Review: When We Wake by Karen Healy @lbkids

Author: Karen Healy
Title: When We Wake
Series: When We Wake #1
Publication: March 5, 2013
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Source: Publisher
~Website

Synopsis(Goodreads)
My name is Tegan Oglietti, and on the last day of my first lifetime, I was so, so happy.

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 government guinea pig to be cryonically frozen and successfully revived, which makes her an instant celebrity--even though all she wants to do is try to rebuild some semblance of a normal life. 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 haunting, cautionary tale of an inspiring protagonist living in a not-so-distant future that could easily be our own.

Thoughts:In one day, Tegan had the best day of her life and in one moment it was taken that away. The story begins with Tegan on her way to a protest with her best friend, Alex and her boyfriend, Dalmar. She's ecstatic and glowing with all the warm feeling of a new love and then she dies. Tegan never knew that she would never see her family and friends again. She awakens in a world completely different from her past; she must learn the new ways of life and deal with the dangers and responsibilities that come with being the "Living Dead Girl". The military wants to use her as the poster child for Cryotechnology but the Inheritors of the Earth sees her as a soulless abomination to God and thinks she should kill herself to right this wrong. In the midst of all this, Tegan attempts to have a normal life making friends and enemies alike. She learns that normal is out of her grasp as she uncovers a secret that will make an easy transition into this future nonexistent. 

This is the first book I've read by Healy and I have to say, this is a good read. It's set in a futuristic Australia where eating meat is frowned upon and computers are made out paper. I really liked Tegan's voice and her spirit, she's has to fight just be able to try to live a normal life but her circumstances don't allow her to get that chance before she's discovers the true reason for her being unfrozen and what she finds makes her have to do something about it. The story is told from Tegan's perspective in a conversational tone of voice which gives the feel as if the character is speaking right in front of you, it makes her seem attainable and easy to relate to. The writing and the pace are well balanced. The characters are well developed, though there is still some mystery about them and it works for this story. The world that Healy has built and the technology she's created appear to be completely possible in our future. Overall, this is a realistically unique take on a dystopian society and I can't wait to read the next one.