Review Detail

Reader reviewed by Tasha

Usually when parents tuck their kids in at night they tell them to have sweet dreams, right? According to Janie that's wrong. She can't remember ever having a dream. Instead she falls into other people's dreams. Some may think this is really neat, but for Janie it's horrible. Janie can't spend the night at other people's house, and when people fall asleep at school she's also sucked into their dreams. Janie's been having this problem since she was eight years old. Now she's seventeen and a senior in high school, and the whole dream thing is getting very old. The worst thing is she can't tell anybody in fear that they'll think she's crazy. Lately it seems all the dreams are the same, being naked in front of a crowd or falling into an endless pit. Then she starts falling into the same dream, actually more of a nightmare that hits way to close to home. She can't really make sense of it, but she hopes it will soon stop. Aside from the dreams though her life seems to be looking up. Her grades are good, she has an amazing boyfriend who understands her and knows her secret, and her alcoholic mother mother has started to be a little more motherly. Just as life is looking up, a cloud comes and rains on Janie's happiness. Her and her boyfriend Cabel have an unofficial break up, and her favorite patient at the nursing home she works at, Ms. Stubin, dies. Then Cable is all of a sudden dating rich girl Shay and Janie doesn't understand this at all, and it seems that everything else is confusing her. Will Janie find some answers to her confusion, or will she plummet into darkness with only other people's dreams to keep her company?


I. Loved. This. Book. Wake gives the term "page-turner" a whole new meaning. From the moment I opened the book it was glued to my hands and I was on the edge of my seat, anxious to read what happened next. The story was completely original and was absolutely fascinating. There were so many twists and turns that kept me guessing until the very last sentence. Even then it wasn't enough, there are still so many questions buzzing around my head. It is so not fair that the book had to end! The characters were also amazing. Janie was great and I am so jealous of her relationship with Cabel, for the most part! To me all the characters had their own unique personality which made the book have great depth. What stunned me even more about this book is that Lisa McMann is a first time author. I can't wait to see what she has in store for us next, especially the sequel to Wake, Fade which comes out next year.