Ever wish you could get inside somebody else’s head? Wonder what they’re thinking about? Wonder what they’re dreaming about? Well, Janie actually can. Janie doesn’t have dreams of her own. She falls into others people’s dreams whenever she is near enough to someone that is sleeping. She is like a voyeur, watching the dreams, unable to escape them.
When she has a sleepover at home, she finds out that Melinda has a crush on Carrie, and that Carrie was somehow involved in a young boy’s drowning. During study hall and in the library at school, when other students are napping, she sees their sexual fantasies, their stress over public speaking (everyone is in their underwear dream), and their nightmares.
Unfortunately, this ability is more a curse than fun and games, because every time Janie comes out of someone’s dream, she is left sick and exhausted. Then one day, she’s in someone else’s dream by herself. It’s not her dream, but no one else is there! This is a new experience for Janie. How can she have fallen into someone else’s dream alone? She’s alone with a hideous monster that has knives for fingers! Then another Janie steps out of the Janie in the dream. But before the monster can attack Janie, it turns into a boy from school. And later, Cabel is able to talk to Janie in his dreams.
Wake is another easy read with few chapters but many short sections. The story is told in the third person. All the characters are easily likeable. Janie and her two closest friends, Carrie and Cabel, are pretty much parent-less, but are still pretty decent people.
If you enjoy Wake, stay tuned for the next installment of Janie’s life, where she learns how to help people in their dreams, in FADE.