I remember when Wake was first making the rounds on the blog-o-sphere. It was before I had started this blog and before I began reviewing books in earnest, so at the time I had entered a contest to win the ARC, but hadn't given it much thought otherwise. When it came out it wasn't even on my radar. It first came to my attention when my sister, after searching my shelves, asked me 'Why don't you have that book with the pillow on the cover?' To which I responded 'Huh?' And thus did I find out about Wake (and its sequel Fade).

The writing is rather choppy at times, which I have no problem with since my writing tends to be like that, but rather then making it hard to follow or feel incomplete its more like a person is telling a story through a photo album. This is where Janie first finds out about her gift(or curse). This is when Janie first met Carrie. And so forth. I suppose for some that makes it odd, but for me I found it easier to immerse myself in the story with that sort of thinking.

Janie's life isn't easy and that's without factoring in her 'Dream' powers. Her dad is a non-entity, her mom spends almost all her time in a drunken stupor, she has trouble fitting in at school and then of course finding out some of your classmates' secrets while they doze through History isn't exactly great. She handles herself well though--learned how to survive on her own, how to hide the signs of what's happening to her, how to combat it as best as possible. I admire her for her fortitude and not becoming overwhelmed and crazy.

Her romance is kind of interesting. Its like the story structure itself. It starts and stops and begins again only to get waylaid and then seems to end altogether. Hiding is really the name of the game in the book--hiding from yourself, hiding from others, hiding behind a facade of social snobbery or hiding behind a label you are given because the label is better then the truth. Janie learns over the course of Wake that hiding in plain sight is sometimes preferable to hiding in the darkness and hiding with someone is both better and worse. ( )

Probably would'nt have read this book, but my book club was reading it, so I gave it a whirl. And I'm glad I did!

Janie has a secret. If she's near someone asleep and dreaming, she gets sucked into their dreams. Doomed to go along for the ride without any power to stop it.
She goes through life trying to hide it, until she meets a guy she thinks she can trust (Cabel). But as it turns out Cabel has some secrets of his own. Is Cabel the one that can finally help her get a handle on this "curse" or is he just another loser guy who can't be trusted?

I really liked this book once I got used to the writing style. It's very: Janie goes here. Janie doesn't like that, so she leaves.... Kinda weird right?
Anyway it was a really cool concept and a very short read. I liked the Janie character, and some of the dreams she got to see were pretty weird/scary/funny.
There were 2 things that kept me from giving this a higher rating: 1. Why wouldnt she ever let Cabel explain anything. Just out of curiousity sake, I think she would hear him out. 2. I didn't really like the police thing. The next 2 books seem like they are going to go with that angle and that is a little too TV show for me.... I just want to find out more about Janie and her life, not catching criminals and all that.

My Blog:
http://pinkpolkadotbookblog.blogspot.com/ ( )

Loved this entire series. Janie got to me immediately and her problems were real to me. Highly recommended (and liked) to my library patrons.

For 17-year-old Janie, getting sucked into other people's dreams is getting old. Especially the falling dreams, the naked-but-nobody-notices dreams, and the sex-crazed dreams. Janie's seen enough fantasy booty to last her a lifetime.

She can't tell anybody about what she does - they'd never believe her, or worse, they'd think she's a freak. So Janie lives on the fringe, cursed with an ability she doesn't want and can't control.

Then she falls into a gruesome nightmare, one that chills her to the bone. For the first time, Janie is more that a witness to someone else's twisted psyche. She is a participant.... ( )

I love the concept and the characters, but the execution was painful with constantly choppy sentences and occasional eyeroll-worthy actions/dialogue. The only reason I was able to get through the choppiness was because I listened to the audiobook. ( )

This was kinda cheesy but so, so good. ( )