Review: Wake

Wake by Lisa McMann
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publication Date: March 4th 2008
Pages: 210
Copy: Hardcover
Source: Random Act of Kindness from Paige at Comfort Books
Genre: Paranormal, Romance

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.

I have never before read any of Lisa Mcmann's books and I can already tell from reading Wake that I will be a fan for the rest of my life. Wake is a kind of book that you fall in love with and you can't get it out of your head for days after reading it.

This book is told in a 3rd person perspective that follows Janie as she struggles through life while constantly getting pulled into other people's dreams (an ability that she has nearly gotten her killed more than once.). The way her ability is put together his really well done through out the book, and the way McManns back up Janie's past works beautifully. Through out the book the time and date are posted instead of chapter titles.

 There are really one a few characters introduced in the book, but the characters who are introduced are all very well developed. My favorite character in the book is Cable, a neighbor of Janie's who has a troubling past of his own, and secretly has a crush on Janie. He is such a complected character but I can't help but love him for caring for Janie despite her ability.

Spoiler Section
My favorite part of the book is in the middle of the book when Janie goes on a bus trip with school for three hours, and there ends up being an issue where people are constantly falling asleep, and she has to deal with the fact that she is being thrown in and out of dreams while the boy next to her asks what is going on with her.