Wake by Lisa McMann

4 stars

Janie realizes at age 8 that there is something different about her and she doesn't know why or how but she does know from a young age that sleepovers are a bad idea. Janie gets sucked into other people's dreams and can't get back out until that person wakes up, it makes her an unwilling voyeur in their most private images. As she gets into high school it becomes much harder to avoid sleeping people so she must learn to control this part of her life before it controls her.

Janie is a sweet lead character and the relationship she has with her best friend Carrie is very nice. There is no "ownership" of the other, or exclusivity in their friendship, they aren't glued to the hip BFFs. The maturity that Janie shows is very nice, she shows empathy for other people knowing there are probably bigger reasons to explain why a person looks or acts the way they do instead of passing blind judgement as other teens may. I also enjoyed the mystery that surrounded Cabel, who is he and why does he seem to be one way but is completely different while away from Janie?

All in all I thought this was a very good book and a fast read. There are a lot of language issues with this book, F-words used freely along with many other words. There is a lot of usage of the Lord's name in this series too. Jesus and God are the most common exclamations in the book besides the F-word. I tried to breeze past all of that knowing that most of the teenage population speaks this way. There are some dreams that Janie is sucked into that are sexual in nature, but there is never more than a broad description, enough so you know what's going. There is a LOT of teenage drinking and drug use. In the end Janie isn't drinking anymore and her friends all get arrested and the kids are all so scared and upset that it shows it as a definite bad consequence, not something to laugh about.

I'm excited to start reading Fade (Wake book 2) today and hopefully get to start Gone (book 3) on Monday! A very engaging series to help you pass a few hours away.