Review: Gone by Lisa McMann

Series: Dream Catcher, book #3

Published: February 9th 2010

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Details: Hardcover, 214 pages

My rating: 3/5

My summary:

The wake series is a great series, which I’m recommending everyone to read. The last installment however doesn’t quite live up to the standard of the two previous books. That being said, I still enjoyed it, and loved getting to know more about Janies options. As a whole though, the book left me wanting more, thus the lower grade.

See my full review here:

Synopsis:

Janie thought she knew what her future held. And she thought she’d made her peace with it. But she can’t handle dragging Cabel down with her.

She knows he will stay with her, despite what she sees in his dreams. He’s amazing. And she’s a train wreck. Janie sees only one way to give him the life he deserves: She has to disappear. And it’s going to kill them both.

Then a stranger enters her life — and everything unravels. The future Janie once faced now has an ominous twist, and her choices are more dire than she’d ever thought possible. She alone must decide between the lesser of two evils. And time is running out….

My thoughts:

I read this, worrying about why people generally didn’t like this final installment of the Wake series as much as the first two books. And I get it now, why people didn’t like it as much. That being said, I still enjoyed the book. It’s only when comparing it to the first two books that I find myself slightly disappointed.

In this book there is no assignment. Instead, the plot revolves around Janie trying to make a decision on how to live her life. In Fade, she got an insight to one of her options, explained by Mrs Stubin. In Gone, she learns about her father, and thus learns more about the other option. All of this is interesting, and I loved getting to know more about Janie’s parents and their past. I completely understood the pondering Janie was going through.

So why was it disappointing then?

I think I just expected more, especially seeing as this is the final installment. I wanted more information, more resolvement. I would have loved more interaction between Janie and her father, Mrs Stubin and even her mother. But mostly, I would have loved Cabel to be more part of the plot. I understand that Janie needed some time alone to sort things through. But we never really get an insight into what Cabel is thinking. If compared to the last two books, he’s not part of this one much at all. And frankly, I missed him. The relationship between these two, their interactions and conversations in the previous two books is what made this series so good. At least that’s how I feel.

The ending. Well, without saying too much, it is OK, and sort of fitting to the story, and most importantly it ended on a positive note. However, I still felt slightly dissatisfied. There were some unresolved issues left behind. I wish there was another book in the series to take care of those. I would have loved to know more of what happened next.

Unfortunately, this is the ending to the series, and I heard that McMann is not planning to write anything more in the Dream Catchers series. So this is it.

So would I recommend it?

Yes, because overall, it is great series. Original, great writing and with a wonderful love story. I’m glad I read it and I will definitely recommend it to others. Just make sure to lower your expectations somewhat for the last installment, as it is not as great as the first two.