“Fade” by Lisa McMann

248 pages

In “Wake,” the first book in this series (stop reading now if you haven’t read “Wake” and want to avoid spoilers!), we meet Janie, who can see other people’s dreams. In fact, it’s not just that she can see them—she’s involuntarily sucked into them whenever she’s in the proximity of someone who’s dreaming. For her while life, she’s just tried to get by without anyone discovering her secret or injuring someone when she blacks out to enter a dream. Then she meets Cabe, who makes her realize that she might be able to have a relationship despite her condition—and that she might be able to use her ability to enter dreams to help others. She begins to learn how to show people how to alter their dreams, giving them control of their nightmares, and she even starts working with a special team on the police department, using her ability to solve crimes. In “Fade,” Janie and Cade’s relationship is going strong and they’re working with the cops to bust a sexual predator at their high school. Things are looking great until Janie starts noticing some things happening to her body that might be related to her dream power.

I like the idea behind this series, but I haven’t enjoyed the stories themselves much. I feel like some parts of the plot are oversimplified while others are made more complicated than they need to be. The resolution of the sex predator storyline is really predictable, and the trouble between Janie and Cade seems forced and unnecessary, like the author just threw it in for dramatic effect. I don’t particularly like the characters, either. I don’t think I’ll be reading the rest of this series.