Wake

Wakeby Lisa McMannThis was one of the books that I found on the New Arrivals section of my library. When you have so few English books to choose from you get excited when they do something right and and an actual recent book to the New Arrivals section. Woo.Had I remembered about the RIP challenge I would have waited until September to pick up the book and would have added it to my list of books. It's a little scary, but not in a blood and gore sort of way. More in a psychological thriller sort of way.Janie gets sucked into people's dreams. She first noticed this when she was 8 and then as she got older it got worse. Going on a class trip to Stratford, Canada? Not the smartest move since everyone falls asleep on bus rides and her roommates sleep... so that's a lot of dream sucking-in-age. Janie is befriended, oddly, by Cabel, the bad boy everyone thinks is strung out on drugs and selling them. She confides in him about her secret and together they try to get through it. Janie starts to learn how to try and control the dreams as she gets sucked in otherwise they are going to kill her.This story is simply written. I was drawn into it almost right away as I began reading. I was worried that I wasn't going to like it, but as the end got closer I was so focused on the plot and characters that I didn't want it to end. There were plot twists I wasn't expecting and that made me happy. I was banking on this book being predictable like most of the R. L. Stine type books from my teen years, only Lisa McMann didn't let me down and kept me delighted by surprises.I was happy to see at the end a reference to Fade, which I wasn't sure was an actual real book or just a glimpse into the future, Epilogue-wise. However I have just seen it's due to be released in February 2009 so I will certainly keep an eye out for it at the library! (However, if they only got this, which was released in March 2008 around June-ish, I am not holding my breath...)