(no subject)
Wake by Lisa McMann. Ages 14+ Pub Date 3/4/08
Loved this book. Do NOT understand the way it's being marketed. The cover of the book is so dark, and the summary on the back makes it to be a horror novel...Janie gets sucked into people's dreams if they are nearby her dreaming. She's somewhat used to it, all the dreamsex, dream embarrassment, etc, until she gets sucked into the most powerful dream yet, one with a monster with knives for fingers that grusomely kills a man, over and over.
This is an accurate portrayal of the book, except, at the risk of SPOILERS
Janie very quickly finds out whose dream it is and why etc, and the book moves on from there.
Not scary at all.
So I can imagine a lot of readers, particularly reluctant ones, wanting a good scary book and picking this up, only to be disgusted by the final product.
This books has LOADS of flaws, predictable sections, changes of heart with little explanation, oh-so-convenient BS that just happens to occur. Real crap. And yet, I was so into the book, I loved Janie, I loved Cabel, I didn't care that all the silly other crap happened. I was very very eager to suspend my disbelief for this book, which is a very interesting thing. Hey, this high school kid is conveniently 19 so there's no parents around. Whatever. Etc. I don't think I've read a book that could get away with this stuff before, at least not on this level. I was engrossed the whole way through, read it very quickly on a train, pretty much devoured it. I would hand it to almost any teen, but I wouldn't let them read the back of the book.