Review - THOSE THAT WAKE by Jesse Karp

Hardcover ; 336 pages
Publisher : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication Date: 03/21/2011
ISBN-13- 9780547553115

New York City’s spirit has been crushed. People walk the streets with their heads down, withdrawing from one another and into the cold comfort of technology. Teenagers Mal and Laura have grown up in this reality. They’ve never met. Seemingly, they never will.

But on the same day Mal learns his brother has disappeared, Laura discovers her parents have forgotten her. Both begin a search for their families that leads them to the same truth: someone or something has wiped the teens from the memories of every person they have ever known. Thrown together, Mal and Laura must find common ground as they attempt to reclaim their pasts.

I read this as a review galley and had no idea what to expect. The cover is gloomy and depressing and judging by cover alone it looked like it was right up my street. There wasn't a lot to go on, but the blurb led me to believe it might be on the dystopian side so I jumped at the chance to give it a go. This is a debut title from Mr Karp so I went into it with an open mind and no high hopes...

It's the kind of book that makes you take a step back and think. It seems to be a cautionary tale and I couldn't help but compare the world I was reading about and our own that I live in. How many gadgets and electronic devices do you use on a daily basis? How quickly would you fall apart without them? Yeah. Me too.

This is a very hard book to pigeon-hole. It's a dystopian, dark fantasy, horror story with liberal doses of science fiction and weirdness thrown in.

From literally the first few pages I was grabbed by the scruff of the neck and flung into the story. As mentioned above I am the slowest reader. Usually. I read this whole book, all 300+ pages of it, in a few hours and could not put it down.

I'm a huge dystopian fan, and I liked that this book had that feel to it. In fact, I thought it was purely dystopian at the beginning. As I read on though, things started to take on a menacing air and the horror started to seep in. However, it's not scary blood and gore type horror it's more of a sinister background horror that you only see glimpses of.

The character development is great and I really felt the terror that was bubbling just underneath the surface for each person as their story unfolded. I really felt like I knew these people. I cared about what happened to them and had my fingers crossed that things would work out for them. Likewise the world building is full and realised. I got a real feel for how hopeless and lost everything was. It all seemed dark and grey and dismal but by seeing it through the eyes of Mal, Laura, Mike and Remak I was hopeful that solutions were just on the horizon if only they could piece together the puzzle. Their characters grew right before my eyes and even Mike (who I wasn't that fond of for most of the story) developed a depth of character that I hadn't seen in the beginning.

I was left guessing all the way through the story. Some new piece of info would be shared and I would think "Ah ha! That's what's behind it all. I bet I know what's coming...." Only to be foiled by another piece of info and taken back to square one.

Now then, the ending, the conclusion and the reveal of all... I have no clue what the hell happened there at the end. Not. A. Clue. It all sort of whooshed over my head and I had a hard time understanding what was said, far less what was happening. I think that has more to do with me than with the story though. The ending is really, really complex and to stop and re-read passages over and over again until I got it would have torn me out of the story so I just trusted that Mr Karp knew what he was on about and took things on trust. (*whispers* In truth though Jesse, I was completed confused there at the end). Better just to surrender to it and let things unfold.

The only little niggle I have with any of it was that it felt a little preachy at the end. A little bit... The internet and all things globally interactive seem to put us in a great position to interact with each other and broaden our horizons, but actually the world is shrinking and we're becoming even more isolated than when we started. Carry on the way we're going in this age of the internet and all hell will break loose. I get it.

This title is billed for ages 12+ but I think it may hold more appeal for a slightly older audience.