Those That Wake by Jesse Karp

Title: Those That Wake 
Author: Jesse Karp
Published: March 21, 2011 by Harcourt Children's Books
Pages: 340/Hardcover
Challenge: 2011 Debut Author Challenge
Source: e-ARC from publisher and NetGalley


Summary: 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.

Review: Those That Wake was quite a thought provoking book. It was an original look at the "dystopian" genre and had a very well written and original plot.

The first thing that drew my attention to this book was the plot. Most dystopian/futuristic books have some kind of controlling government or something along those lines. Those That Wake was not like that. It was futuristic, but it was more about where society's gone because of terrorism, technology, etc. This is what I would usually refer to as a "deep book" because there are lots of different pieces to it. 

Although all of these little pieces were explained and the loose ends were tied up nicely in the final chapter, I still had some trouble really grasping the concept of what was going on with the people and The Man In Suit. However, in the final few chapters Karp's writing really came through and helped me to realize what all was going on.

Karp's writing is one aspect of this book that was phenomenal. The writing was very smooth and flowed nicely, all while painting the most vivid picture in your head so you can really see what's going on in the story.

The characters were okay, but there wasn't anything really exceptional about them. They seemed more like accessories to the story instead of actually being a part of the story. This could have been because of the third person narration. I prefer first person just because I connect with the characters better that way, but the third person in Those That Wake helped to show what was going on in the plot overall instead of being limited to just one person's perspective.

Those That Wake was a wonderfully written debut. It had a very thought provoking plot and allowed for wonderful imagery through the writing. The characters didn't add much to the story, but they managed to move the story along and show the better side of human nature.