've Awoken Her by Ann Davila Cardinal

You've Awoken Her by Ann Davila Cardinal

You've Awoken Her

by Ann Davila Cardinal

  • Critics' Consensus (8):
  • Published:
  • Jun 2025, 288 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Fans of You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight and Your Lonely Nights Are Over will love this thrilling YA horror about a string of disappearances and "accidental" drownings in the Hamptons, the changing relationship between two best friends, and their desperate attempt to not be the next victims of a Lovecraftian monster terrorizing the coastline. 

All Gabi wants is to spend the summer in his room, surrounded by his Funkos and books, but with his mom traveling, his bags are packed for the last place he wants to visit—the Hamptons. Staying with his best friend should have him willing to peek out of his cave, but ever since Ruth's nouveau riche family moved, their friendship has been off.

Surrounded by mansions, country clubs, and Ruth's new boyfriend, Frost Thurston—the axis that Hampton society orbits around—it doesn't take long for Gabi to feel completely out of place. But when he witnesses a woman being pulled under the ocean water, and no one—not the police or anyone else in the Hamptons—seems to care, Gabi starts to wonder if maybe the beachside town's bad vibes are more real than he thought.

As the "accidental" deaths and drownings begin to climb, Gabi knows he'll need proof to convince Ruth they're all in danger. And while the Thurston family name keeps rising to the top, along with every fresh body, what's worst is that all the signs point to something lurking beneath the water—something with tentacles and a thirst for blood. Can Gabi figure out how the two are intertwined and put an end to the string of deaths…before becoming the water's next victim?

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"This slow-build thriller culminates in a satisfying ending." —Kirkus Reviews

"Readers will appreciate Gabriel's humor and tangible anxiety as he gets deeper into Ruthie's new life." —Booklist

"Break out your popcorn for this one!" —Michelle Jabès Coropora, author of Holly Horror

"Will wrap you in its powerful tentacles and drag you into a roiling sea where vicious monsters—human and Lovecraftian alike—await." —Vanessa Montalban, author of These Vengeful Wishes

This information about You've Awoken Her was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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More Information

Ann Dávila Cardinal is a writer and part-time bookseller with an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her young adult horror novels include Breakup from Hell and Five Midnights and its sequel, Category Five. Ann lives with her husband in a little house with a creepy basement and is always on the lookout for parts of monstrous creatures floating in the Vermont rivers as Lovecraft wrote about. Visit her online at anndavilacardinal.com. 

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