Thursday, March 03, 2011

Triple Review: Wake, Fade & Gone

Wake by Lisa McMann
(Amazon / Goodreads)

Fade by Lisa McMann
(Amazon / Goodreads)

Gone by Lisa McMann
(Amazon / Goodreads)

Goodreads description for Wake:

For seventeen-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 than a witness to someone else's twisted psyche. She is a participant.

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars

I’m not that big a fan of paranormal stories, but I really enjoyed this one. The paranormal aspect was completely unique, unlike just using the stereotype of a vampire, witch, etc. I loved the whole dream-thing – I found out lots about the concept of dreaming. To me, dreaming (and psychology in general) are fascinating, even though I don’t know that much about it, so that was really interesting.

This was so much more than just any paranormal read, as the rest of the plot was completely realistic – all of the characters were believable. I understood Janie’s conflict perfectly, especially in Gone. Cabel was a great character with depth, too, and I thought it was adorable how he took care of Jamie. Their relationship was cute, but still realistic – the ups and downs were always believable.

The secondary characters were well-developed as well. Carrie was a perfect dysfunctional friend. Janie’s mom, her effect on Jamie and their whole situation were heartbreaking, especially in the beginning of Wake, when all of this is described from 8-year-old Jamie’s perspective, and she states her mother’s condition as a fact, with such innocence…it made feel for her that much more.


I’m still not sure whether I liked the writing in this series. The style was minimalistic, to say the least, and the sentences were short and fragmented. Normally, I like more fleshed-out descriptions, but I got used to it after a while. It somehow worked for this story, for the most part, but it was too extreme for me at some points. Lisa McMann used a third-person, present-tense narrative, which I thought was a somewhat strange combination. The writing seemed almost like out of a journal, which didn’t fit to the third-person narrative. Maybe I’m biased, though – in general, I prefer past-tense and first-person narratives.

My favorite of the series was probably Fade, just because that one had the most action, which fit the fast-paced style best.

All in all, this is a book I definitely recommend to both fans of paranormal and of contemporary stories. The plot was unique, and the novel was fast-paced, a real page-turner. The characters and their relationships were completely realistic and relatable. The style and writing takes some getting-used-to, but I think it works as a whole.

13 comments:

  1. I have always wanted to read this series... they've been on my to-be-read list for awhile. Glad you liked it. I'll definitely have to pick up some copies!
    Blakeley (The Book Bell)
    Just started following! Hope you can follow back!
    http://thebookbell.blogspot.com

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  2. I read the first two in this series a while back but I've been avoiding reading the last. I guess I'm scared it's going to end sad. So my question is that. Did it end sad?

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  3. It doesn't have a hunky-dory happy ending or anything like that, but I wouldn't say the ending is sad...more hopeful. You should read it!

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  4. Great review, I'm looking forward to reading this series. Happy Reading.

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  5. Loved the review I totally forgot about this book until I came across this review,I've always found "dreams" an area of interest and am moving this up on my TBR pile now.

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  6. I can't wait to read this series! Thanks so much for your thought out review!

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  7. Great review!This series sounds interesting!

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  8. Fantastic review! I'm looking forward to reading these!

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  9. I loved this series too & I'm not a paranormal fan either. Great review!

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  10. I love this series. Cabel and Janie as awesome.

    Katie

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  11. I would love to be able to read this book!I think it is awesome!

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  12. I was looking for these books in the only English bookstore in Slovakia the other day and I havent found them. x( I loved your review, now I want to read the series even more! It sounds like nothing Ive read before and I love the "dreams" idea.

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  13. I love paranormal stories, so I would like to read this books. Thanks for your review, I like it because it is more informative than annotation from bookstore.

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Please leave a comment - I love to hear what you think!

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