Review: One of the most phenomenal books I have read in a long long time!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 1, 2011
Wake by Abria Mattina was a surprise.  A very pleasant surprise.  I was not expecting to be confronted with such a phenomenal book.  This is not a run-of-the-mill cliche of girl falls in love with boy with cancer and they live happily ever after.  This is not a watered-down account of the physical and emotional side effects of cancer.  Wake will knock you off your seat and turn your world upside down and make you question and revisit what you hold true about cancer and the right to die.  It is a powerful account of what really goes inside the minds of young adults confronted with cancer.  It is a no-holds barred account of their lives, the interaction with their peers and their families and the doctors, how they adapt their dreams and perceptions to the hand that life has dealt them.Wake is written in two main voices:  Willa's and Jem's, with parallel accounts of the same situations as well as  of their feelings and struggles...usually by discussions going on in their heads at the same time.  Later in the book a third voice is added, Jem's sister.  And through each of these separate accounts we get a full picture, like pieces of a puzzle.The characters are very well developed and explored, Will and Jem are mature and complex young adults - both have already lived too much in their young lives.  They discover that they can love and be loved in spite of everything or because of everything, they explore sexuality while living with cancer, they discover the power of forgiveness and acceptance - of themselves and of each other.  They will make you laugh and they will definitely make you cry, the story is - after all - heart-wrenching at times.  They will show you the face of Hope and Endurance.  And you will fall a little bit in love with them, and  hope you'll  meet with them again in the future.I hope you will read Wake, it was definitely one of the most phenomenal books I have read in a long, long time.