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Wake
224 pages
A gritty, fast-paced plunge into the terrifying intimacy of other people's darkest subconscious minds.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like being pulled under water, breathless and disoriented, only to surface in someone else's darkest secrets. The narrative moves at a breakneck, propulsive speed, driven by stark, fragmented prose that perfectly captures the jarring sensation of falling into a dream state against your will. It is a claustrophobic and eerie experience, steeped in the gritty angst of high school isolation and the heavy burden of involuntary empathy. As the psychological stakes escalate from unsettling to outright dangerous, the atmosphere thickens with tension and a creeping sense of dread. It will thoroughly delight readers who crave dark, edgy paranormal thrillers where the line between reality and nightmare blurs, anchored by a reluctant heroine fighting for her own mind.
- Mood
- claustrophobic
- eerie
- tense
- dreamlike
- Tone
- gritty
- urgent
- angsty
- detached
- suspenseful
- Pace
- propulsive
- Themes
- burden of empathy · isolation and alienation · hidden trauma · blurring reality
- The writing
- Stark, present-tense fragments create a disorienting, rapid-fire rhythm that mimics the jarring sensation of slipping in and out of consciousness.
- The arc
- The protagonist moves from a state of exhausted, guarded isolation into terrifying vulnerability as she learns to navigate and control her unwanted connection to others.
- Who it's for
- Teens and young adults who devour dark, fast-paced paranormal thrillers featuring reluctant heroes, gritty atmospheres, and high-stakes romance.
Content notes
- nightmares and trauma
- substance abuse
- sexual content
- violence
About the book
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.
Description from Open Library.
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