Reawakened #1

When seventeen-year-old Lilliana Young enters the Metropolitan Museum of Art one morning during spring break, the last thing she expects to find is a live Egyptian prince with godlike powers who has been reawakened after a thousand years of mummification.

And she really can’t imagine being chosen to aid him in an epic quest that will lead them across the globe. But fate has taken hold of Lily, and she, along with her sun prince, Amon, must travel to the Valley of the Kings, raise his brothers, and stop an evil, shape-shifting god named Seth from taking over the world. 

Lily is a compelling protagonist who has always been a rule follower and an obedient daughter. This all changes when she meets Amon. At first, Lily is suspicious of Amon and doesn’t understand the strange power he has over her. However, when Lily learns that he is a reawakened prince, her determination to help Amon gives her the strength to make decisions based on her own thoughts and feelings. Readers will admire her determination and willingness to put herself in danger to help Amon. 

Reawakened incorporates Egyptian history and rich world-building. However, at times, the world-building is long-winded and breaks the story’s pace. While much of the information is necessary to understand the book’s events, the information often seems like a boring lecture. Lily’s inner musings also slow down the book’s pacing. At first, Lily is trying to understand her physical attraction to Amon as well as Amon’s powers. However, nothing exciting takes place until after the two travel to Egypt. Readers who enjoy action and adventure may find it difficult to slog through the first part of the story.  

From the start, Amon’s goal is to reawaken his brothers. However, the brothers don’t make an appearance until the story’s end, which increases the story’s action and suspense. In addition, the brothers are so incredibly likable that the reader will wish they could jump into the story and meet them. The three brothers’ strong bond and dedication to each other is heartwarming. The brothers are so interesting that some readers will be disappointed that they weren’t given more time.

Unfortunately, the climax isn’t very dramatic because it’s seen through Lily’s point of view, which gives the reader a limited view of the fight against good and evil. However, the conclusion has several surprises, including Lily’s willingness to sacrifice herself for Amon. Readers who enjoy character-based stories that allow them to understand the inner workings of the protagonist will find Lily a relatable character who grows throughout the story. Instead of ending with a happy ever after, Lily’s and Amon’s story will continue in the next book in the series, Recreated. 

Sexual Content  

• Amon tells a story about Iris and Osiris, two siblings who were married. Amon says “incest” was common among the gods and pharaohs. 
• Lily often talks about her attraction to Amon and not all of the passages are included below. For example, while they are dancing, “his hands, splayed on my back, moved inch by tantalizing inch downward until they reached the bare skin at my waist. . . he put his forehead to mine. The side of his mouth tickled my cheek. . . I could be kissing him. But I was too much of a coward to make the first move.” The scene is described over a page.  
• When Lily and Amon are really close, she thinks: “Any slight movement and we could be kissing. With a twang of alarm, I realized that I wanted to experience his lips pressed against mine, and I wondered if it was something I truly desired for myself or if he was making me want it.” 
• After Lily is injured, Amon’s “gaze dropped to my mouth, and my breath caught. . . I knew without a doubt that he wanted to kiss me. And Egyptian heaven help me, I wanted him to. But despite the fact that I was vividly imagining the press of his lips against mine. . .” Amon moves away from Lily. Lily tries to get Amon to kiss her several times after this, but he continues to keep his distance. 
• After Lily and Amon’s bond is permanently sealed, he kisses her. “I’d waited so long for his kiss, and it was so much more, so much better than I had dared imagine. Golden sunshine burst behind my closed eyelids as I became a being entwined with the sun.” 
• Amon’s brother, Astern, makes many sexual innuendos. For instance, when his body is re-formed, Astern says, “I am also grateful for my fully re-formed front, since I am partial to it.” 

Violence  

• Since the story revolves around Egyptian gods, much of the violence is documented below under supernatural. Amon tells a story about three siblings—Iris, Osiris, and Seth. Seth tricked Osiris into climbing into a box, and Seth’s servants “sealed the lid with molten lead.” Then, Seth went to find Iris. “He was determined to take possession not only of the throne but of his sister as well.” To escape, Iris “leapt upon a moonbeam and vanished.” 
• Later, Iris discovers that Osiris’s chest “had been thrown into the Nile. By the time she was able to raise the box, it had been broken into by crocodiles, and her husband’s body had been torn to pieces.” 
• The god Amun-Ra sent out fellow gods, Seth and Horus, to search for Nebu, a golden stallion that roamed the desert. “Seth had heard the rumor that Horus had very powerful eyes and he worried that Horus would likely be the first to find Nebu, so in an act of desperation, he stole upon Horus while he slept and ripped his eyes from their sockets. . . He left Horus to die.” Horus promised to become the leader that Egypt needed, and Amun-Ra gave him a third eye. “It is said that an amulet made with the Eye of Horus can ward off evil, shielding its bearer from harm.”  
• While looking for Amon’s canopic jars, Lily and Amon enter an ancient passageway leading to a tomb. “Rocks and debris shifted, rising into the air. . .  Amon continued to murmur in ancient Egyptian and the rubble rose higher, shooting past us in a cloud of stinging dust. Pebbles came next, firing through the air like bullets.” Amon’s spell keeps them safe, but the entrance is sealed. 
• Seth asked three kings to sacrifice their children. When the kings refused, Seth took over a priest named Runihura’s body. “Runihura thrust his fingers into his eyes and yanked the bloody orbs from their sockets. . . he squeezed each eyeball, then opened his hands, a puff of light rising from each palm. . . the light pierced [the son’s] foreheads, and the boys cried out as dark magic lifted them into the air and threw them across the temple.”  
• The priest warns the kings of doom. “The dying priest gathered his remaining strength and spat. Blood and saliva spattered across the king’s cheek, spraying his white robes with red. . . King Heru surged forward and plunged his own dagger into the neck of the priest, whose body finally slumped in death.” 
• Seth, who is also known as The Dark One, sends a sandstorm. Amon tells Lily to hide, but she does not. She “cried out in pain and glanced down. The tremendous force was crushing my forearm, bruising the muscles, grinding against my bone, ripping into me, but nothing was there. Suddenly, the pressure lifted, and a crescent-shaped puncture appeared on both sides of my left arm.” Lily is bit several times before she is pulled to a safe location. She discovers the Dark One sent the creatures that bit her.  
• While in a mountain, “a worm the size of Godzilla” attacks Amon, Lily and Amon’s brother, Astern. “Its gray skin oozed. The front half was all mouth with sharp, circular teeth that went back as far as I could see.” The worm tries to wiggle out of the mountain and attack. “Amon slashed at its side while Astern created magic dust that blew up in puffs of light. . . In retaliation, the worm opened its mouth, spewing neon-green slime and fat clumps of glistening saliva over everything. . .” Astern turns into a bird and takes Lily to safety. 
• When Amon was a boy, he and his brothers skipped school and went on an adventure. Their teacher didn’t want them to get into trouble, so he followed their trail. He came across jackals. The teacher “did not survive. Our beloved instructor’s gnawed-upon bones were laid before the three of us, and our father honored his sacrifice as a hero.” 
• Amon finds a man “burned, abused, and bleeding, with one eye ripped out, broken limbs, and bones protruding in several places, yet he still breathed.” The man tries to give Amon a message, but “he gasped as an invisible power lifted his torso. His broken arms dangled at his sides . . .” The god Seth speaks through the man.  
• In the multi-chapter conclusion, Amon and his brothers fight the Great One in order to keep the god of chaos, Seth, from ruling the world.  
• To defeat Amon and his brothers, the Great One raises “Masaw Haput—those born of death. You would call them zombies.” A zombie goes after Lily and her companion, Dr. Hassan. “Dr. Hassan sank his two files deep into the zombie warrior’s chest. It just stared at the two of us, breathing raggedly. Then, raising its sword overhead, it let out a supernatural scream, its jaws unhinging, a metal staple the only thing holding the jaw to its skull.” One of Amon’s brothers “took its head off” before it could hurt anyone. 
• Lily hears Amon’s screams. When she finds him, a tray of ancient tools is close to him. “A pool of sticky blood surrounded the tray . . . Rivulets of blood had dried on his arms. . . Deep slashes marked several places on his thigh, and ugly stab wounds peeked out from between the fragments of what was left of his shirt.” Amon’s eyes had also been removed.  
• Mummy crocodiles and living crocodiles attack Lily and Dr. Hassan. Amon’s brother, Ahmose, turns into a bird, and the two climb on. Lily falls “landing on the back of a croc mummy that did not like the fact that its remaining back leg broke off upon impact. It spun quickly and snapped at [Lily], grabbing [her] shirt in its teeth.” The crocodile is killed before it can injure Lily. 
• Dr. Hassan and Lily create an effigy of Sebak, a reawakened man given power by the god Seth. “Dr. Hassan hit the figure three times and I heard a sharp snap like bone breaking. A scream full of rage blossomed, not from the doll figure, but from the giant creature by the pyramids. . .” Sebak became a crocodile beast and was trying to get to Lily. “His left front leg hung limply at his side, and one of his back legs seemed to have given way.” Dr. Hassan finds a way to send Sebak back to the underworld. 

Drugs and Alcohol  

• While opening Amon’s canopic jars, Lily is covered in a red powder that makes her feel “nauseated, weak, and dizzy.” Later, she discovers that the red power was a poison that would have killed her if Amon hadn’t intervened. 

Language  

• Amon yells, “Son of a stunted jackal.” 

Supernatural 

• Since many of the characters use chants and spells, not all of them are listed below. The story revolves around the god of chaos, Seth, who wants to defeat Amon and his brothers so he can rule Earth.  
• Amon’s power “is a gift from the sun god Amun-Ra and his son Horus.” Amon says that he needs to “waken my brothers and complete the ceremony to align the sun, the moon, and the stars so that the Dark One, Seth, the god of chaos, may be kept at bay for another thousand years.” Amon often uses chants to help him complete his mission and keep Lily safe. Often, no specific words are given. The chants used to create spells appear below.  
• After completing the ceremony, Amon “will have my full power and I will be able to manipulate time and send you back to your home so that you will arrive just a moment after we left. No one will miss you. Your family will never even know you were gone.” 
• In order to talk to Lily, Amon “invoked a spell from the Book of the Dead to be able to communicate my thoughts to you.” 
• Since he cannot locate his canopic jars, Amon must pull energy from Lily. When he pulls energy from her, “it felt like a gradual draining, but the pull was sharp and painful like someone was vacuuming out my insides with a steel wool attachment.”  
• When Lily is injured, Amon uses magic to help her. “Amon ran his hand up my arm to my hurt shoulder, and I hissed as he cupped it with his palm. After a quick chant he poured enough warmth into the muscle to rival a heating pad.” Her injury has not completely healed but has lessened. 
• Amon transports Lily by using sand. The first time, Lily “screamed as wind swept around our bodies, gritty sand stinging my skin like thousands of needles. I watched in horror as my body unraveled, piece by piece, to join the tumult, and my cry was cut off because I no longer had a throat, let alone a voice.” 
• Amon can use his voice to command people. When Lily tries to leave Amon, he tells her to stop. When she didn’t, “my legs froze with a jolt so sudden that my bag flopped around my front and pulled me off balance. I feel in a heap. . .” 
• When Amon commands Lily to take his hand, she “made a concerted effort to refuse his command and was rewarded with pain—stabbing, knife-twisting-in-my-gut pain. It made me gasp. . . When my determination weakened, and the pain overwhelmed me, I whimpered and gave in.”  
• According to Amon, “When you know the true name of a being, be they god, human, or animal, you gain power over them.” A person’s true name “represents your ideal self. The person at the center. The name that is engraved upon your heart.” 
• Amon reawakens two dead shabti. Shabti are described as, “Human servants were entombed with their leaders, with the understanding that they could journey to the afterlife with their masters and continue to act as servants for the dead kings or pharaohs.” In order to do this, Amon weaves a spell that begins with “Shabti servants, apportioned to me,/ You who molder in corruption,/ I summon you from the realm of the dead. . .” The spell is half a page. 
• Amon discovers that one of the shabti broke his canopic jars. When Lily opens the one remaining jar, particles “coalesced until they formed a light. . . Slowly, the golden light rose up and out of the container, where it stretched until two wings became visible.” The light turns into a falcon. Amon weaves a spell by saying, “I call upon the falcon, born in the golden fires of the sun. . . Lend your whole, living soul to the one rent in pieces. / offer your resilient wings, your piercing talons, and your discerning eye. . .” Afterward, Amon and the falcon become one. 
• Amon attacks the shabti. “The shabti shrieked and turned to run, but the falcon was upon him. . . its sharp golden talons grabbed the man, squeezing his torso mercilessly. . .” Before Amon can send him back to the underworld, the shabti disappears “with a puff of red smoke.” 
• Apophis, a human priest, is a “lecherous man who abused anything or anyone he considered weak and soft. . . He lured women, and when they were at their most vulnerable, he’d strike. . . When he was ready to move on to the next victim, he would sacrifice the young maiden to a giant croc that he adorned with gold bracelets . . .” He was given the nickname, the Eater of Souls, not only because he threw victims to crocodiles but also because of his ability to control the undead. 
• Apophis sent biloko to hurt Lily. Biloko are “invisible demons with crocodile snouts that, like Apophis, have a taste for females, though, in their case, they prefer the sweetmeats of the eyes, intestines, liver, and heart.” 
• Amon murmurs, and “grains of sands twisted and writhed, and suddenly three horses burst from the dunes in a blast of shimmering powder.” The horses take Amon and his companions to a forest. 
• Amon and his companions use an adder stone to pass through a mountain. Lily thinks, “What really freaked me out was that I wasn’t in a secret cave hidden within a mountain; I was passing through solid rock.” 
• In order to raise his brother from the underworld, Amon weaves a spell. “The stars rise. The stars fall. The stars die. / As do you, my brother. / Astern—the embodiment of the stars. / It is time for rebirth. For renewal. For remaking. . .” 
• As Amon chants, “sightless orbs and a gaping mouth rimmed with teeth peek[ed] through the wrappings as they fell away. . . The remaining skin was stretched tight and looked like fragments of old leather. In some places, it was ripped off completely, revealing graying bones with hanging bits of flesh.” When Astern is fully formed, he is handsome and muscular. Later, the third brother is also reawakened similarly. 
• When Amon’s canopic jars were stolen, he lost some of his powers. Amon’s powers are restored when Lily is willing to sacrifice herself for him.  
• In order to send Amon back, Lily must kill him. She is reluctant to do this, but when Amon reaches up to kiss her, “the kiss was brief. Amon lay back down, eyes wide, as a trickle of blood leaked from the corner of his mouth. . . the sharp blade as embedded in Amon’s chest up to the hilt.” Afterward, a god mummified Amon. Lily and the god recite a spell from the Book of the Dead and “commemorate his name as we do so. In naming him, we connect his body, his ka, or soul, his ba, which is the character, and his shut, or shadow.”

Spiritual Content  

• In Ancient Egypt, three kings held a summit, and “each city worshiped a different god. . . The kings had been convinced by their priest that their patron gods had abandoned them and that they should come together as one to make offerings to appease a new god, namely, the dog god, Seth, in order to secure the safety and well-being of the people.” 
• After the kings made an offering, each king’s wife became pregnant. But then, “the god Seth demands that three young men of royal blood be sacrificed to him and that they serve him indefinitely in the afterlife.” The princes were sacrificed.  
• Amon, one of the sacrificed princes, chants to the god Seth. “Protect me, God of the Morning Sun. Rebuff those who work evil. Turn aside this calamity. . .” The chant is one page long.  
• Amon has “been imbued, gifted, with a portion of [the sun god’s] power so that [he] may fulfill [his] duties.” 
• Amon explains why the pharaohs aligned with a god. “They believed that if they took the names of the gods for themselves, they would receive divine aid. . . They made it so that to reject a pharaoh was to reject deity.”