Wake (Hardcover)

by Lisa McMann (Author)
Key Phrases: Miss Stubin, Heather Home, Cabel Strumheller (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Not all dreams are sweet.

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....

About the Author
Lisa McMann is also the author of Wake. She lives with her family in the Phoenix area. Read more about Lisa at http://lisamcmann.com or be her friend at http://www.myspace.com/lisamcmann. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Simon Pulse (March 4, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416953574
• ISBN-13: 978-1416953579
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (96 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #45,820 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Courtesy of Teens Read Too, February 19, 2008

By	TeensReadToo.com "Eat. Drink. Read. Be Merrier." (All Over the US & Canada) - See all my reviews

Dreams can usually be categorized as our source of entertainment while we are sleeping. Although we sometimes may not remember them, they often take us on a journey that we may (or may not) want to happen. For Janie Hannagan, though, dreams are her worst nightmares.

Not like any other normal teenage girl, Janie witnesses the dreams that anyone within close proximity is dreaming. Of course, she doesn't really want this to happen, but it has been going on ever since she was eight. Janie is able to see the ordinary dreams, from falling to drowning to going to work without wearing any pants. Along with that, she is able to see people's secrets and what they desire the most.

There is nothing Janie can do about this but to just keep the knowledge to herself. That all changes when Cable, the guy who everyone thought was a pothead and a dealer, enters her life as she enters his dreams. Half the time, the dreams are somewhat sweet and romantic, but then other times she witnesses the nightmares that have been haunting him.

As Janie tries to sort out not only his dreams but her own feelings for Cable, she learns that the only way to survive her reactions towards other people's dreams is to control them -- and to help the people complete the tasks that they so desperately want to accomplish.

Every now and then a novel gets published and becomes a work of art that we all will long remember. WAKE is one of those novels that is not only unique but also mesmerizing and exhilarating. With her debut novel, Lisa McMann creates something that will be on our minds and change the way we think about what we read.

Reviewed by: Randstostipher "tallnlankyrn" Nguyen

28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Unexpected Dream, March 4, 2008

By	The Bibliophile (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

I don't really know what I was expecting from this book, but what I found was pretty amazing. The plot flowed like a dream in that it was told in minimalistic spurts that echoed a dream state. And the story itself wasn't quiet mystery or fantasy or romance, but seemed to combine all three in an entirely new genera.

Janie Hannagan is a dream catcher. She wakes into other people's nightmares and fantasies, yet she doesn't know what they expect her to do. From her best friend begging her to help save her drowning brother to the lonely old woman in the nursing home where she works asking for a second chance with a lover she lost in the war, Janie doesn't know if she can help any of these people turn their fears into happiness.

That is until she falls into burnout Cabel Strumheller's dream and finds out there are some secrets in Cabel's past and some hope for his future that she's not sure are nightmares or fantasies--and she doesn't know if she wants to find the truth either way. But Cabel's dreams aren't the only thing she finds herself falling into. With his protective instinct and deep brown eyes, Janie might just be falling in love.

I did find the exposition a little lacking in places so Janie's emotional extremes baffled me at times. And I don't want to give away the ending to explain what I thought about Cabel, but just know this is a definite series set up.

This book was a fast read with some great parts. It was a little reminiscent of Meg Cabot's 1-800-WHERE-R-YOU series, only with more substance. It was edgy like a Holly Black book and engaging like Janet Evanovich's Stehpanie Plum series, yet it was totally unique. I'm looking forward to FADE, and can't wait to see what comes after that.

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Didn't Reach Its Potential, May 1, 2008

By	Reviewer Anonymous "www.revieweranonymous.wor... - See all my reviews

Janie Hannagan has a gift -- or rather a curse -- for being sucked into other people's dreams whenever they're sleeping nearby. She is witness to funny things; strange things; typical, boring things; and, in one instance, something so disturbing she won't even drive on Waverly Road any more. With the help of resident hottie Cabel Strumheller, Janie must discover whose terrifying dream she beheld, and what is wrong with her that she was able to see it in the first place.

When I started this book, I didn't like it. Then it got better, at which point I was quite into it, then it got worse again, and it didn't recover. The mystery McMann introduces is enough to keep a reader up at night for more than one reason, but it peters off shortly after its establishment and is ultimately unfulfilling. In addition, it seems people fall asleep a lot more often in this story than they do in real life, presumably a tactic to keep Janie's special ability at the forefront of readers' minds.

Though possessing an intriguing premise, there is one semi-major flaw that for me made the entire foundation of the story unsound. Dreams are people's subconscious ramblings, not their conscious thoughts. Most of the dreams upon which Janie intrudes bear significant consequence to the plot, but in my experience the majority of real-life dreams mean very little.

On a more positive note, the writing style is fast-paced and unique, adding a distinguished and enticing flare to the novel.

I would say that Lisa McMann's debut into young adult fiction didn't quite reach its potential, but the idea behind it is promising enough for me to have high hopes for its sequel, Fade.