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    When We Wake
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    When We Wake
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    When We Wake
    Audiobook6 hours

    When We Wake

    Written by Karen Healey

    Narrated by Leslie Bellair

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    My name is Tegan Oglietti, and on the last day of my first lifetime, I was so, so happy.

    Sixteen-year-old Tegan is just like every other girl living in 2027 – she's happiest when playing the guitar, she's falling in love for the first time, and she's joining her friends to protest the wrongs of the world: environmental collapse, social discrimination, and political injustice.

    But on what should have been the best day of Tegan's life, she dies – and wakes up a hundred years in the future, locked in a government facility with no idea what happened.

    Tegan is the first government guinea pig to be cryonically frozen and successfully revived, which makes her an instant – even though all she wants to do is try to rebuild some semblance of a normal life. But the future isn't all she 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 future?

    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.

    A Hachette Audio production.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHachette Audio
    Release dateMar 5, 2013
    ISBN9781619698352
    Unavailable
    When We Wake

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    Reviews for When We Wake

    3.5/5

    97 ratings19 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I'm not sure I like or hate this book, and that's the whole problem. I liked Healey's writing style. It made me want to read the book, and I finished in one sitting. However, I felt the characters were too simplistic and the way she portrayed the many, MANY social issues was too hard; not to make people think, but to just push her own opinion on us. The usual people-who-believe-like-me are good, the-rest-of-the-world is bad.I still kind of liked the book. I just wished I had felt something. Anything.
    • 4/5
      Just yesterday, series information was added to Goodreads for When We Wake. I'm so glad that happened before I wrote up this review, because, honestly, the open-ended ending might have left me rather unsatisfied if I didn't know there was going to be more. Plus, I'm just excited there will be more, because When We Wake was a delight all the way through, populated with lovable characters, science-fictiony goodness, and references to The Beatles.

      Before I get into the serious plot stuff, I have to talk about all of The Beatles love in this book. My parents raised me on music from the 60s and 70s, so, though I'm not a child of that age, I sure do know most of the music, and The Beatles have always been amongst my favorites, even if my favorite album changes through the years. Every chapter title is a Beatles song, but the references go much deeper than that, and you better believe I adore every single one. The songs do even serve a plot point, providing a link to her old life and a way to connect with the people of 2128 through music.

      Tegan makes a wonderful heroine. Awakened over a hundred years after her last memory and informed of her death and revival, she is, understandably, freaked. However, after some time to mourn over her old life, she makes the best out of her new situation. She is helpful, hopeful, loving, determined, and sarcastic. Her voice thoughout When We Wake is a delight, and I connected to her immediately, not just because of her love of The Beatles.

      Reviving Tegan a century later enables Healey to impart information to the reader in a logical way. Tegan really does not know anything about the world she's in and can ask questions and receive answers without it feeling like an infodump. Healey uses the device to the fullest and spaces out Tegan's education well. Healey does not feel the need to drop everything on the reader all at once, taking breaks for character development or to talk about less serious things like slang or toilets (in this future, people poo into compost buckets).

      What makes this novel stand out from many others is that the society in which Tegan awakes really does seem to verge on utopian for quite a while. Sure, it's not completely perfect, but it seems largely better than the past. The world has warmed due to the depletion of the ozone layer, but mankind is now living in such a way as to diminish the negative effects on the environment. Homosexual love is now valued just as highly as heterosexual love, something our society really needs to learn to accept. The more Tegan learns, the more negatives appear in this future world, including continued racial tensions.

      When We Wake, though not focused on romance, does have a couple of very sweet relationships. Tegan develops a crush on a Abdi, a musically-gifted, clever boy from Djibouti. Watching them slowly overcome the difficulties their situations (he's a thirdie - from the third world - and she's the Living Dead Girl) place on a relationship is adorable. I also really love Joph and Bethari, and I hope those girls can work out their issues and get back together.

      The only thing missing from the novel for me were high enough stakes. There's some action and they are in danger, but, for whatever reason, they never felt especially imperilled. Perhaps this is due to the lack of death toll in the novel, or the narrative device whereby the entirety of the book is a broadcast being issued live by Tegan, since that means she survives to the end. In the sequel, I hope to see more from the dystopian government, so that I can really feel scared for Tegan and her friends.

      Karen Healey was unknown to me prior to When We Wake, but I will definitely be reading more of her books, including the sequel to this novel. When We Wake is a must-read for Beatles fans and for those who enjoy dystopian stories that don't focus entirely on romance.
    • 4/5
      Kim's BookstackImagine that you are like any other teenage girl - you are worried about that new cute guy in your life, the kisses you shared with him and your future relationship, your best friend feeling left out and of course, school and your mom. Normal until you attend a political rally and are shot and killed when a sniper's bullet goes awry. End of story? In When We Wake, it is just the beginning. Tegan wakes up 100 years later thanks to her signing her permission for organ donation and a special crynogenics program that the government has sponsored. Everything and everyone she knows is dead and gone, including that new boyfriend. Tegan lives with one of the scientists and tries to fit in but she is the object of media attention and soon nagging questions begin to fester. Who is in charge of this program and why. Her new friends could pay the price for all their snooping and soon they are all immersed in something much bigger and deadlier than they could imagine. Fast paced futuristic thriller that asks the tough questions of what is moral, when is your body not yours anymore and offers some interesting for the caretaking of the planet in the future. It is Bourne Identity crossed with Beth Revis's Across the Universe and it is only book one.
    • 4/5
      A real possibility for class set or textbook. girl wakes in the future after being cryonically frozen. Topics include australian history, climate change, role of the media,tolerance, religion, migrant policy, third world poverty
    • 3/5
      Certainly a different read. A young girl is killed during an assassination attempt on the prime minister. She is revived and frozen, only to be awakened 100 years later. She is told she is the first successful revival. She was the test to bring back dead soldier. As Tegan explores her new world, she begins to question the ideal of bringing back dead soldiers. She enlists the help of her new friends in the investigation and all their lives are put in danger. I enjoyed the book, I thought there were some rushed scenes. The ending is all up in the air. But it was still a good read.
    • 3/5
      Tegan lives in future Australia. Her main concerns are her music, activism, and her new boyfriend--until she's killed at an environmentalist rally. She wakes up a hundred years even further into the future, the first successful cryogenic revival of an army project. Some things are better: composting, recycling, and water saving are commonplace, while racism, homophobia, and transphobia are mostly gone. Plus, computers are teensy! Some things are worse: climate change has escalated, and resource disparities are increasing. And many things remain the same: developing nations still lack patented medicines, anti-immigration sentiment has risen, and the public is still only fleetingly interested in injustice.

      After Tegan discovers a terrible scheme, she and her new friends have to somehow make it public, all while dodging religious extremists and the Australian army. I thought I would like this more than I did. There were too many plot contrivances--I'm supposed to believe a fourteen year old kid is offered a scholarship and thinks, "I'll start smuggling patented medicines through there"? And then is actually able to find all the contacts necessary to do that, without ever having been in Australia before? Tegan takes out various soldiers ridiculously easily. And worst of all, the Big Terribad Scheme that Tegan discovers is just...silly. The government has apparently been killing refugees and stashing them away so they can send them all into space to colonize new planets. That is the dumbest, most unlikely plan I have ever heard of. I believe a government would kill camps full of refugees. I believe a government could create a secret colony ship. But I do not believe they would give random, physically weak (some are children, and all were nearly starved) refugees first crack at a brand new planet. Why wouldn't they send scientists, farmers, soldiers, people who are physically and mentally trained, ready to colonize, and willing to send resources back to Australia? Sending a ship full of non-Australians that you've murdered sounds like the very WORST plan.
    • 4/5
      Another good one from Karen Healey, though I'm afraid I liked this a bit less well than her first two books. The characters here were likeable and interesting, but with the exception of Tegan felt a bit more sketchily drawn than the characters in Healey's other books -- this one is much more plot-centric, focusing on the huge, worldwide issues that the characters become entangled in. It was all very well-done and I'd recommend the book without reservation, but I personally prefer mythology-themed fantasy to Big Epic Environmental Dystopia With Grim Prospects.
    • 4/5
      Tegan died from a stray bullet at a political rally, and woke up a hundred years later. Her body had been frozen and donated to science, and now science has advanced far enough to make such feats of cryogenics possible. Tegan is part of a high-profile government project. She's told that discoveries related to her reawakening will be used to help wounded military, and as the daughter of a fallen serviceman, she's glad to be part of that effort. The problem is, Tegan isn't being told the truth about the project -- and when she goes poking around to learn more, she could put herself and the few new friends she's made in terrible danger.This is a fast-paced story with a good balance of action and depth. Some readers may find the ending a little unsatisfactory, but it is the beginning of a series, so any dangling threads should be picked up in the next book.
    • 4/5
      Imagine waking up 100 years from now; the boy you loved has had an entire life without you and has died, your parents are long gone, the house you grew up in probably doesn't even exist anymore, the language and slang of your youth has become old school, and everything you do feels unfamiliar. That's the existence Tegan Oglietti starts to live when she is brought back to life in 2027, 100 years after she died. She finds out that she has signed away any rights she thought she had, and she is the property of the government. Worse then that, they clearly have a plan for her, and it is not something she wants for herself. Tegan finds friends and romance where she doesn't expect it, but also finds out that what she was told was her purpose is not really the truth. Tegan is one of those take no prisoner kind of girls, and you'll be cheering for her throughout the entire tale.
    • 4/5
      Cool, original futuristic story. Can't wait for While We Run!
    • 3/5
      started off well, become somewhat repetitive halfway through. I didn't find it a gripping read as there were a lot of different idea streams that began, but left a lot to the readers imagination to create and finish.
    • 4/5
      This reminds me of Jo Walton's Farthing series in the way that it depicts a horrible, horrible, world which our current world is desperately attempting to emulate.
    • 3/5
      Plot: 3 stars
      Characters: 3 1/2 stars
      Style: 3 1/2 stars
      Pace: 3 stars

      The style on this one is strange, but at least it kept it from being too boring. It would have been a slogfest otherwise. It was predictable, but at least the romance was handled well.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this a lot, and the few things I quibbled with are more a matter of wanting the author to have written a slightly different book rather than problems with the story itself. Protagonist Tegan is a believable, engaging character, and I liked all her friends too. The author's also a genius with all sorts of believable details about the future that Tegan wakes up in (100 years ahead of her original present, which is some 25 years ahead of ours). I particularly liked the invasive hummingbird-like reporters' devices and the loud spam from her computer that has to be silenced by verbally stating that she asserts her rights "as outlined in the Advertising-Free Zones Act of 2098." Too too likely, I'm afraid!

      But the putative reason Tegan's awakened 100 years in her future brings me to my first quibble. Theoretically she's been revived as part of a project aiming to bring soldiers killed in battle back to life. Given the globally warmed up, overpopulated world Tegan wakes up in, I just couldn't buy that there'd be this huge stream of money devoted to trying to revive soldiers (especially when you think of all the damage to limbs and organs that goes on when most soldiers die). And, of course, that's not the real reason for the research, as Tegan and her friends discover. But would the government and taxpayers even buy the fake story?

      Ah well, maybe in fact they would. Maybe all the powerful folks are in on the secret truth. (Are you wanting to know what it is? It's an ark spaceship project (because the powers that be believe that humans are doomed to be victims of a soon-to-happen extinction event tied to the melting of the Antarctic ice cap), with slave laborers--drawn from the detention camps for refugees--to be frozen for the long space journey and then revived when at last a habitable planet is discovered. I think it's neat, from a storytelling point of view, that this ties in with Australia's European settlement history, but I dislike the trope of Earth-is-doomed-and-we-must-abandon it.)

      Much more to my liking is a plot thread that gets revealed about two-thirds of the way through the book, one involving Tegan's thirdie (i.e., from a Third World country) friend Abdi and Joph, a prodigy student when it comes to chemistry who's become--so it appears--a druggie who samples her own wares. But in fact something much more interesting and heroic is going on. Really Joph is illegally manufacturing generic versions of lifesaving drugs that Abdi is smuggling back to his home country of Djibouti. I would love for the whole story to revolve around this, as it's a real-world problem I really care about and as I think there's plenty of room for heroics and adventure with that plot thread. Maybe in a sequel!

      Another thing I liked, which comes with an attached quibble, is the mainly understated presence of religion in the story. Tegan is Roman Catholic; her boyfriend in her original time was Muslim, as is Abdi and another of Tegan's friends, Bethari. Tegan's faith is an unproblematized part of her life and an unremarked-on part of Abdi and Bethari's life, and that was salutary. There's also a back-to-the Earth Christian offshoot cult in Tegan's new present that thinks she's an abomination (as only God should raise the dead) and would like her to commit suicide. This initially occasioned much eye rolling on my part, but I was won over as the story went along--the cult's presence in the story ends up being somewhat more nuanced than it originally seems. What I had more trouble with was Tegan's own doubt about the state of her soul. It didn't seem to tie in to any other part of the story--well, except the cult bit, but since Tegan is emphatically committed to staying alive, that's not really relevant--and I just wasn't sure what it was doing in the story. Tegan's sense of loss and grief over her family and friends felt more real and was more connected with the overall story, as it related to how she interacted with the people she had to establish relationships with in her new present.

      Similarly--and with no quibbles--I loved that Tegan unabashedly loves her mother and brother, as well as her deceased father, and that in her new present, she really loves Marie, her stand-in mother figure. Marie was a very interesting character in a complicated position, and I was impressed with her portrayal. All in all, I thought Healy did an excellent job creating characters with depth. Quibbles aside, I really enjoyed When We Wake and look forward to reading more about Tegan, Abdi, Bethari, and Joph.
    • 4/5
      3.75 starsIn 2027, when Tegan dies, she is only 16-years old. And when she awakes, it’s one hundred years later! Tegan just wants to try to live a normal life (or as normal as possible, considering she has to adapt to a new culture, and she is mourning the loss of everyone she knew), but of course, they want to study her, as she is the first to wake up in this study. Reporters also want to get their hands on her.I really liked this; however, there was one thing that was quite unrealistic, I thought, very soon after Tegan woke up. The storyline moved forward in time quite quickly, but then, YA books often do. There is some discussion of social and political issues, and the most obvious change is the climate, and how people have had to adapt, and the effect those changes have had on people and countries. I actually liked how it ended. It left it open for a sequel (and there is one), but I feel like, even with the unanswered questions at the end, it could have ended there. I’m not sure why I’m ok with leaving those questions unanswered, but of course, since there is another book, I will plan to read it and continue the story.
    • 2/5
      This book never really grabbed my attention. At times it became bogged down in political and social issues, and I found the way Tegan directly addressed the reader annoying. Also, the setting was supposed to be one hundred years into the future, but the technology didn't feel like it. I don't think the author had the imagination to create technology that advanced.
    • 4/5
      Oh, I do love me my Karen Healey. I’ve been super-excited for We Wake since it was announced, even without knowing what it was about aside from “It’s got Sleeping Beauty and the Beatles and THE FUTURE.” (Mainly because I wanted MOAR KAREN HEALEY BOOKS.)

      Unlike the dozens of followers in Suzanne Collins’s dystopic wake, When We Wake is a true sci-fi YA novel. Yes, there’s government conspiracies and potentially apocalyptic events at play, but this world in 2128 is a lot more plausible than the majority of YA dystopias out there. (Let’s be honest; true science fiction is rare in YA right now.) Global warming does contribute to the destruction of the earth, but it feels like this could be the direction we’re headed in. Not to mention, it’s set up as being something that has evolved over time; there’s no unspecific event that we’re told about and then conveniently handwaved because it doesn’t have anything to do with the plot.

      And even the world that Tegan wakes up to is more plausible. While equality in religion and love has become the norm and accepted, racism is still a major problem. Hell, Tegan finds this out the hard way when she first meets Abdi and the first thing out of her mouth, “You look just like my ex-boyfriend!” And realizes what she just said. Even aside from social gaffes, there’s a heavy discussion of racism that plays into the larger plot. Again, I love this—it feels more realistic than any other futuristic YA world that I’ve read.

      The one thing that I love about Karen Healey’s work in general is that her characters are extremely realistic. Not only does she have a wide variety of characters in her works (When We Wake includes a lesbian Muslim and her trans*woman drug dealer ex), but she makes them feel realistic but having them screw up. The aforementioned incident with Tegan and Abdi, for example. A lesser writer would probably haven’t brought up the fact that Tegan is called out for sounding racist; even when Bethari offers to explain, Tegan says that, no it’s her screw-up and she’ll own up to it. It’s a character trait that I’ve seen in every one of her books, and I actually really like that Healey takes the time to address the fact that, even people like Tegan who want to make the world better will still screw up…but they’re going to own up to their screw ups.

      And Tegan is just normal. Again, it’s extremely refreshing to pick up a futuristic book and find a heroine who’s not super-special. Even Tegan’s surviving the cryosis isn’t the result of some super-rare gene her father’s bloodline has and that’s why she could be unfrozen and that’s why she’s the key to this whole evil plot. Nope, the reason for Tegan’s survival is that she was in the wrong place and the right time. But that aside, I loved that Tegan is a normal, average girl who’s not boring. She says that “Everyone else I know is extraordinary, and I’m not,” and I liked that honesty. I also love that she is passionate about doing good and trying to save the world, even if it’s just her and her friends and the Beatles. (And she’s a Ringo fangirl. Yes.) Also, Tegan’s religious but not…fundamentalist or overbearing. It ‘s something that comforts Tegan—she doesn’t have a huge existential crisis about her soul or who she is. That is touched on, especially once the Inheritors of the Earth get involved, but as for Tegan herself, I liked having a main character who did feel like her faith was important. (Tangent, there’s a throwaway line about how the USA has been torn apart by fundamentalist wars. I don’t know whether I ought to laugh at that or be worried.) I love Tegan, she’s relatable and normal, but I’m never bored by her.

      However, yet again, my favorite characters are the side characters. I love Bethari. The first moment when she and Tegan first meet, I was afraid that Bethari was going to be frosty, but once Tegan broke the ice, I immediately fell in love with her. She’s funny and fun and resourceful; and again, a human being who messes up. Bethari has a lot of love for her friends and she wants everyone to succeed and be happy at what they do. I loved that she still cares a lot for Joph, and that she worries about her ex. And the scene when Joph reveals what she’s been doing the whole time with her drug research and accuses Bethari of casting her as an atypical addict—ugh, my heart. It’s a little sad that Bethari and Joph do get dropped from the plot suddenly—there are good reasons for it happening, so I’m not too upset by it, but still. I want more. (Methinks the sequel, currently codenamed “Cheerbaby Goes to State” will focus on Bethari. Yes? Yes?)

      Abdi. *swoon* I—oh my. Look, from the description, he sounds hot, so yes. (He’s legal, right? Yes I have feelings about these things for fictional characters.) I love that despite Tegan’s initial screw-up, Abdi’s ready to help Tegan out in a grueling music class and then they start bonding over Beatles songs. (It’s a really sweet moment whenever he sends her the Ringo All-Star Band stuff.) I love that the two of them don’t butt heads, and despite Abdi’s reservations about being visibly friends, he’s still willing to help Tegan and be friendly with her. And I understand his reasons for not bowing to everyone’s expectations and being this famous singer and building on that; instead, Abdi wants to do good in the world, and even if that means going through shady means. Because it’s the only way he can.

      Tegan’s guardian Marie is also really well-done—I liked that she is eager to take Tegan home and help her adjust to 22nd century living. I liked that she immediately takes to being a guardian figure and genuinely wants to protect Tegan. Zaneisha is a little too cold for me to warm up to, but I liked her and Tegan’s interactions, even if most of them are Tegan trying to break Zaneisha’s exterior expression. I even really liked that we get a good idea of Tegan’s 21st century friends, Alex and Dalmar, even though they only appeared in one chapter and a flashback.

      While there’s really not much to the plot, I do like the situation that’s presented isn’t black and white. The government has its reasons for developing a starship, except the means to populate other planets isn’t as ethical as everyone would like. The Inheritors of the Earth seem a little more cartoonish in their plans, but I like that not all of them are treated like horrible people who just want Tegan to kill herself.

      Also, about the plot—it’s set up in the beginning that Tegan is narrating a broadcast to reveal the truth. And then, halfway through, she stops and says “Okay, listen we have to move. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” While it did take me out of the narrative for a bit, it was more because I’ve never seen that happen. Most stories set up like one straight long narrative don’t acknowledge that relating everything takes a long time, and I liked that it’s acknowledged here. And while the main plot of the book is wrapped up with the discovery of the starships and Tegan revealing everything, it still ends on a bit of a cliffhanger. Yes, there’s a proper ending, but Tegan (and Abdi and Bethari and Joph)’s fates are left in the air. Other than that, I really couldn’t get into some of the slang Healey uses in the future. I do like that some of it sounds like a blending of cultures, like the word “Geya” as a greeting. Others…not so much. (“Ontedy.” I had to laugh because I know exactly where Healey got it.)

      Despite those issues, I still enjoyed the hell out of this book. I’ve made it no secret that Karen Healey is one of my favorite YA authors and I do think she’s criminally ignored on this side of the Pacific. (This is why I plan on shoving this book to as many people possible at work.) When We Wake is another great book by her, and the knowledge that there is going to be a sequel makes me both happy and impatient.
    • 4/5
      Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales.Quick & Dirty: Very interesting take on a Sci-Fi novel. It was filled with good action, fun characters and a interesting plot.Opening Sentence: My name is Tegan Oglietti.The Review: Tegan Oglietti is 16 years old and she can’t be happier. She has an amazing best friend, a wonderful family and the boy she has been in love with for years finally asked her out. Then Tegan dies. She wakes up and it is 100 years later. All of her family and friends have passed away and she is being given a second chance at life. When she was killed her body was donated to science and they used her for a new experiment they were working on. They were able to preserve her body and repair all the damage that had been done to it, and when she was ready they woke her up.The year is now 2127 and everything has changed. She is in Australia and the world is worse off than it was before. The weather has turned so warm that there is a huge water shortage and there are very strict migration laws that make it so no one can come where they aren’t welcomed. Some countries have tried to upgrade to be more eco-friendly but it’s still not enough. With bringing Tegan back to life they are hoping to help soldiers killed in action, at least that is what they tell Tegan. She is automatically famous because she is the only person to have survived the experiment so far. She wants to try and live as normal life as possible, but she soon discovers that there is more to the experiment than she was told. She needs to find out the truth and survive long enough to tell the world.I really enjoyed Tegan’s character. She is witty and cute. She loves the Beatles with a passion and is a pretty good musician. She misses her past life and all those in it, but she realizes that she can’t live in the past. She tries to make a difference in the world that she is in now, and she knows that those she has lost would be proud of her. She makes some great new friends and even falls for a new boy while on this wild adventure to find where she fits in this new life.Abdi is one of the lucky people to get a visa to come to school in Australia. He will only be able to stay until he finishes school, then he will have to go back to his own country. He is treated poorly by many since most people don’t think he belongs there. Tegan meets him on her first day of school and accidentally confuses him with her boyfriend from before. He is very cold towards her at first but eventually they become friends. Of course Tegan can’t help but fall for Abdi, but right now with everything going on, a new relationship isn’t really ideal.I really enjoyed this book. I thought that the idea was fresh and interesting. I really liked the characters and I thought that they were well developed. There were times when the writing confused me a little bit, but nothing too bad. I felt that the plot was pretty predictable, but I still enjoyed it. The book flowed nicely and I was captivated pretty much from the beginning. The ending was left very open, but I felt that everything was tied up pretty nicely. I would highly recommend this book to anyone that enjoys YA Sci-fi. I think you would really enjoy it.Notable Scene:I don’t remember if it hurt.There are questions I get asked a lot, in therapy, at school, and even at the compound, when the girls loosened up enough to talk to me. What do you remember? What did you see? How did it feel?I’ll tell you the whole story. Even the embarrassing parts, even the bits where I behave like an enormous loser.But I can’t tell you if there was any pain.The truth is, it all stops with us pouring out of Parliament Station and up the steep steps, with Dalmar’s arm around my shoulders and Alex grinning at how cozy we were together. I was thinking of finding a quiet place to kiss Dalmar, and wondering whether Alex could be talked into letting me do some free-running practice before we broke into whatever abandoned hulk she wanted to explore. I was thinking about whetherOwen might bring me something back from Tasmania, and if Mum might be whipping up my favorite raspberry macarons, and if Dad would be proud of what I was doing today.And then it all stops. The final memory of my first life is a freeze-frame of me leaning against Dalmar on the way up the steps.FTC Advisory: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers/Hachette Book Group provided me with a copy of When We Wake. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.
    • 2/5
      Review courtesy of All Things Urban FantasyWHEN WE WAKE is a very political book, and, to a lesser degree, a very religious book. Those aren’t necessarily bad things. But when the politics and religion are preachy, it becomes much harder to enjoy the story hiding underneath.And the story underneath is intriguing, or at least the premise is. A girl who is brought back to life a hundred years after she dies must learn to adapt to a hostile and unfamiliar world. Everything from technology to language has changed to the point that it’s almost unrecognizable. Initially, Teegan was likeable enough with her Beatles obsession and free running hobby, but she ended up making a few too many temper driven choices that just struck me as stupid–though not as stupid as almost every adult in this book.The problem arises when WHEN WE WAKE attempts to tackle almost every single potentially polarizing issue dividing people today: hyper environmentalism, vegetarianism, racism, homosexuality, sex change operations, Islam, Christianity, Roman Catholicism, cults, drugs, immigration, totalitarianism, and so many more. The author’s position on all this issues comes across loud and clear. The characters who hold opposing viewpoints are complete villains. The problem isn’t always the issues themselves, which I think most of us would agree the way they are portrayed, it’s just so heavy handed and relentless. The story, such as it was, felt like it was just a series of events strung together in order for the author to get on her soapbox.I had a hard time finishing this one. Instead of raising issues and letting readers think for themselves, only one position is presented as acceptable in WHEN WE WAKE, not because it is morally or intellectually more tenable (even when it is) but because the opposing view is a caricature/straw man version of itself. Regardless of your political and religious ideologies, it struck me as deeply disrespectful to lampoon and deride opposing viewpoints as thoroughly and overwhelmingly as this book does. There is clearly a sequel planned based on the unresolved ending, WHEN WE RUN, but I won’t be reading it.Sexual Content:Kissing