Gone by Lisa McMann

Gone by Lisa McMann is the third and final installment of the creepy, minimalist Wake trilogy. If you haven't read the first two, start there, as this review has spoilers. Main character Janie has the ability, or really, is compelled to enter other people's dreams. In the previous two books, Janie discovers she is not alone in this power and that being able to enter people's dreams has its rewards--she can help people find peace by guiding them in the dream and she can uncover crimes and abuse by observing dreams. Unfortunately, she has also discovered using her "gift" will eventually debilitate her hands into useless claws and cause her to go blind.

In Gone, Janie must make an impossible choice a "Morton's Fork"--either stay in her relationship with her love Cabel and keep using her gift as it cripples her or completely isolate herself from the world and all the joy of love, the way her long-lost father did.

As always, McMann writes in a spare, poetic style rich with emotion and depth. Fans of realism and modernism will like McMann's no-nonsense, life is too complicated for a happy ending approach. Though it certainly involves fantastic elements I would classify it more as contemporary, than fantasy. Gone uses more adult language than the previous two books in the series, but it is authentic to the characters' ages and experiences.
Over all, a very enjoyable series, and I know I'll be standing in line to read her next book, Cryer's Cross in 2011.

Wake

Have you ever had a dream so powerful you found it hard to wake from? Janie has...in fact Janie does, quite frequently, only the dreams are not her own. Since Janie was 8 years old she has been pulled into the dreams of people who sleep in close proximity to her. She simply falls asleep in the midst of what she is doing and watches the dreams--the secret dreams of the girl at the sleepover, the humilitating dreams of the kid in study hall, the distorted dreams of her alcoholic mother. She sees her best friend's reoccurring nightmare and the frightening, horror-filled dreams of a strange boy she hardly knows. She fights to gain control and fears this affliction will destroy her life--how can she possibly go to college or have a relationship if she can't be near people who sleep?

The novel is written in short chapters over time and dated like diary entries, giving the story much drive and suspense. A couple plot elements are a little far-fetched, but the struggles of kids with rough home lives is portrayed sensitively and realistically, as is the touching romance in the story. Overall I enjoyed this quick read, realistic with some sci-fi-ish elements, and I'm super excited for the sequel, Fade which arrives February 10. Lisa McMann is an author with a lot of talent, and I'm looking forward to seeing what she comes up with next.

Here's a book trailer I stumbled upon for Wake--it takes a different angle on the book than I would have, but it's interesting none the less.

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Dreamquake-Book Two of the Dreamhunter Duet

While the book Dreamhunter by Elizabeth Knox is not a perfect book, it did get me so wrapped up in its world that I was dying to find out what happens in Book Two--Dreamquake. Lucky for me it is already out (the benefit of starting a series of books that is already published) and even better than Book One. Dreamquake picks up with the final scene of Dreamhunter and tells it from an alternative perspective, which both catches up the reader and gives a new angle to the scene. From there the plot picks up speed with Laura and her Sandman on the run for forcing her nightmare on the Dream Opera Crowd, the Dream Regulatory Body building a secret, dangerous project in the Place, and, not to be overshadowed, Rose's debut into society. Laura and Sandy's relationship blossoms, though her continued and deepening reliance on her Sandman causes tension with those around her. The pace is fast, the drama high, and once the pieces of the puzzle came together I was left astounded by the author's imagination and storytelling abilities. Full of suspense, romance, and questions, this installment brings the duet to highly satisfying close.

Dreamhunter: Book One of the Dreamhunter Duet

Enter a world very like our own around the turn of the century (1900, not 2000). It is a world where automobiles are still newfangled toys for the rich, where ladies still wear long dresses, and where wealthy young girls attend finishing schools to prepare them for coming out into society. Laura and Rose are cousins living in this world of privilege each with one parent who is of high society and one parent who is a famous and rich dreamhunter. The dreamhunters are people who can enter an otherworld where dreams reside and bring the dreams back for sale to hospitals, the government, and public dream opera houses. Some dreams are used to heal, some to soothe, some to delight and the best dreamhunters (and Laura's father and Rose's mother are the best) can earn fortunes.

But all is not as it seems. Laura's father is acting stranger and stranger, and Laura and Rose are about to make their Try to find out if they will become dreamhunters themselves. The girls' charmed life is quickly spinning out of control and they soon have a dire mystery to solve.

The pacing on this novel is a little slow at times, but the premise is so interesting and the world so compelling that I plowed through and was rewarded with cliffhanger of an ending. The good news is that Book Two is already out and was named a Printz Honor book this year so I won't have to wait to find out what happens next and the story is only going to get better. If you love fantasy, especially ones by Garth Nix and Libba Bray, you'll definitely enjoy this imaginative and spellbinding tale by Elizabeth Knox.