Wake by Lisa McMann

Wake (Wake, #1)

by Lisa McMann

For seventeen-year-old Janie, getting sucked into other people's dreams at any given moment is getting tired. Especially the falling dreams, and the standing-in-front-of-the-class-naked ones. But then there are the nightmares, the ones that chill her to the bone… like the one where she is in a strange house…in a dirty kitchen…and a sinister monster that edges ever closer. This is the nightmare that she keeps falling into, the one where, for the first time, Janie is more than a witness to someone else's twisted psyche. She is a participant…

Reviewed by Amber (The Literary Phoenix) on

4 of 5 stars

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Wake was refreshing as a short book, but even then on some counts it failed to deliver. The characters remained rather flat and a little stereotyped, and really, how many of us are taking Cabel's sudden and magical transformation very seriously? But if you can get past the stories, McMann's got a very interesting concept. And Janie's best friend Carrie? She's the worst.

Getting past the intellectually shallow characters, McMann does have a very interesting concept. There are not a lot of books that delve into the dream world, and even fewer that do so without tying themselves to Alice in Wonderland. What Janie is, is a dream guide, and in dreams she encourages people to change their dreams. Unfortunately, that is all she does - watches, listens, and tells people to change. The concept could have been pulled a little further, but McMann seems to push for an entirely uncomplicated book, and that's what she succeeds in creating.

Although flat in many ways - including the above as well as sentence structure - Wake is still a charming, quick read. It's got enough paranormal elements that it doesn't feel like a regular YA novel, but it's also subtle enough that those who don't prefer fantasy do not feel ostracized by it. All in all a very quick, fun little read.

((Cross-posted on my blog: The Literary Phoenix.))

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 13 August, 2011: Finished reading
  • 13 August, 2011: Reviewed