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Cover of When We Wake by Karen Healey

Book · Young Adult

When We Wake

by Karen Healey

300 pages · 2013

Honors

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About the book

'A gripping, human story set against the backdrop of a chillingly plausible future here.' - Sean Williams

'A stirring and century-spanning adventure story that vividly shows how the future is created by our mistakes, our triumphs, and our love.' - Scott Westerfeld

Sixteen-year-old Tegan is just like every other girl living in 2027 - she's happiest when playing the guitar, she's falling in love for the first time, and she's joining her friends to protest the wrongs of the world: environmental collapse, social discrimination, and political injustice. But on what should have been the best day of Tegan's life, she dies - and wakes up a hundred years in the future, locked in a government facility with no idea what happened.

Tegan is the first person to be cryonically frozen and successfully revived, which makes her an instant celebrity - though all she wants is to rebuild some semblance of a normal life ... including spending as much time as possible with musically gifted Abdi, even if he does seem to hate the sight of her. But the future isn't all she hoped it would be, and when appalling secrets come to light, Tegan must make a choice: Does she keep her head down and survive, or fight for a better future?

Award-winning author Karen Healey has created a gripping tale of an inspiring heroine living in a not-so-distant future that could easily be our own.

For parents

No age or grade range recorded.

Grade ranges are editorial guidance. Every reader is different.

More by Karen Healey

Appears in these lists

  • Best Dystopian Novels for Teens · Dystopian novels for readers 12 and up, from landmark classics to newer stories of surveillance, survival and resistance.