Wake by Lisa McMann

Janie Hannagan has an unique ability: when other people fall asleep, she gets to witness their dreams. This might sound cool at first, but its not. Janie has no control over her power, and the dreams paralyze her for hours at time, leaving her exhausted and frustrated. She can't tell anybody about her ability, including her best friend Carrie. But when Janie witnesses a frightening nightmare, for the first time she is not an observer, but a participant...

About half-way through this book, I had a feeling I wasn't going to like it, but I did like it, so that's good. I really liked Janie as a character, but I felt bad for her, too. The dream-watching seems exhausting and I think I would go crazy not be able to stop myself from witnessing other people's dreams. I also thought that Cabel was an interesting character; especially because at first I thought I wasn't going to like him, but once again, I was proven wrong. The whole premise of the novel was very new and creative, nothing like I've ever seen before. Now, there was one thing I didn't like all that much and it was the writing. It was very sparse and not-detailed, which led to passages such as:
She closed the door.
Laid on her bed.
And fell asleep...... And then its a new topic. The story felt really rushed and it was like the author was trying to tell the story in as least many words as possible. Although, I think it's more of a personal preferance of what style writing you like, so you could completely disagree with me. Besides that, I thought the story was a fresh and original read.

6 out of 10.

The next book in the series, Fade, will be released February 10, 2009.