Author: Lisa McMann
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Released: March 4th, 2008
Pages: 210
Genre: YA, Paranormal
Source: Library
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 because 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.
Ok, we all have dreams and remember only a small fraction of them. Some we wish we could forget. While some can be a haze in the back of our minds, others can be so vivid, they seem real and it's hard to shake off throughout the day. In Janie's case, she not only remembers them, she lives them. But, they aren't hers. Janie has the uncontrollable ability to view the dreams of others that are near her.
After reading the back of the book, I still had no idea where it would lead. Dreams in and of themselves are a world of fascination. We can spend so much time trying to dissect the meaning of them. Some are filled with our personal fears: spiders (ugh), monsters, loved ones dying, or even being chased. Our fantastical hopes could be lived: flying, changing into an animal, exploring a new country. Even our erotic desires: enough said! (think of your own examples!)
But for Janie...she witnesses everyone else's dreams. She has no control of it, no way of stopping what she sees or when it happens. That is scary! I could never imagine what that could entail, the secrets one would possess. I think the author does a fantastic job portraying how that would look, the emotional terror one would experience.
Relating to Janie should be easy for any reader. We all have wondered what it would be like to control our dreams or to be more conscience of them as they happen. Is there a meaning to them? Are they a mirror of the past or the future? Or are they just a reflection of the emotional hurricane that is building inside of us? McMann took it a step further. She planted to protagonist inside someone else's dreams. To watch another's embarrassing fear of standing naked in front of their peers and then seeing them the next day without making a single twitch would be extremely difficult. As the reader, I felt her struggle and knew her desire to never have to experience that.
The written flow was beautiful. You fell for the characters and could easily close your eyes and follow the storyline. And of course, in the end you wanted more...
☆☆☆☆Author: Lisa McMann
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Released: March 4th, 2008
Pages: 248
Genre: YA, Paranormal
Source: Own
For Janie and Cabel, real life is getting tougher than the dreams. They're just trying to carve out a little (secret) time together, but no such luck.
Disturbing things are happening at Fieldridge High, yet nobody's talking. When Janie taps into a classmate's violent nightmares, the case finally breaks open -- but nothing goes as planned. Not even close. Janie's in way over her head, and Cabe's shocking behavior has grave consequences for them both.
Worse yet, Janie learns the truth about herself and her ability -- and it's bleak. Seriously, brutally bleak. Not only is her fate as a dream catcher sealed, but what's to come is way darker than she'd feared...
Talk about a fast ride from page one! I don't feel like I can delve too much into a review without spilling the beans on this one. Just know that what you learn in the first of this trilogy is nothing compared to the adventure that follows these two. Throughout the pages, you will squeal, tear up, and possibly scream as McMann reveals the next stage in Janie's life as she jumps from dream to dream. It is unpredictable and you will not be able to set the book down. I can't wait to read Gone and Cabel's Story.
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