Second Response: Wake

"Dream as if you'll Live forever. Live as if you'll die today..."

-James Dean

 

 

Have you ever wanted to be in somebody's dream?

 

What if you were forced to? Night after night...

Welcome to Wake

 

Lisa McMann definitely knows how to make an interesting plot. Janie Hannagan is just hitting seventeen, an only child with a slob of a mother. While her mother is lagging around the house, making a vodka tonic for breakfast, Janie heads off to high school, where she knows a little too much about some people. Her gift, or her curse, is falling into peoples' dreams. She does so unintentionally; Janie HATES getting into others' privacy, but she can't help it. If anyone falls asleep around her in a fifteen foot radius, she just gets sucked in. Her heart beat increases, time slows, she passes out, and quickly enters the dream realm.

After school, Janie works at an assisted living facility. Janie buys her own groceries, pays her own bills, supports herself other than paying for the house. Sadly, old people dream too. They dream of their past life, regrets, moments that were meant to happen but never did.

She's seen every dream you can imagine: The "What the crap I'm naked during my presentation" dream, or the "falling into an empty void" dream, and probably the most common out of high schoolers, the "best sexual fantasy ever" dreams. Janie Hannagan has seen too many of those...

Janie hates the curse. It's killing her. Anytime she's sucked into a dream, she has no control of her body, and the problem is people sleep everywhere. On the bus to school, during school, at her work, in her neighborhood. She's given about 5 seconds of notice before she's dragged in, after that her body is on it's own. She has even been sucked in while driving (luckily she didn't hit anything). This book is about Janie, trying to figure out her curse, trying to stay out of people's dreams, and why the dreamers always beg for Janie's help. Janie can't really do anything, can she?

 

I'm probably about 75% done with this book, and it is a pretty good read. It's written in third person (limited), which as it ups and downs. The reading can be a little tedious: "Janie did this, then she did that, and then this happened because she did that...," third person isn't my favorite perspective because of this, but it is what it is.

 

Like I said, Lisa McMann can make one heck of a story line. I've never thought dreaming as a curse, but this book really puts that idea into perspective. Janie has already had such a hard life, and it's only getting harder for her. She is all alone looking for the answer; no one will believe a person claiming to be able to see other's dreams.

 

Another interesting thing about visiting dreams, no one seems to remember Janie being in them, or at least they never mention it. Every dream ends in the dreamer begging or Janie's help. Quickly after that question, the dreamer wakes, and has no remembrance of Janie seeing the whole ordeal; except for one boy.

 

Of course its a cute boy too, the totally cool kind of cute. You'll make it about 30 pages and then the love story falls into place (and I thought maybe there wouldn't be... HA). Anywho, this boy actually discovers Janie's horrid secret. This love/hate relationship between Cabel (the hot boy) and Janie kind of sets the pace of the story; it isn't the worst love story I've read.

 

The way the book is set up can be confusing. It jumps around in time a little bit, so pay attention to dates. Janie will talk about what is going on in reality, and then she'll start getting sucked into the dream. The font changes, and now your in the dream state. It is really cool honestly.

 

I'll pull a section from the beginning, showing you how the whole dream thing acts. On page 17, Janie is at a sleep over (big mistake). She gets sucked into Melinda's (a rich snob) dream. The passage reads:

"Melinda is drawing hearts. Janie walks toward her. She says, "Melinda," but no sound comes out. When someone knocks on the bedroom window, Melinda looks over and smiles. "Help me open this window, will you?

Janie stares at Melinda. Melinda stares back, then points to the window with a jerk of her head. Janie, feeling compelled, stumbles over to the window next to Melinda and they open it. Carrie climbs in.

 

She is naked from the waist up.

Her breasts are the size of watermelons.

The breasts sway from side to side when Carries scrambles over the sill.

She walks through Janie and stand shyly in front of Melinda.

...They embrace and kiss." (17-18)

 

The book kind of reads like an elementary book, but the topics and scenes are definitely not for kids.

Every dream is a little different, and occasionally Janie will find herself in a nightmare...Those are the worst for Janie.

 

This book is extremely interesting to say the least. I'd give it a 8/10. Its a great read if you are looking for something short, funny, and at the same time very serious and compelling. The love story doesn't get too much in the way of the actual story, and it plays out really nicely. Thank you Sydney Bertalot for recommending it to me.

 

I've got some more reading to do. Kody signing off...