Title: Wake, Fade, Gone

Author: Lisa McMann

Publisher:  Simon Pulse 2008, 2010, 2011

Genre: Young Adult

Pages: 224, 272, 240

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Support Your Local Library; Young Adult; A to Z Titles: G

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....  (review for Wake only)

Since I read these back to back, I decided to do one review of the trilogy instead of separate book reviews.  Overall, I liked this series.

The characters intrigued me.  A character who gets sucked into other people's dreams was interesting.  The main character, Janie, is likable and relatable.  She's someone who would be a good friend, although I guess sleepovers are out of the question.  The main male character, Cabel is the enigma in the first book but comes out to be the kind of guy anyone would want as their boyfriend.  (Not really a spoiler, I could see that plot development within the first 20 pages)  The side characters are more of caricatures, but that's okay.  The story's not really about them.  My only issue with characters: it's very convenient for Janie and Cabel to not have any present parents.  They can only do most of the things they do because there is no parental supervision.  A little too convenient.

As to the plot, I have mixed feelings.  The first book I really liked.  Although the last  30 pages seemed like either too much of a setup for the trilogy or an out of the blue occurence.  It seemed out of place unless you view the three books as one giant story.  Then it makes more sense.  The plot of the second book was a bit contrived.  Not bad, but definitely not great.  The third book redeemed the series for me.  We really get into the ramifications of Janie's actions and meet (well sorta meet) a very important person.  I thought that the trilogy tied up very nicely with Janie understanding her choices and choosing the path that she feels is the best.  It's the path that's the right choice for her.  I liked how the trilogy doesn't end with a fairy tale "they all lived happily ever after" ending, but an open-ended finale.  We see Janie starting off on her new life, wherever that may lead.  Definitely a good ending to a this series.  I'm interested in reading McMann's other books... They're going on my TBR list.

Side note: I absolutely adore the covers for these books.  So simple, yet very intriguing.  They remind me of the black, white, and red Twilight series covers.