Gone (Wake Trilogy, Book 3) [Hardcover]

Lisa McMann (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 9, 2010

FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. While Janie ponders her future with Cabe, knowing that her abilities as a dream-catcher means eventual blindness and crippling, the father she never knew is hospitalized with brain trauma and seems to need her help.

--This text refers to the Library Binding edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The third and final book in the paranormal teen series that includes The New York Times bestseller Wake and Fade.

Things should be great for Janie--she has graduated from high school and is spending her summer with Cabel, the guy she's totally in love with. But deep down she's panicking about how she's going to survive her future when getting sucked into other people's dreams is really starting to take its toll. Things get even more complicated when she meets her father for the very first time--and he's in a coma. As Janie uncovers his secret past, she begins to realize that the choice thought she had has more dire consequences than she ever imagined.

Read an excerpt for Gone.

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A Note to Readers from Author Lisa McMann

Writing Gone, knowing it was the end, was so difficult that I procrastinated quite ferociously. I knew that once I started, I'd have to go underground like I always do when I write a book--I just attack it full on and write until I'm crooked and crazy every day for a month or six weeks or so, surfacing to order takeout or absent mindedly say hello to my children and husband. But this time it was different. Not only would it have to be a perfect ending to a trilogy, but I'd have to attack it without transferring my own sad feelings onto the pages. I needed to be in the right place in my head before I could start.

Finally, one day in August 2008, I could procrastinate no longer. I sat down for five weeks, wrote my heart out, and surfaced again with a finished draft. All I knew is that I loved the ending. I cried through half of it, but it felt good to me. And I was so glad to be finished with the hard part--there was no way on earth that I could ever do that again. I was overjoyed to go to the editing stages, and I polished it up, nice and shiny.

My agent read it. "I think you'll need to make some changes," he said, "but let's see what Jen has to say."

"But the ending!" I cried. "The ending! Isn't it great?" I didn't want to hear about the other stuff.

"Sure, the ending's great. Let's wait for Jen." I was certain Jen would love it. I was certainly wrong. It wasn't good enough.

It took me four days to finally get up the courage to read through the editorial letter, and then I cried for four more. And then I had to face the truth: Jen was totally right, and I was totally wrong. My last hurrah wasn't strong enough. I had been holding back, not wanting it all to end. And though she didn't say it outright, I knew what had to happen. Not just some tweaking. Not just a thorough edit. Gone needed a full rewrite. A do-over.

And so, with only three weeks of solid work time before I was to leave on the Fade tour, after all the tears were cried out and I had my determination back, I found a theme song for Janie--Dido's "Here With Me." I turned that song on full blast--it has this awesome pounding beat--and I closed my eyes, playing it over and over for an hour or more, picturing Janie. How she'd feel after the thing with Durbin, how she'd really feel once the dust settled on the green notebook. And then I turned off the music and started from scratch, but this time from a very raw place. No more holding back. And I wrote that futhermucker again, with all the grit and determination it needed to be a survivor. I never wanted to say good-bye, but I've done it twice now. And the second time felt incredibly good and right. I hope you think so too.

A year later, I'm so excited for Gone to hit the bookstores, but I haven't been sitting idle. I'm on to new adventures and fresh beginnings with new characters. Cryer's Cross is my next young adult novel. It's a stand-alone paranormal thriller with a side of creepy and of course, a bit of romance. No dreams this time around, but there's definitely something unexplainable going on. Seventeen-year-old Kendall lives with her parents on a potato farm in a tiny community in Montana, where nothing bad ever happens until Jacián Obregon comes to town and a ninth-grade girl goes missing.

Additionally, I have a few other books in the works with Simon & Schuster. Again in the young adult department, slated for spring 2012, Dead to You is an emotional thriller about a missing boy who finds his way home after being gone nine years. And for my first foray into the world of middle grade, I am so excited to share with you The Unwanteds, a dystopian fantasy about kids who are exiled from their homeland when they display signs of creativity to a hidden world where they are trained to use their abilities and hone their magical skills. Look for this one in fall 2011.

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From Booklist

Dream-catcher Janie must decide her fate: continue living in society and helping the police but eventually become blind and crippled, or isolate herself completely. The choice becomes even more difficult when her father, in a coma and on the brink of death, comes into her life for the first time and reveals important information to Janie through his dreams. Cabel remains a steadfast and loving companion, and Janie’s mother, a barely functioning alcoholic, plays a greater role in this volume. The popular trilogy, begun with Wake (2008) and Fade (2009), ends on a hopeful yet open note that will likely have fans clamoring for McMann’s next effort. Grades 8-11. --Heather Booth

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Simon Pulse; 1 edition (February 9, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416979182
• ISBN-13: 978-1416979180
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (92 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #164,994 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Hi, I'm Lisa McMann, New York Times bestselling author of fiction for teens and children.

My new fantasy series is for ages 9 and up, called THE UNWANTEDS. It's about a society where 13-year-olds are sorted into groups. The strong and intelligent kids are Wanted and they get to go to university. The creative and artistic kids are Unwanted and they are sent to their deaths. Follow 13-year-old twins Aaron and Alex as they are forced down opposite paths.

I'm also the author of the WAKE trilogy, about a seventeen-year-old girl named Janie who gets sucked into other people's dreams. CRYER'S CROSS is my most recent book for teens, and my next teen novel is due out Feb 7th, 2012, called DEAD TO YOU.

I grew up in Michigan and now I live in Arizona with my husband, two teenagers, and two cats. Have a question? Find me on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/McMannFan or Twitter @lisa_mcmann.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing for the Last Book in the Trilogy, February 17, 2010

By 

Nicola Manning (Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gone (Wake Trilogy, Book 3) (Hardcover)

Reason for Reading: Next (and last) in the series.

Summary: Janie has been left with a decision to make about her future and concentrates on making that decision. However, a wrench is thrown into her contemplations when her never before known father shows up in ICU causing her alcoholic mother to go off the deep end and add a twist to her previous choice. Now she must decide which is lesser of two evils.

Comments: Right of the bat I'll say this was rather disappointing. For a good portion of the book, from the beginning, the story mostly concentrates on Janie's dealing and coping with her alcoholic mother. Which would have been fine if this was just another teen dysfunctional family novel (which I abhor) but it was supposed to be the final book in a, so far, exciting paranormal trilogy. Janie has become very good at blocking out dreams unless they hit her out of nowhere, so during this part of the book there is barely any semblance of paranormal activity.

The introduction of Janie's father and his story that Janie learns through his comatose dreams was an interesting plot move and was certainly the highlight of the book. I enjoyed the twist it brought to the story and the extra dimension it added to Janie's decision. In the end though, I thought her decision lacked logic and I came up with a different way in which she could have possibly solved her dilemna.

I won't go into any details about what I thought of the casual, s*xual relationship between Janie and Cabel, except that I was not impressed. In general I was not impressed with Gone much at all; I read the book very quickly, I was already committed to the characters and enjoyed the previous two books *very much* but Gone just did not share an exciting plot with them. The father's part was good but not that exciting and I didn't pick up this book to read about the trials, tribulations and effects of an alcoholic on a family. Readable, but disappointing for the last book in a trilogy.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Left me with nothing..., February 16, 2010

By 

Diane Mchugh "taylormac" (San Antonio, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gone (Wake Trilogy, Book 3) (Hardcover)

I was disappointed with Gone. The ending was good, but there was no definitive climax or moment that made you have to finish the book. About halfway through I stopped and couldn't understand why no conflict or action had happened yet. It wouldn't start for a while. I absolutely loved Wake and Fade. I read them both in two days. They were exciting and romantic. Gone had the romance down, but the excitement was seriously lacking. The entire book was about Janie making one decision. No bad guys, no struggles, just a decision. If written well, that could have been an interesting story, but most of the book was Janie, who, in all the other books, is steadfast and strong, whining and complaining about her life. I would have liked to see her act with the same strength as she usually does.
I like the lyrical style of the book, but the cursing is a bit of a turnoff; however, I put up with it in the first two because the story was so exciting. Not so much in Gone. While I like how it ended, I wish Gone had left me thinking about it and playing it over in my head. There were no wow moments or parts where it shocked me. I guessed what was wrong with Henry pretty early on. All in all I was just left not feeling anything for this book.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars What a let down, February 12, 2010

By 

KT (Wisconsin) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Gone (Wake Trilogy, Book 3) (Hardcover)

Gone, the final installment in the Wake Series was an utter disapointment. Janie and Cabel's story, which in the previous two books was suspenseful, entertaining and heart warming, in Gone was boring, empty, and in the end left me feeling completly cheated out of my money.

In "Gone" Janie finally finds out why she is the way she is. Her father is revealed and Janie finds out he was (or is) a dream catcher as well. After realizing the hard decision her father made which sealed his fate, Janie sees she has an alternative to her certain future of being blind and crippled. Throughout the entire book Janie ponders the choice of leaving her love (Cabel) and going into a life of isolation in the woods as her father did.

The delivery of this storyline that the author decided to conclude the trilogy on could have been done much better. The interaction between the two main characters (Janie and Cabe) was sparce, abrupt and left a completly unfulfilling feeling at the conclusion. Janie had initially decided to leave Cabe because of the dreams he had been having and his inability to express his feelings of doubt to her. When they FINALLY talk about it, the conversation is given to the reader as: They talked a long, long time.... THAT'S IT!!! Tell us Cabe's feelings, Janie's feelings after she knows Cabe's feelings, something. This final climax was what the whole book was about and it was a complete dud.

I pre-ordered this book without question, and without reading any reviews on it. And yeah, I probably would have bought it even after the bad reviews not believing that such an excellent story, with the two previous books being 5 star material could possibly be as bad as they are saying. But unfortunatley it is, and most likely others will have the same view and buy it anyway. I would advise to those people, lower your expectations so you won't be as disappointed as I was.