Review: Fade by Lisa Mcmann

Book Description (from Barnes & Noble):

For Janie and Cabel, real life is getting tougher than the dreams. They’re just trying to carve out a little (secret) time together, but no such luck.

Disturbing things are happening at Fieldridge High, yet nobody’s talking. When Janie taps into a classmate’s violent nightmares, the case finally breaks open – but nothing goes as planned. Not even close. Janie’s in way over her head, and Cabel’s shocking behavior has grave consequences for them both.

Worse yet, Janie learns the truth about herself and her ability – and it’s bleak. Seriously, brutally bleak. Not only is her fate as a dream catcher sealed, but what’s to come is way darker than she’d feared…

Source: Won at Fallen Arcangel! Thanks Rebecca and Jenn!

My Thoughts:

Janie is working undercover, as Cabel's partner in Fieldridge High, using her talent as a dream catcher to help solve crimes. When Captain calls them to her office and gives them their next assignment, Janie is placed in the seductive seat of a bait and Cabel, worried as ever for Janie, rides an emotional rollercoaster that keeps thrusting them to the ground.

Things That I Love About Fade:

1. The Writing

Lisa Mcmann takes me on a fast ride with her simplified way of story-telling. But weaved within this simplicity is a face of description that satisfies me with just enough detail. There's something dramatic and exxpressive with it. The date and time also adds a sense of swiftness with the progress of the story, as well as emphasis on certain parts.

"He kisses her.
She kisses him.
They kiss."

- my favorite paragraph in Fade, p. 29

2. Dreams

I've always been interested in dreams. Seeing them via Janie is a great experience. The bizarre and sometimes disturbing quality of the dreams makes me curious, makes me review in my head the dream psychology lessons I took last year and try to connect the happenings in the dream to the possible struggle of the dreamer. Aside from this, the dreams are also pieces of the story itself, revealing bits of essential information.

3. The Catcher and The Lover

Janie and Cabel are both interesting characters with pasts that are flavored with pain, negligence and aloneness. And now that they've found each other, it's like they have found the perfect piece with which to make themselves whole. Love blossoms not without thorns. They struggle with their newfound love.
Janie-Cabel scenes are simply wonderful. Sometimes subtle. Sometimes blasting with emotion.

4. The Assignment

Janie's assignment is both exciting and scary. Dream surfing for any clues related to student-teacher dreams is hard work, especially if she's in a school where everyone is dreaming about sexual fantasies with other students. Tiring and draining. But in one incident, she finds a clue, not in a dream though but in real life. In front of her. Making the hairs at the back of her next stand in fright. As Janie progresses with the undercover work, things get more and more dangerous with every step she takes with the sexual predator himself.


Fade is a thrilling page-turner that will thrust the readers into dreams and pull them out just in time to see the struggle of Janie as a student, as an undercover and as a dream catcher. Hypnotic and gripping, Fade will satisfy readers with dreams and nightmares of life.

Rating: