The Wake Trilogy

The Wake Trilogy is a series of young adult books by Lisa McMann. The three books in the series are Wake, Fade, and Gone.

Janie Hannagan is a dream-catcher. She can enter people's dreams as they sleep--and not by choice. Whenever someone near her is asleep, she's sucked in. And she's seen lots of dreams in her lifetime.

One day, however, she enters a nightmare. Working with Cabel, a boy with nightmares of his own, and the police, she attempts to find the cause of sinister happenings around her town. Janie feels happy to help people. But things can't always go as planned, and dream-catching comes with a terrible price...

These books contain examples of:

• Alpha Bitch: Melinda.
• Anachronic Order: The first book.
• Based on a Dream: The author based the series on a dream she had of entering her husband's dreams.
• Big Eater: Janie is forced to be one as dream-hopping takes its toll on her caloric intake.
• Bittersweet Ending: Janie gets her mother to an Al-Anon meeting, reconciled with her father, and chooses to be with Cabel and her friends and family...but she'll still go blind and have crippled hands.
• Blessed with Suck: Dream-catchers' powers activate automatically when in the presence of someone who's asleep, reduces their caloric intake, destroys the functionality of their hands at around 35 years old, and renders them blind before age 30. Because of this it is recommended they do not drive.
• But Now I Must Go: Mrs. Stubin leaves Janie after she learns what she has to know.
• Cast From Hit Points: Dream-hopping takes a toll on Janie's strength, burning up her calories and energy.
• Cool Old Lady: Mrs. Stubin, even post-mortem.
• Daddy Had a Good Reason For Abandoning You: For one thing, Janie's father didn't know her mother was pregnant. And second, he was a dream-catcher too.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Cabel's.
• Dead Person Conversation: Dream-catchers can do this.
• Diary: Chapters in Wake are written like diary entries.
• Disappeared Dad: He appears in Gone.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The Captain of the police force is called just that.
• Genre Shift: The third book has no villain, unlike the first two, and is more introspective and personal.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Janie worries for Cabel's happiness.
• In Medias Res
• In the Blood: Dream-catching is hereditary.
• Loners Are Freaks
• The Mentor: Mrs. Stubin, post-mortem.
• A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read
• My Skull Runneth Over: This happens to people who can dream-catch and don't.
• Nightmare Sequence: Quite a few.
• Police Are Useless: Averted.
• Power At a Price: And how! Dream-catchers' powers reduce their caloric intakes, destroy the functionality of their hands at around 35 years old, and render them blind before age 30.. And in the third book, it's revealed if you don't use the power, it builds up and destroys your brain.
• Power Incontinence
• Sadistic Choice: Janie's situation in the third book, between blindness and crippled hands and total isolation until it literally destroys her brain.
  • Mrs. Stubin and her father both took one of the paths. It didn't end well for either of them.
• Take a Third Option: Subverted. Janie can't.
• Talking in Your Dreams
• Undercover Cop Reveal: Cabel.