Before I Wake

I'm not the audience for this book; I'm a childless atheist, so what am I doing reading a sentimental book about parents struggling with faith? A number of people recommended it to me, and I've enjoyed Wiersema's other work. Despite the unpalatable subject, Wiersema was able to keep me reading, which is actually quite an achievement.

Nothing about the protagonists is particularly interesting: they're a normal couple with a normal marriage marred by the usual boring issues of infidelity. Their daughter is also unexceptional: a cute toddler with no particular talents... until her mother lets go of her hand for a split second, and she is struck down in a hit-and-run accident. What follows is a poignant spiritual awakening for the couple, and for a wide-ranging group of people who come to suspect the comatose daughter possesses miraculous healing powers.

This is one of those books that exists mainly to press your emotional buttons. The husband and wife face only one major choice--whether to believe what's happening around their daughter--and the narrative is set up such that they'd be idiots to choose differently. There's no actual conflict or character development, just the parents' emotional roller coaster.

So what makes it an enjoyable read? Wiersema's neat pacing and strong prose, which elevate this book above the myriad sick-child tearjerkers on the supermarket shelf. Also, the representation of faith, which was undogmatic, and managed not to alienate this non-Christian reader.

Compared to Wiersema's excellent 'World More Full of Weeping', though, this book felt superficial. That storyline also featured an ordinary white guy who's lost a child, but both the father and child had agency in their own lives, which the characters in 'Before I Wake' are distinctly lacking.

Absolutely AWESOME! A tragic accident leaves a child comatose, but events that can only be described as miracles begin to happen all around her. This book will hook you from the first page...from tragedy to believing in some higher power and back again. Amazing!

This book had so much potential but it lost it early on. The first 60 pages were heartbreaking and I almost stopped reading it because of this. The whole book is quite sad. The story lost it for me about 100 pages in when it started to get supernautrual-religious and I just had to shake my head at the storyline. I also started to get annoyed at the constantly changing viewpoint. I will not pass this on to friends.

This novel is rich!!! Every chararacter is the "main" character and the author writes from every person's point of view. Written with an amazing style. I would definitely buy more books from this author.

I had seen an exert for this book in the Globe and Mail and bought it based off of that. After reading it, it was all I could talk about for days and I ended up lending it to a lot of family members who all loved it just as much as I did. It's not something I would typically read but I never once regretted shelling out twenty-some dollars for it.

Easy to read, and this book got passed along to coworkers who also enjoyed it.

This book had some disturbibg scenes for a mother to read. It was hard for me to read about the accident and the scene where the medical staff decided to shut off life support. Getting past that, the book was well written in a very different format that I thought was effective. It certainly kept me turning the pages. Overall, I thought it was a little to off the wall for me. I liked reading the book but didn't love it.

It starts with a tragic accident and ends with an uplifting and hopeful incident. Wiersema did a wonderful job in giving us different perspectives in a poignant situation. You feel for the plight of each character and have hope that not all is lost. The good vs evil undertones of the book show us that evil can be subversive in taking us away from the ones we love. A great read and a perfect bookclub book!

I was very disappointed with this novel. I felt completely misled by the summary on the back cover of the book.

The first protion of the story was very well written ... I found myself crying for Sherry and her family. I was absolutely shocked when I realized that the whole premise of the novel was based on religion.

At that point I was tempted to stop reading, but I was curious to see how Wiersema's book would compare to Jodi Picoult's novel "Keeping Faith". At times I found myself wondering if Wiersema read Picoult's book before writing his own. The story lines did end up diverging significantly, however ... Wiersema succeeded in making the situation seem even more ridiculous than I had originally thought.

I wonder if Wiersema paid the Globe and Mail to put him on the Best Book list ... I cannot fathom how he could have made it otherwise.

What a disappointment after a great beginning. A family is laid waste by a tragic accident. A little girl is alive but dead; a metaphor perhaps for what is left of her parents and their marriage post-accident. I was connecting on all levels with the mother and even the father to a certain degree and couldn't wait to see where the story was going. But what happens? A miracle. Okay, I say, not expected but interesting. And what's that...the devil? And he's a got a naive, simpleton accomplice with him. Oh,oh, yeah and the bad guy can't be seen by anybody except for the guy who talks an awful lot like God in the public library. Arggghh. What drivel. It was a screenplay for a cheesy movie. The author chickened out of a study of what happens to people when their prayers are answered and instead wrote a wimpy Stephen King knock-off.

A great book, well written and thought provoking. A journey of emotions woven into a sense of possiblities of why sometimes bad things happen to good people, even that of an innocent child. It will make you feel and breath the despair and hope of devoted parents who never gave up and made choices that changed many people's lives.

In a word, this book is: Spectacular!! From the opening paragraph to the last word, this book was captivating, heartbreaking, inspiring, and absolutely breathtaking! In the midst of what must be the worst nightmare a parent can face; a child that is not dead, but that will never wake up; a little girl's parents fight to keep their daughter's spirit alive through the miracle of helping others, all while knowing that they cannot help their precious little girl. You will not be able to put this book down, and in the end, you will be grateful that you didn't. One of the best books of the year by FAR!

In a word: fabulous. Conjuring the same multi-person perspective on an extreme situation as you find in Jodi Picoult’s “My Sister’s Keeper” or Alice Sebold’s “The Lovely Bones,” “Before I Wake” takes us into the home of a family who is suffering from one of the worst events that could ever happen: the hit-and-run brain-death of their three year old daughter. But when unexplained events that even the agnostic parents can’t help but think of as ‘miracles’ begin to occur, the fallout is intense. The emotional motivation and expression in the characters was nothing short of fantastic, and the more supernatural/miraculous concept in the novel was fresh and interesting. Definitely one of my favourites of the year.

This is a must read for anyone and everyone. This is a fantastic book and one that I would recommend very highly. For a first novel, Mr.Wiersema shows us that he is on par with many of Canada's greatest writers. The story is complex, the characters are sincere. I was thoroughly engaged from the beginning and simply could not put it down. I really looked forward to reading this book and wasn't disappointed once I had. I expect many more great things from this author!

1st time author and a local Victoria BC guy, this is one of the best contemporary books I have ever read. Just reading the prologue grabs you by the heart-strings and every chapter is packed with twists and turns. As in real life, there is a mesh of personalities bringing their own version of the tragedy into this story. Hard to believe this is a work of fiction as it reads so real.
The story is about every parent's worst nightmare. 3 year old Sherry Barrett is run down by a hit/run driver and left in a coma and brain-dead. When her agnostic parents agree to take her off life-support, she miraculously lives on her own, in a coma yet with surprising and amazing healing abilities, drawing the attention of media, the church and a cast of people desperate for a lifesaving miracle.
The story deals with the guilt felt by the hit/run driver as well as her parent's grief and the churches attempts to control what miracles do or do not happen.

I equate this work as "Angels & Demons "meets "Odd Thomas" meets "Lovely Bones"
I loved this book, could not put it down.

In a word: fabulous. Conjuring the same multi-person perspective on an extreme situation as you find in Jodi Picoult’s “My Sister’s Keeper” or Alice Sebold’s “The Lovely Bones,” “Before I Wake” takes us into the home of a family who is suffering from one of the worst events that could ever happen: the hit-and-run brain-death of their three year old daughter. But when unexplained events that even the agnostic parents can’t help but think of as ‘miracles’ begin to occur, the fallout is intense. The emotional motivation and expression in the characters was nothing short of fantastic, and the more supernatural/miraculous concept in the novel was fresh and interesting. Definitely one of my favourites of the year.

Once I had read the first page of this book I had a very hard time putting it down. I was immediately drawn in by the characters; their thoughts, their stories, their plights. The magic of Before I Wake lies not only in masterfully drawn characters and plot, but also in the author's ability to create seamless transitions among a handful of narrators. Understanding each character so deeply gives the reader a 360 degree view of the story and makes for a book that you will want to read in one sitting.
Questions raised by Wiersema in this novel show an insight into what it means to be human; what it means to ask questions to which there are no certain answers, to long for things we cannot have, to look for meaning in tragedy and hope in heartache.

Before I Wake is as good a debut novel as I can recall reading in a very long time. I shouldn't even qualify that statement be pointing out it is a Robert Wiersema's debut novel. It is a great novel. Period. Emotionally charged and full of gut wrenching scenes that really speak to Wiersema's investment in his characters. Insightful, compassionate and compelling from beginning to end, Before I Wake choked me up a couple of times and struck a number of resonant chords.

For me the strength of this book are the voices of the characters. Told in a sequence of first person passages Before I Wake follows the lives of those touched by the tragic accident that puts three year old Sherry Barrett into a coma. I don't want to give too much away in terms of plot but I will say that Simon and Karen Barrett (Sherry's parents) are brilliantly and heartbreakingly evoked. I cannot think of a better realized couple.

Read this book.

This book blew me away. From the first line of the first paragraph of the first chapter I was pulled in and could not get away. The book should come with a warning label to only read on a day you have no other commitments! Everything I had planned on Saturday was put aside so I could devour his words. I think Robert is the next great Canadian voice in literature and I can’t wait to see what else he will write in the future.