Title: When We Wake [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: When We Wake (1st of 2 books)
Author: Karen Healey [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Sci-Fi, Afterlife
Year: 2013
Age: 14+
Stars: 4.5/5
Pros: Strong characters with distinctive voices. Lots of (intersectional) diversity. On-point social/environmental commentary perfectly integrated into the story. Fast pace.
Cons: A few familiar tropes/premises.
WARNING! One brutal death. Mass murder of children.
Will appeal to: Readers who care about the state our world is in. Readers who like a thrilling yet romantic adventure. Beatles fans.
Blurb: 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. 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. Tegan is the first government guinea pig to be cryonically frozen and successfully revived. 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? (Amazon excerpt)
Review: I'm ordinarily all for books without tropes, or employing as little of them as it's humanly possible - but sometimes an author can breath new life into an old concept, or make up for a familiar scenario with a great execution. Both things happen in When We Wake - hence my rating. (Also, for your information, this one is set in Australia, which is a nice change from your usual all-American scenario).
THE GOOD FIGHT
I was originally drawn to WWW because of its premise - a girl dying (well, almost), getting frozen and waking up a century later. Though I'm sure it's not a new concept, I've never seen it used in YA, and I was curious how it would pan out. But this book has a lot more to offer than a sci-fi/afterlife (or relife) crossover story. I was prepared for the huge SJW vibe, but got pleasantly surprised by the amount of diversity. The highest point of it is Bethari, a bisexual, hijabi teen hacker/aspiring journalist who befriends the main character Tegan. Oddly, while in 2128 Australia both Muslim and queer people seem to be perfectly integrated (and the government has gone to great lengths to minimise environmental problems, though a bit late), there's a cruel no-immigrant policy in place that struck too close to home, what with the current situation in Europe and the U.S. I loved how Tegan is not perfect - in her first life, she wasn't a true activist, but more like a follower of her friend Alex and her crush Dalmar - but she's inquisitive, and her heart is in the right place. She begins to question the real reason why she's been revived and its impact on society, while refusing to think of herself as an abomination, the way a certain religious cult does. She mourns her past life (that, for her, is only a day away), but embraces the perils that her new one hides under its facade if she doesn't stay down, and bravely fights for the right cause. [...]
