Wednesday, January 27, 2010

WARNING: SPOILERS!

GONE reviews:

Kirkus 1/1/10: McMann continues her conversational-style narration, but her usual quick pacing turns slower as she wraps up the trilogy that began with Wake (2008) and Fade (2009). Instead of solving crimes using her dream-catching abilities, Janie is spending the summer before college trying to resolve her own dilemma. She learns that the father she never knew has been living in an isolated house not far from her and now lies in a hospital bed. By entering his unconscious, she also learns that he is a dream catcher too, while a search through his home reveals that he has avoided the debilitating blindness and gnarled hands of Janie's dream-catching mentor, Miss Stubin, but has sacrificed love in the process. He begs her to consider Morton's Fork-a choice between two equally unpleasant alternatives-before shutting herself off from her boyfriend, Cabel, and the rest of the world. Fans will gain a real appreciation of Janie's quandary and rally behind the control she musters in her seemingly helpless situation. A fitting completion to this popular series. (Paranormal. YA)


School Library Journal 2/1/10: MCMANN, Lisa. Gone. Bk. 3. 224p. CIP. S & S/Pulse. Feb. 2010. Tr $16.99. ISBN 978-1-4169-7918-0. LC 2009018682.

Gr 9 Up–Janie Hannagan is inadvertently and unwillingly drawn into other people’s dreams and nightmares. In Fade (S & S, 2009), she uses her unique abilities to apprehend criminals. In contrast, Gone is a more personal story about Janie’s attempts to come to terms with her troubled family and with the ways that dream catching will affect the rest of her life. Faced with an alcoholic and irresponsible mother, the teen finds some solace in her relationship with her boyfriend but then, unexpectedly, the father she’s never known enters her life. Henry Feingold is suffering from a mysterious brain disorder. When Janie is drawn into his unconscious and continuous nightmare, she discovers that he, too, is a dream catcher, and she struggles to use her power to help him find release. As she finds out more about him, Janie faces a choice–use her abilities for the benefit of others and become blind and crippled in her ’20s like her mentor, or isolate herself from other human beings, as her father did, to avoid entering their dreams. This is a fast-paced read, written in flashbacks and sentence fragments that suggest the dream state. Janie is a strong, appealing character, and the depictions of her emotional turmoil and her painful dilemma are absolutely believable. This book would make an interesting choice for a book-discussion group. However, it is necessary to have read Wake and Fade to understand everything that is occurring.–Kathleen E. Gruver, Burlington County Library, Westampton, NJ

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Friday, January 18, 2008

KIRKUS REVIEWS 2/1/08

McMann, Lisa

WAKE



Dealing with an alcoholic single mother and endless hours of working at Heather Nursing Home to raise money for college, high-school senior Janie Hannagan doesn’t need more problems. But inexplicably, since she was eight years old, she has been pulled in to people’s dreams, witnessing their recurring fears, fantasies and secrets. Through Miss Stubin at Heather Home, Janie discovers that she is a dream catcher with the ability to help others resolve their haunting dreams. After taking an interest in former bad boy Cabel, she must distinguish between the monster she sees in his nightmares and her romantic feelings for him. And when she learns more about Cabel’s covert identity, Janie just may be able to use her special dream powers to help solve crimes in a suspense-building ending with potential for a sequel. McMann lures teens in by piquing their interest in the mysteries of the unknown, and keeps them with quick-paced, gripping narration and supportive characters. (Fiction. YA)

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