The premise for Wake caught my eye several months ago when I saw it on ALA’s Best Book list. I wanted to read it then, but since my local library didn’t have it (and let’s just say I’m selective about the books I purchase), I didn’t. I also figured it would be just another book with a premise too cool to live up to. It wasn’t until my last trip to the bookstore when I saw it was in paperback that I shelled out the cash. And in this case I loved that my reservations were wrong.

It starts when Janie is 8 but really becomes a problem at her first slumber party. She gets sucked into other people’s dreams, and she’s tired of it. The run-of-the-mill naked dreams, sex dreams, falling dreams, and the occasional nightmare – she’s seen enough. Feeling alienated from everyone around her, Janie’s social life becomes almost nonexistent. She fills her time going to school, caring for her deadbeat alcoholic mom, studying hard to earn a scholarship, and earning money for college at her nursing home job. But she’s only able to maintain a fairly normal life until she meets fellow loner Cabel Strumheller and falls into a bone-chilling nightmare where she is also a participant.

Wake was darker, grittier, and more mature than I expected. First I felt let-down by the cruder, hyper-real side of teen life and how it affected Cabel’s character, then embarrassed at my lack of faith in him and hope for any good in that world. His relationship with Janie is one of the most caring and solid teen romances I’ve read in awhile. Their scenes together are at times sweet, painful, and poignant. And to top it all off, Lisa McMann’s sparse writing style perfectly fits the date/time entry format and the breaks between dreaming and waking. Good thing there’s another book…