Review Detail

Every time someone near her falls
asleep, Janie Hannagan gets sucked into their dreams. This is hardly fun at
all, as most peoples dreams consist of falling, nudity, or sex, and, while
Janie is technically awake through these experiences, shes blind to the real
world. Talk about an uncomfortable lifestyle.

Janies troubles only continue to
escalate when she starts to fall into the once troubled, now sexy Cabel
Strumhellers dreams&and finds that she appears in them as well, and that he,
too, is aware of her presence in his dreams. There may be more to her ability
to fall into peoples dreams than Janie realizes, more power than she realizes
she has. So begins a new chapter of Janies life, one where she learns to
control her abilities and use them for good.

What WAKE lacks in good writing
and comprehensible characters, it makes up in a stunning story idea. McManns
writing style is straightforward and succinct in an almost ethereal manner.
This, while effective in exposition, does not work as well when the plot really
needs to get going, and I felt like I was missing what was going on between
Janie and Cabel as their relationship developed.

Cabel, whom I at first thought to
be some sort of Marcus Flutie incarnate, is sadly underdeveloped; his character
is not clear to me. Janie passes through in a little better shape, as the
self-motivated white trash girl who learns to rely only on herself, which is
why I was upset when she seemed to lose perspective when things with Cabel hit
some bumps.

WAKE works fairly well as a
stand-alone novel, but thanks to its fascinating premise, I think I am going to
pick up the next book in the series, FADE, and see if Janie, Cabel, and the
situation theyre in become clearer to me over time.