Review Detail

The novel Wake by Lisa McMann is about a teenage girl named Janie who has the ability to get sucked in to other peoples dreams.  One may think that her talent is all positive however she hates it.  Janie can not control her ability, therefore it affects her everyday life; she looks at it as more of a set back than a gift or ability.  While trying to cope with her disorder Janie finds a love interest which definitely has its ups and downs.  Janie later realizes that she has a gift rather than a disorder.  

Lisa McMann does an excellent job in drawing the readers into the book; her book relates to teenagers lives and is pretty realistic.  One thing that McMann portrayed in a realistic manner is the difference between the more wealthy families and the not as wealthy.  The more financially stable students hang out together where as the lower income kids hang out together.  McMann hit the bulls eye with that one, money is a big deal in high school.  McMann also was correct when writing that her character Janie hates the fact that her ability keeps her from being a normal teenager, in that most people do not realize what abilities they have and some times sees them more as disabilities.  And unfortunately it does seem that teenagers are growing farther and farther apart from their parents.  After reading Wake, I realized how independent Janie was  and how strong willed she was; her mother was not there for her and played a poor mother figure in her daughters life, Janie had to figure out all her problems herself and had no one to talk to until Cabel came into her life.  McMann also did a superior job in making her characters normal and not annoyingly perfect, she made sure to show her readers that no one is perfect and that everyone has problems or setbacks that they struggle with.  Another positive about the novel is that it was always changing and was never boring or predictable, it was one of those books that one was easily sucked into and always wanted to know what happened next.  The part in the novel where Janie got sucked into a dream while driving really made me realize that her condition can have dangerous or even fatal consequences if not careful.  If Janie was on a busy street it is possible that her blackout could have killed her, that was the point in the book when i realized that her condition is more severe than thought to be. 

Lisa McMann did a great job in attracting teenagers to her novel.  It is a book that teenagers can relate to and seems more typical and relatable than fairy tails and is not as plastic and fake.  Over all this book is excellent for the high school group.