Thursday, August 5, 2010

Wake (Wake Series) by Lisa McMann

What's on the back of the book:
Seventeen-year-old Janie is tired of being sucked into other people's dreams, especially the falling dreams and the standing-in-front-of-the-class-naked ones. Or the chilling nightmares like when she's in a strange house . . . in a dirty kitchen . . . and a sinister monster edges even closer.

But now, for the first time, Janie is not just a witness but a participant . . . she's outside in the dark, alone, behind a shed, listening to muffled voices, hoping that somebody's nightmare isn't about to explode through the walls, or from the bushes . . .

A piece from the book:
December 9, 2005, 12:55 p.m.
Janie Hannagan's math book slips from her fingers. She grips the edge of the table in the school library. Everything goes black and silent. She sighs and rests her head on the table. Tries to pull herself out of it, but fails miserably. She's too tired today. Too hungry. She really doesn't have time for this.
And then.

She's sitting in the bleachers in the football stadium, blinking under the lights, silent among the roars of the crowd.
She glances at the people sitting in the bleachers around her - fellow classmates, parents - trying to spot the dreamer. She can tell this dreamer is afraid, but where is he? Then she looks to the football field. Finds him. Rolls her eyes.
It's Luke Drake. No question about it. He is, after all, the only naked player on the field for the homecoming game.
Nobody seems to notice or care. Except him. The ball is snapped and the lines collide, but Luke is covering himself with his hands, hopping from one foot to the other. She can feel his panic increasing. Janie's fingers tingle and go numb.
Luke looks over at Janie, eyes pleading, as the football moves toward him, a bullet in slow motion. "Help," he says.
She thinks about helping him. Wonders what it would take to change the course of Luke's dream. She even considers that a boost of confidence to the star receiver the day before the big game could put Fieldridge High in the running for the Regional Class A Championship.
But Luke's really a jerk. He won't appreciate it. So she resigns herself to watching the debacle. She wonders if he'll choose pride or glory.

He's not as big as he thinks he is.
That's for damn sure.

The football nearly reaches Luke when the dream starts over again. Oh, get ON with it already, Janie thinks. She concentrates in her seat on the bleachers and slowly manages to stand. She tries to walk back under the bleachers for the rest of the dream so she doesn't have to watch, and surprisingly, this time, she is able.

That's a bonus.

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