Wide Awake asleep is a novel about Julie, a 49 year-old woman who ends up in a comma after a serious car accident. While asleep, her spirit goes back in time to revisit and change parts of her past life. When she changes things, she affects not only her own life, but the lives of the people around her. This concept isn't new, but Louise Wise makes it unique by having the woman's spirit not only inhabit herself as a child, but sometimes possess others, people such as a social worker, her mother, and an elderly neighbor who was supposed to be taking care of Julie (or Jules, as she was called when she was a child).

The people Julie possesses are not aware of her spirit, but as she pushes them toward actions they might not have chosen, they fight back. Julie has to work to maintain control. Wise handles memories in an interesting, but sometimes confusing way. Julie's old memories fade and new memories take over as the past changes. Meanwhile, the people she is “inside” remember some of what they've been put through, but not all.

The novel, however, is not so much about the concept of time travel and spiritual possession, but rather about the life (or lives) Julie goes back to change. Her own life, before the accident, has its ups and downs. She's a part owner of a successful chain of perfume stores. Although her professional life is going well, her personal life is a series of meaningless relationships. Still, it is the lives of her friends and family that are most in need of repair and many of their problems are due to Julie's misunderstandings.

Like most time travel novels, a certain amount of suspension of disbelief is required of the readers. The only time I had a problem with this was when Julie explained her situation to others. They seemed to accept her story easier than I would expect.

Overall, I felt this was a good read. I would recommend it to fans of paranormal novels. ( )

First of all, I just want to say that I absolutely loved this amazing book. A time travel book was always going to appeal but this one is done so incredibly well and it was just a pleasure to read from start to finish.

Julie Compton has a good life. She's 49, happily single, with a thriving business but one day she has a serious car accident and finds herself back in 1972, not in her own body but in that of a stranger, an onlooker to her early life. From there she 'time hops' between various bodies as she tries to change her destiny and in turn that of her family and friends.

It was absolutely fascinating to watch Julie move around between her younger self and the people she knew as a child. Each person she inhabits has a role to play and through them Julie is able to try and change some of the bad things that she knows happened and also starts to see things that happened in the past in a different light.

The premise of this book is one that I really enjoyed for several reasons. One is that wouldn't we all love to go back and see our childhood homes, bedrooms, friends again and meet our family again as we knew them in the past? Another is that it would be wonderful to be able to put right past wrongs and see the past with a greater clarity rather than in the black or white way a child sees them.

There's one section where Julie visits shops from the past - well known ones that I remember well from my childhood and I just loved that blast from the past. It was a little trip down memory lane.

Louise Wise has written a brilliant book with Wide Awake Asleep. It's so well written that I found it utterly plausible even though time travel is just a fantasy.....or is it? The author has clearly done some research into the possibilities of time travel, astral projection and the effects of déjà vu, all subjects that I find so interesting and with so many possibilities.

I can't recommend Wide Awake Asleep enough. It's just such a fabulous read on many levels. It took me back to a different era, one of VHS video tapes, Wimpy, no mobile phones, an altogether simpler time. It thrilled me, amazed and delighted me and I was completely absorbed by it. I loved it! ( )