Day 225 - Wake

Wake

Lisa McMann

Series or Stand Alone: Wake Trilogy, book one

Release Date: December, 2008 (Paperback Reprint)

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Pages: 224

My Rating: 5/5

Synopsis [from bn.com]:

Not all dreams are sweet.

For seventeen-year-old Janie, getting sucked into other people's dreams is getting old. Especially the falling dreams, the naked-but-nobody-notices dreams, and the sex-crazed dreams. Janie's seen enough fantasy booty to last her a lifetime.

She can't tell anybody about what she does — they'd never believe her, or worse, they'd think she's a freak. So Janie lives on the fringe, cursed with an ability she doesn't want and can't control.

Then she falls into a gruesome nightmare, one that chills her to the bone. For the first time, Janie is more than a witness to someone else's twisted psyche. She is a participant....

Review:

First off, I gotta say Wow! I totally loved this book. I got through it so quickly and I had such a hard time putting it down. I loved the characters and their development. I loved the unique premise of the story and how well Lisa McMann told it through the main character - Janie.

Janie can remember the first dream she was dragged into. She was eight years old and on a train with her mother to Chicago. She slips into a dream without even knowing it. It's about a bald man standing in front of a room holding a briefcase. Everyone in the room has nice suits on except for him. He's completely embarrassed and everyone is laughing at him. He looks to Janie with a look of panic. When she comes out of the dream the train whistle is blowing and it's time to get off. But not before she sees the same bald man with his briefcase in the aisle. I think Janie sums it up perfectly...

He wipes his face with a handkerchief.

Janie stares at him.

Her jaw drops. "Whoa," she whispers.

The man give her a blank look when he sees her staring, and
turns to exit the train.

(6)

Janie never understood why she gets pulled into people's dreams. And to be honest the typical falling dream and standing-naked-in-front-of-a-crowd dream are seriously getting old. Janie finds ways around it though. She makes excuses to leave her class when someone falls asleep and she memorizes her surroundings so she can try to "walk her way" out of the dreams. Because Janie doesn't fall asleep with the other person, she still has a grip on her body and where she's at although her vision is completely gone.

She can't tell anybody though. Her alcoholic mother doesn't really care, so she has no protective mom to deal with. And although Janie's a real sweet girl, her dirt-poor life is too much for the kids at school. Janie doesn't have many friends so no besties to deal with either. Even after befriending a new neighbor (that becomes pretty popular herself) Janie is still able to work around things. Her unwanted secret is safe.

While the concept of slipping into dreams may sound fun, it's something that really gets in Janie's way. When the nightmares start to happen, Janie finds herself shoved into violent and scary dreams. And when she starts to have feelings for one of her classmates, Cabel, things seem to only get more complicated.

This was such a great book! I loved how it was written in the present tense in short passages that were dated and time stamped. It had a feeling of urgency and it made me feel like I was right there with Janie, along for the ride. I can't wait to pick up Fade and I've seen the cover for the final book, Gone, which will be released February 2010! Definitely check it out, it features my favorite color - green <3!!>