Mini Staff Review: When We Wake by Karen Healey

What will the world be like in 100 years? Odds are we won't be around to see it, but Australian teen Tegan Oglietti cares about the future she can't see. Okay, she might be slightly more interested in her new boyfriend, but she's hoping to make a difference in the world by attending a protest of government policies on the day she dies, shot by an inept sniper. A hundred years later, Tegan is revived in an experimental military procedure, the first human ever to return from cryogenic suspension. When We Wake by Karen Healey is the story of Tegan's attempt to adjust to the Australia of the 22nd century, where everyone she knows is dead. Some things about the future are better, but very little is familiar, and Tegan isn't sure who she can trust. Fast-paced and thought-provoking, When We Wake and its sequel, While We Run, will appeal to fans of dystopian fiction.

For a quieter, more romance centered dystopian novel, try For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund, a retelling of Jane Austen's Persuasion set in a future reeling from the effects of genetic modifications gone awry.

~Sarah, Adult Services