Title: When We Wake (When We Wake #1)
Author: Karen Healey
Genre: Young Adult. Dystopia.
Publication Date: March 5th 2013
Publisher: Little Brown Books For Young Readers
Format: Paperback
Pages: 304
Rating: 4/5
But on what should have been the best day of Tegan's life, she dies—and wakes up a hundred years later, locked in a government facility with no idea what happened.
The future isn't all she had hoped it would be, and when appalling secrets come to light, Tegan must make a choice: Does she keep her head down and survive, or fight for a better world?
Award-winning author Karen Healey has created a haunting, cautionary tale of an inspiring protagonist living in a not-so-distant future that could easily be our own.
I found this book randomly when I was looking through my library’s catalogue- the cover definitely drew me in first. As usual, I looked up the book quickly on Goodreads and it looked good- I can’t pass up a Sci Fi/Dystopia/Romance, and then I found out it was set in Melbourne. For those of you who might not know, I’m from Melbourne so thought of a Dystopian being set here sounded amazing. It was.
This is the first YA book I’ve ever read
set in my city, so I’d never had the chance to experience something like this
before. I knew all the streets and the places that were mentioned in the book
and I could picture what they looked like now and imagine how they might look
in the book. This really helped me enjoy the book, there was just this sense of
familiarity that I just really don’t have with other books.
When I was looking on Goodreads the first
time, I saw a couple of reviews likening it to Across the Universe by Beth
Revis in the sense that both books involve cryogenically freezing people. Now, I love Across the Universe, probably even
more than I should but When We Wake takes the story down a whole other path. I
loved where the story went- other than AtU, I don’t think I’ve read anything
else with cryogenics so it was interesting to see a different take on it. The
story has little snippets from the main character, Tegan, as she sort of looks
back on the events. I really like when this is down in books, and this
particular style reminded me of this particular moment in Torchwood: Children
of Earth. It’s probably not going to make sense to those of you who haven’t
watched the show, but for those of you who have- there’s a moment where Gwen is
hiding with Rhys and a bunch of children and she is recording a message- this
reminded me of that moment.
I really enjoyed this- it was an incredibly
fast read because it’s quite fast-paced and I know for the last 50 pages or so,
I literally could not look away from the book. Definitely recommend!
