Gone
I've been taking a bit of an unplanned internet break the last couple weeks. I hope to get back to regular blogging soon, but I needed to restart my brain and, well, the interwebz are too distracting sometimes...
I don't usually post about books outside of my usual monthly reading wrap-up, but today I finished GONE, the last book in the Wake trilogy by Lisa McMann, and I've been thinking about it for hours.
This was a hard book to read. Janie's in a bad place. As a Dreamcatcher, she knew her life wasn't normal as it was. But she just learned she's going to go blind by her late twenties. That she'll have crippling arthritis. Basically, that even though she's found a strong and loving companion in Cabel that their lives will never even resemble 'normal,' and if she wants him to be able to have that, she can't be with him. And after both had such horrific childhoods... You really wish these kids would catch a break!
But Lisa never shies away from their problems. There's a brutal honesty in this book. And even though the ending wasn't all sparkles and rainbows, it had a beautiful hopefulness in it.
This was a very 'internal' story. It's all about Janie's choices, and how she reaches her decision. The addition of her long-lost father, whose name she didn't even know, was perfect. Especially since she can only communicate with him through his horrible dreams, as he's in a coma and near death. The parallels to Janie's own life were spot-on, but not in a plot-devicey way-- it all felt so real, especially the funeral scene.
This was a perfect conclusion for the trilogy. I admit to totally tearing up the last couple pages. I think for anyone who ever has had to learn to live with darkness, this book will really resonate. All three books are powerful, but this one is absolutely amazing. Janie's story is going to stick with me for quite a while.
I don't usually post about books outside of my usual monthly reading wrap-up, but today I finished GONE, the last book in the Wake trilogy by Lisa McMann, and I've been thinking about it for hours.
This was a hard book to read. Janie's in a bad place. As a Dreamcatcher, she knew her life wasn't normal as it was. But she just learned she's going to go blind by her late twenties. That she'll have crippling arthritis. Basically, that even though she's found a strong and loving companion in Cabel that their lives will never even resemble 'normal,' and if she wants him to be able to have that, she can't be with him. And after both had such horrific childhoods... You really wish these kids would catch a break!
But Lisa never shies away from their problems. There's a brutal honesty in this book. And even though the ending wasn't all sparkles and rainbows, it had a beautiful hopefulness in it.
This was a very 'internal' story. It's all about Janie's choices, and how she reaches her decision. The addition of her long-lost father, whose name she didn't even know, was perfect. Especially since she can only communicate with him through his horrible dreams, as he's in a coma and near death. The parallels to Janie's own life were spot-on, but not in a plot-devicey way-- it all felt so real, especially the funeral scene.
This was a perfect conclusion for the trilogy. I admit to totally tearing up the last couple pages. I think for anyone who ever has had to learn to live with darkness, this book will really resonate. All three books are powerful, but this one is absolutely amazing. Janie's story is going to stick with me for quite a while.