The Wake Trilogy

After looking through past posts, I don't believe I ever reviewed Wake. So this review is for the whole trilogy. 

Title: Wake, Fade, Gone

Author: Lisa McMann

Year Published: 2008-2010

I read the first in this trilogy months ago and finally got to the other two while on the boat. I can say that if I had written a review for just Wake, it would not be as positive as it will be for the whole trilogy.

I thought Wake alone was poor in its development. I had too many questions. It just didn't seem like enough happened. And then suddenly the police were involved and Janie was working for them. It didn't flow for me.

Once I got into Fade and Gone, my questions were answered and everything was made more clear. I took the reality of every situation with a grain of salt. I feel that this series could easily be turned into an episodic television show for a station like ABC Family or the CW. Each of the story lines could be spread out and expanded upon. By the third book, I was excitedly flipping to the next page. I think I may have read Gone in one sitting. 

Although I don't think the series is up to par with some more recent YA trilogies, I enjoyed it. It felt to me like a book I would have picked up at a book fair in middle school, although I was already in college when these books were published. I give this trilogy a 3/5.

-PAUL

WAKE

I finally got around to finishing this novel. It wasn't very long, but Fall Break got in my way.


Ashley's Pre Reading
Ashley's Review
My Pre Reading


Of course, Ashley has read this whole series so I must refrain from reading her other posts. I felt that this novel was just the beginning of a longer, larger story. I haven't read the rest of the series, but maybe it would have benefited to be one 500 page book rather than three 200 page books. There are so many questions I want answered. How was the dead blind lady in a dream helping after she died? I want to know more about her. The Captain even mentioned her by name. 


I did enjoy the style of McMann's writing. She dealt with Janie being pulled into dreams well. Some of the story seemed pushed, but overall it had a nice flow. Like Ashley said, the relationship wasn't forced. The two of them went through some rough times until Janie learned the truth. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series, but I have no idea when I will do that. Possibly some day I have a few hours of free time. I should probably blog about my October pick so I don't fall too far behind. Thankfully I am posting this and Ashley won't be kicking blue off the homepage.


I would give this novel a 3/5. 


PAUL

“Dreams are not memories, Janie. They’re hopes and fears. Indications of other life stresses."

I suppose I should write the "review" blog for Wake before I forget what happened in it and start cramming it together with the other two books in the trilogy. It would just get way too confusing then, and I'm already starting to get confused on what happened in which book. 

First, I really enjoyed the way that McMann constructed the novel. I liked that there are definitive chapters, but I also liked that there were subsections within each chapter, denoted by either a date or a time, or both. It helps the reader to gain a perspective of when Janie gets pulled into the dreams, and it helps us to become sympathetic with her. The poor girl can't even sit in study hall without being sucked into someone else's dreams.I also like that it was written with just enough stream-of-consciousness to make it different from most other novels, but not too much so that it was like As I Lay Dying or any of Faulkner's other works. I also really enjoyed when it switched to almost being from Cabel's viewpoint, so that you could see things from an outsider's perspective. Especially since Janie had no idea how the dream-catching thing was physically affecting her. 

I thought that the whole premise of the novel was very interesting. The whole "there are people out there who can help you change your dreams if you just ask" thing is a whole new take on dreams that I'd never heard of or imagined. I know it's fiction, but you never know. Especially since, in the novel, dream catchers are able to hide their abilities so well. And the idea that the dream catchers can use their abilities to help solve crimes is also pretty interesting. 

As far as the relationship aspect of the novel goes, I thought McMann handled it very well. Janie felt as if she would never find someone who she could trust with her secret, or anyone who would care about her (since she didn't feel that her alcoholic mom did and she had only one friend) and Cabel was abused and didn't think he could trust anyone or be comfortable around anyone with all of his scars. Although it seems like the two are so different in the beginning, as the novel progresses we find out how similar they are. I didn't feel like the relationship was forced, or that it was unnecessary in any way. And it wasn't just some stupid "omg I love yooou!" romance either - it had depth and was built on something other than just good looks or "you're a vampire, I love you!" I also liked that McMann didn't try to sugarcoat anything. She presented the relationship as very real, and gave plenty of instances where Janie and Cabel would have fights over legitimate things, just like any real couple.

Overall, I think this book was great. Reading it before bed was kind of a bad idea since it was all about dreams and nightmares and such, but it was still interesting and very hard to put down. Some things did seem kind of forced, but for the most part McMann did an excellent job with this novel. She definitely made me want to read the rest of the trilogy (which I did...). I'm glad that it didn't end up being just another supernatural YA novel with some girl/guy being a werewolf or vampire or having magic or living in a dystopian world.

I'd say that I'm excited to read the next book in the series!... but I already read it. I'll blog about it eventually.... Probably before Paul even finishes reading this one.

--Ashley

September Pick: Wake

I'm finally up to September! 

And this month's book is... 

Title: Wake

Author: Lisa McMann

Year Published: 2008

Synopsis: 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....

Why?: I was in Books-A-Million with my mom and I was looking through all the books on clearance (since I'm so cheap I don't like to pay full price for anything) and kept coming across this book and its sequels. It sounded like a very interesting concept, and even though I'm really over the whole trilogy thing, the books were fairly short and I figured it wouldn't take me very long to get through them. I originally intended on the whole series being supplemental reading, but decided to just make the first one my "book of the month" so that Paul would have to read it as well. 

Expectations: I'm apparently doing a fantastic job of picking books from authors that I have no previous knowledge about. I don't know McMann's writing style, and I don't know if she'll even do a decent job tackling such a weird topic. I hope it doesn't go too paranormal, but we'll see...

Judging a book by its cover: The cover is pretty simple - lots of black with the title and a pillow as the only color on the whole cover. It definitely make me think that the main character will spend a lot of time immersed in other peoples' dreams, or having her own dreams. She is a dreamcatcher, after all...

Writing these is still much easier BEFORE you actually read the book... It's weird to write about my expectations and judging a book by its cover once I've already read it.

Only five more until I'm caught up!

--Ashley