The story starts off just where the last one ended, and boy am I glad for that! I love series books that don't skip a whole lot and make you wonder what happened between one book and the next.
Fade starts of with finishing up the whole drug bust thing from Wake, and then moves right into the next case for Janie and Cabel ( they are working for the police). Of course I was on Cabel's side with not wanting Janie to get mixed up with this case, but then I really thought about it and figured that if something like that was going on at my daughter's school, I would want someone there to try and put an end to it.
And really, I won't play the naive parent and pretend that this sort of thing doesn't happen, I know it does, and that Mrs. McMann brought it to light in this book is a huge plus from my end!
Janie is still slipping into others' dreams and she is slowly learning to bring herself out of them. Although she has trouble and can't seem to get out of the nightmares. While working the case of the perv teachers, Janie is given the case files of the previous dream catcher, Miss Stubin; and while reading them she learns more than she wanted to.
As the blurb stated on goodreads, Cabel and Janie are together, but for their undercover work to actually work they have to keep everything a secret. So while they do get to spend some time together, they can't been seen together in public, so everything goes on behind the closed doors of Cabel's house.
Janie jumps right in with the case and very quickly figures out which teacher is her target. That part kinda irked me, I mean heck it took like a week if that for her to get the teacher to make a move, and really; you would like to think that the "adult" would take more time. Anyway, Janie sets it up to be alone with him just to make sure and once she has her confirmation she moves forward and gets everyone in that class ready for the party at the teacher's house ( big red flag there)!! With the party approaching, Cable is getting kinda freaked out, with good reason. While Janie feels that everything will be ok and that nothing will happen to her, she still has a few doubts.
When the party day is there, Janie does everything like she is supposed to, no mysterious drinks, doesn't leave her drink unattended and won't take anything from anyone. But things still go bad for Janie, and while not everything is in great detail, you get enough to know what is going on.
After the party, and everything that goes down; Janie wakes up in the hospital; yeah, you guessed it, she ended up getting drugged anyway. She doesn't really remember what happened at first and even when she does, she doesn't have all the details; which in itself is a good and bad thing. Cabel has a hard time dealing with it and again, they aren't speaking; after he asks for a break.During the break, Janie is lost and confused as to why he would do this to her, and in a sense I feel that she starts to blame herself. With the extra time on her hands she sits down to read the "journal" that Miss Stubin left behind and learns a few things about being a dream catcher, though they aren't really what she wants to know. ANd once she realizes exactly what will happen to her, and a rough time frame in which to expect it, she kinda breaks down.
The story starts to wrap up pretty quickly, all the teachers involved at the party are arrested, and suspended without pay from the school. Cabel and Janie make up as only they can, Janie tells Cabel what to expect with the dream catching and then they are graduating. I'm so glad that I have the next and final book Gone already and can't wait to start reading it. ( )

You know how sometimes when you start a book (or series) and you get a little drop in your stomach that seems to grow worse with each page turned? I kind of have that feeling for the Wake series. Even the parts which are 'good' moments for Janie are tainted with the future knowledge that things can get worse. And this is before we find out (or Janie acknowledges what readers might have guessed at) what the future has for Janie and her power as a Dream-Catcher.

For Janie, what's happening to her isn't as apparent as it is to others (Cabel and the reader, even the Captain) and that's understandable. She's falling into worse nightmares and where as before she just fought to get out of them, now she feels as if she must help the person and the defeat she feels when she can't is crushing. These aren't random people to her anymore, they might just be classmates, but Janie wants to help them. She wants to give them peace of mind.

The menace in this book is frightening in a very real world sense. McMann is able to slowly build the threat--we learn as Janie learns about the crimes being committed or the crime about to be committed. Cabel's tenseness is also felt as he struggles to both protect Janie and give her freedom. As their feelings grow deeper and they both take more risks I worried for them.

The third book, Gone, is due out in February of 2010-sooo far away! I'm hesitant though to want to read it since the dropping sensation I felt since the first book has grown immensely and there isn't much to recommend that the ending will be anything but bittersweet. ( )

Janie Hannegan is back dreamcatching and fighting crime in this sequel to Wake. Janie is working with Cabel Sturmheller and Captain Komisky of the police department again and this time the crime is a sexual predator teaching in the high school. Miss Martha Stubin is dead and the Captain gives Janie Miss Stubin’s field notes and personal notebook so she can learn about her “gift.” Janie and Cabe are a couple but have not actually gone on a date yet because they can not let anyone know they know each other because of a drug case on which they both worked. You must read the first book because the back-story is not filled in effectively here and leaves lots of questions. Janie alludes to her mother’s alcoholism but offers nothing about her father. You find out Cabe was horribly abused by his father but you do not know where his mother is. There is mature language and situations and Janie and Cabe spend the night together often, making this book better for older teens. ( )

Outstanding read, more mature, but I don't believe it's too much for high school students. Recommended to and liked by my patrons.

For Janie and Cabel, real life is getting tougher than the dreams. They’re just trying to carve out a little (secret) time together, but no such luck.

Disturbing things are happening at Fieldridge High, yet nobody’s talking. When Janie taps into a classmate’s violent nightmares, the case finally breaks open - but nothing goes as planned. Not even close. Janie’s in way over her head, and Cabel’s shocking behavior has grave consequences for them both.

Worse yet, Janie learns the truth about herself and her ability - and it’s bleak. Seriously, brutally bleak. Not only is her fate as a dream catcher sealed, but what’s to come is way darker than she’d feared. ( )

If possible, better than the first book. We learn more about the nature of Janie's "gift" and what she (may) have coming in her not-too-distant future. Janie also learns more about how to control her dreamcatching, and also how to prepare herself physically for the ordeal that is dreamcatching.

Cabel is a help to Janie through most of the book, but still has his own demons to face. I love Captain's line, "Cabel has his own demons, and if he doesn't get on with killing them soon, I'm going to kick his ass." Thank god Janie has the two of them in her life. ( )