16 January, 2017

#BookReview :: Wake Me Up by Justin Bog

A small college town's populace is tied, complicitly, to the brutal, bullying, attack of a teenage boy by four of his classmates. Soon, heated rumors of a possible hate crime surface. Injustice is a hungry beast.

AN ADULTEROUS FATHER IS HAUNTED BY HIS PAST -- HIS WIFE LIVES HER LIFE IN A RIGID SHELL -- THEIR SON, UNTETHERED, DISCOVERS THE SECRET THEY SHARE WITH DEEPIKA, A VISITOR TO THEIR TOWN FROM NORTHERN INDIA.

"I see all of these people. They're living and breathing and acting on their basest impulses. I lay in a coma. They live. I hover over all of them, all at once. I can see my body, motionless, wired up, adrift. And I can find out why this happened. This is my story and I won't remember any of it when--if--I wake up. But I'll try to remember--I'll try damn hard."

MIDDLETON, MONTANA --OCTOBER 2004--AN ELECTION YEAR


While Chris Bullet remains unresponsive in a coma, his skull shattered, he floats above dire circumstance. In this phantom state, compelled to witness his past once more, the family's darkest secrets, hidden over generations, will be aired.


Ever since I discovered Justin Bog’s books via a Blog Tour company, I have really enjoyed his works. Though it may seem like an impossible task, he outdoes his previous books almost every single time. Wake Me Up was just as amazing as I had expected it to be.

Set in a fictional town ‘Wake Me Up’ tells the story of a fifteen year old boy and those around him. As a victim to a vicious hate crime involving bullies, Chris lands up in the hospital with a head injury. As he lies there in coma, trying not to succumb to the injuries, his life and of those around him unravels slowly. The main characters involved in the story are Chris’s parents and their friend Deepika. As the story unfolds, secrets are revealed and we see the best and worst of everyone.

The author weaves an interesting story where the characters and the plot complement each other completely. The characters were complex yet, made intimate to the readers with the buildup and the attention that each of them were given. Some characters were easy to like and empathize with throughout the book. Certain characters frustrated me and made me want to just physically shake them till they saw the light. It is a sign of how well the author has fleshed out his characters to bring out such emotions from the reader. The plot on the other hand is not a straightforward thing either. It has its own layers that peel off till we get to the core.

What surprises me is the author’s grasp of human psyche and the way his imagination works around it. The psychological side of his stories really gets me every time. The author’s language and narrative not only matches the strength of the plot and the characters, but they work towards taking the book to another level.

This was a roller coaster journey that I have taken on twice already, and like Bog’s other books, it is always on my re-read list.


Review Copy received from the Author

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