'After years of waiting, New York's newest subway line is finally ready -- an express train that connects the city with the burgeoning communities across the Hudson River. The shining jewel of this state-of-the-art line is a breathtaking visitors’ pavilion beneath the river. Major dignitaries, including New York City’s Mayor and the President of the United States, are in attendance for the inaugural run, as the first train slowly pulls in.
'Under the station’s bright ceiling lights, the shiny silver cars gleam. But as the train comes closer into view, a far different scene becomes visible. All the train’s cars are empty. All the cars’ interiors are drenched in blood. As chaos descends, all those in the pavilion scramble to get out. But the horror is only beginning. High levels of deadly methane fill the tunnels. The structure begins to flood. For those who don’t drown, choke, or spark an explosion, another terrifying danger awaits — the thing that killed all those people on the train. There's something living beneath New York City, and it's not happy we've woken it up.'
Awakened tells the story of a new train-line in New York, one that will connect the city with the communities beyond the boundary of the Hudson River. One of the most ambitious projects in decades, it's taken years of building, and boasts new trains, and a brilliant central pavilion beneath the Hudson itself, full of shops and entertainment. The opening is an event that is set to be a shining moment in Mayor Cafferty's career, but when the first rain rolls into the pavilion ripped open and covered in blood something awful begins. Trapped beneath the Hudson, with deadly gas seeping in and the river threatening to flood them, the survivors discover that they've become prey for vicious creatures living beneath the surface of the planet, creatures that the new project has awakened.
James S. Murray is a name that might be familiar to some from his work on the hit US comedy series Impractical Jokers. Thanks to this, I kind of expected him to create something comedic with his first book, so was quite surprised to find that Awakened is, in fact, a horror.
Awakened reminded me a lot of the older, slightly pulpy horror books of the 80's. There's something about it the simplicty of monsters coming up from beneath the earth to kill people that I just really loved. Perhaps it's because it doesn't try to do anything too strange. It doesn't have you questioning what's happening, it doesn't try to tease out events, or make you wonder if what you're seeing is real. There's something really great about an obvious threat without a bigger mystery that you don't always get in books.
Most horror novels like to build up tension, to have a mystery, and spread events out over a long period, but here the action hits early on and doesn't let up until the very end. The tension keeps ramping up and up like some awful kind of roller coaster that won't give you a break, and events unfold at breakneck speed. So much is packed into the pages here that's it shocking when you realise that everything that happens all takes place within a few hours. Because of how quickly events unfold, and the fast pace of the events it really feels like you're reading a film, and it's easy to see how the story could be translated to cinema without losing too much.
The only downside with the fast pace of the book, however, is that you sometimes don't feel like you get enough time with some of the characters. There are some great characters here, but I didn't spend enough time with them to really fall in love with any of them, and would have happily have read a longer version of the book that took some time to get into the character's heads and gave more of an insight into them.
The lead, Mayor Cafferty, has some great moments where he steps up to put his life on the line to protect the people around him, but it's not always clear what his motivations are. Is he doing this because he feels responsible for them as the Mayor, does he feel guilty for what's happening because this new train-line was his project, or is there something inside him that has a hero complex?
There are a handful of other characters that manage to shine too, and get some of the focus, and whilst not all of them make it out of the book alive, those that do seem poised to return in the second book alongside Cafferty. As such, I' hoping that Murray and Wearmouth will give readers a chance to get to know them a bit better going forward.
Ultimately, Awakened is an entertaining book that has a lot of fun leaning into both horror and adventure genres, but kind of feels like set up for what's to come next. It feels like an opening chapter to a much bigger story, and I'm excited to see what the authors do next, as this is an interesting world that could open up into some amazing new areas. Reading Awakened is like being on a high octane ride, only to realise that there's a whole theme park behind it waiting for you to explore. It's a taster, one that get's you pumped for more, and I'm definitely excited for more.
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