Wake is about Janie Hannagan, a seventeen-year-old girl who, since the age of eight, is inexplicably able to enter other people's dreams. She can't control it. Being in the vicinity of a sleeping, dreaming person pretty much means she's going to be sucked into their dreams. While trying to get a better grip on her abilities, she gets to know Cabel Strumheller, a former goth. As if her life wasn't complicated enough, she now has to face the emotions she has for this very mysterious guy.

This book was really good. Better than I expected. When I opened the book, I didn't think I would be able to get into the third person present tense narration. But it worked. A third person that makes you feel like it's in first person, because you really get a grip on Janie's emotions. And the present tense made it seem all the more real and immediate.

Scary, beautiful and romantic. This book is all that, all at once. Lisa McMann has created a wonderful story with fascinating characters who are as real as you or me. Drunk mothers, abusive fathers, dead brothers. These characters have all had their fair share of troubles. And to top it off, Janie can enter people's dreams.

I absolutely love Cabel. He's definitely going on my list of favourite book hotties. He's really caring, and has such a tortured and haunted past. I even have a quote from the book that pretty much explains my love for him:

"That was the Goth stage, where I decided I'd never get the girl of my dreams because of my scars. Not to mention the hairstyle. (pause) But then she slammed a door handle into my gut. And when a girl does that to a boy, it means she likes him."

Probably my favourite quote from the entire book. Can't wait to get started on Fade. These books really are intriguing.

I absolutely hated this book. The idea of the book (seeing others' dreams) has so much potential..... which was not shown in this book. The style of writing is extremely annoying! I struggled to get through it simply because I became so annoyed everytime I read a sentence (which is often because each sentence is only a few words long!). It's really a shame that this book was even published. Whoever was supposed to edit this book FAILED miserably.

When I started this book, I didn't like it. Then it got better, then it got worse again and I'm left feeling like it was an okay read but that's about it. The journal style of writing made it very hard to connect with the characters, it just didn't pull me in.

i liked the idea of someone being able to go into another person's dreams, especially when she couldn't even control it.

i thought that the writing style make the book more intresting as well. it was kind of like going from reading novels to reading poems, just a different style of writing and something i wasn't used to.

GREAT BOOK. I couldn't put this down at all. A great story for people who like suspense, mystery and romance all mixed together. ^___^

Straight off, this isn't the kind of novel I would usually choose to read. By 'this kind of novel, I mean the kind of novel made to sell for teen girls with short attention spans and small vocabularies. I'm sure you're then asking: "Why, Lauren, why would you read this book?"

I asked myself the same thing.

Like all my other visits to a library or bookstore, I rarely have enough time to pre-read the first chapter to get a sense of the author's writing style. This is something I like to do considering the blurb at the back of the book just doesn't cut it. Seeing the "BESTSELLER" brand at the top of the book I thought, "why not? It can't be a bestseller for nothing."

Lesson learned.

The concept of being pulled into others dreams is fascinating. (Imagine being able to visit the wanderings of someone's mind!) Lisa McMann writing is not.

Wake is written as an on-the-spot narrative diary of the young girl who is the ‘dreamwalker,’ if you will. The first few entries in this mental diary are the details of her primary experiences entering dreams.

McMann wrote the first chapters in extremely choppy writing. I chose to keep reading because I thought this style of writing was used to pull the reader in and add suspense so they would continue to read. I was wrong. McMann actually accomplished (I say accomplished because not any writer is able to continue on like this throughout their whole novel) to write in choppy sentences that were hardly sentences themselves.

Why. Must. McMann. Write. In. Two. Word. Sentences?!

Unfortunately for you (fortunately for the author), I was hardly able to concentrate on the plot itself as I was beyond annoyed and sick of her style of writing. If you are able to decipher the plot with McMann’s lack of detail, then I’m sure you would find that not only is McMann terrible at writing, she also sucks (for lack of a better, more literary word) at making a sound, interesting plot line.

When I found out that this book has sequels I nearly had to take a Rapid Release Tylenol.

Honestly, to the readers: for the sake of all that is good in literature, please don’t read this book. To the author: they lied when they told you that you were talented.

Very cool book

Really good and addictive! I'll definitely read the second.

this book is awesome xD

followed by fade and gone

I third lysar's comment. Great concept, but it was horribly written. Story was too choppy and did not flow very well.

i couldn't have said it better myself. fantastic idea - horribly written. an absolute disappointment.

The premise of a girl getting sucked, unwilling, into people's dreams is a fabulous idea. McMann's execution however fails miserably.

When I picked up Wake I was really excited. I loved the idea of being a dream walker and was eager to see how McMann molded and shaped the world she was creating. Would Janie use her ability for good, how much trouble would it get her into? Was this the story of a girl on the fringe whom finally discovers that her inner freak can be a good thing not a bad one. Within the first paragraph I realized I was horribly wrong.

I knew this was a teen book but it read as younger teen, pre-teen even. The style was very, 'see Janie run... see Janie sit... Janie wakes up...'. It had a younger immature style to it and I wasn't expecting that. Often I find the style of writing in teen/ya has a bit more mature feel to it. This was like reading beginner fanfiction and made my eyes hurt. I'm not sure if McMann was trying to write in a style that would make the reader feel as though they were being 'dropped' in dreams but it failed. It instead felt insanely choppy and incoherent and very, very, very child-esque. I wanted depth and meat to the words rather then just basic description, at best.

Of course some of the content contradicts that. There was language and heavy smooching and sleeping together, all of which is very past teen, in my opinion. This leaves me to assume McMann was trying to create a feel with the choppiness.

The plot itself was random and again...? choppy. I think that's my word of description for this book. I could see plot twists coming from miles away yet evening knowing them it all seemed rushed and didn't have a nice flow to the work.

The only plus of this book was the concept of dream walking and what one could do with that. McMann had such potential for this story but I really feel like she totally botched it. I won't be picking up the rest of this series.