Evan Miller Is Waking Down by Jerel Law - Book Review

Publication Date: 28th May 2024

Genre: Older Middle-Grade Dystopian Fantasy 

3.5 Stars 

One Liner: A decent entry-level read for the genre 

Evan lives in City 47, a place where uniformity is mandatory and no one should stand out or dare to ask questions. They follow the Primary Code and lead lives the way Elders dictate. The Incident brought this change, and no one talks about the ruins or what happened before. 

Yet, secrets are also forbidden in this land. But Evan’s realistic dreams are a secret he tries to hide from everyone. When he can no longer disguise or hide his supernatural ability, Evan has to flee City 47 and its people. But where does this take him, and what will he do? Can Evan get the answers to his questions and stay alive long enough to do so? 

The story comes in Evan’s first-person POV. 

My Thoughts: 

Dystopian is not my preferred genre, but I have to read it for a challenge, so a toned-down version for middle graders seemed like a great choice. I was right,+ too! 

The premise is pretty much what you expect from the genre. A city controlled by a handful of people, everything under surveillance, no access to the outside world, and one person who wants to rebel, finding like-minded people to take down the oppressors. It’s the same here, with a dose of fantasy elements thrown in. 

The book is slow until 15% to 18%. After that, it really picks up pace and keeps the action scenes coming one after another. Since we get the story from Evan’s POV, we have access to limited information as he does. 

The atmosphere is dark, with danger everywhere. This is well done without making it too scary for kids. There’s some violence (hitting, bombing, shooting, fighting, etc.), but not so much that it would terrify young readers (though I’m not sure about how sensitive kids would react). 

That said, the MC is fifteen, and there’s a sort of love track (which wasn’t necessary). There are a couple of mentions of kissing (by MC), so maybe this would work better for tweens and teens than kids. 

However, the main reason for the lower rating is the lack of proper impact. While I could feel the darkness of the setting, I couldn’t entirely connect with Evan or anyone in the book. It felt distant. Dystopia is supposed to make readers uncomfortable. That doesn’t happen here much (or maybe I’m immune to it). Evan’s character needed a little something more to make me care for him. 

The climax and ending are decent. Yet again, the internal conflict doesn’t have the punch it should. The ending is hopeful, which I appreciate considering the target audience age group. 

To summarize, Evan Miller Is Waking Down has an intriguing premise but could have worked better with a little more character depth. Still, this would be a worthy entry-level book into the genre, especially if you are not a fan of dystopian (like me). 

Thank you, NetGalley and Tommy Nelson, for eARC. 

#NetGalley #EvanMillerIsWakingDown