Wake Me Up by Justin Bog
A small college town’s populace is tied, with complicity, to the brutal, bullying, attack of a teenage boy by four of his classmates. Soon, heated rumors of a possible hate crime surface. Injustice is a hungry beast.
AN ADULTEROUS FATHER IS HAUNTED BY HIS PAST — HIS WIFE LIVES HER LIFE IN A RIGID SHELL — THEIR SON, UNTETHERED, DISCOVERS THE SECRET THEY SHARE WITH DEEPIKA, A VISITOR TO THEIR TOWN FROM NORTHERN INDIA.
“I see all of these people. They’re living and breathing and acting on their basest impulses. I lay in a coma. They live. I hover over all of them, all at once. I can see my body, motionless, wired up, adrift. And I can find out why this happened. This is my story and I won’t remember any of it when–if–I wake up. But I’ll try to remember–I’ll try damn hard.”
MIDDLETON, MONTANA –OCTOBER 2004–AN ELECTION YEAR
While Chris Bullet remains unresponsive in a coma, his skull shattered, he floats above dire circumstance. In this phantom state, compelled to witness his past once more, the family’s darkest secrets, hidden over generations, will be aired.
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Author’s Bio
A member of ITW: International Thriller Writers group, Justin Bog lives in the Pacific Northwest with his two long coat German shepherds, Zippy and Kipling. He is the author of the Suspense Magazine Award-winning collection, Sandcastle and Other Stories: The Complete Edition, and Hark: A Christmas Collection.
My Review
5 stars
The Bullets are a family that seem like everything is going well but inside there is a lot of things happening that each one is ignoring. That is until some bullies at Chris’ school decide that he is different and gay and beat him up with a baseball bat. The story is told from Chris’ view point as he lies in a coma and see’s everything happening around him and to his mother and father.
This is a heart wrenching story. Poor Chris is targeted because he is different and in a little town that is quite a big deal. Then you learn of his father’s unfaithfulness, his mother’s struggles with a medical condition, and a grandfather that is worse than his father. There is a lot more happening than you initially see and while you learn this you keep wondering if Chris is going to recover.
This is a great story and one that I recommend everyone read. It is more of a contemporary story but one that will show you how it’s more important to learn about someone than just putting your opinions on them. Justin Bog is a wonderful author and one that I will be watching out for others books by him.
I received Wake Me Up from Sage’s Blog Tours for free. This has in no way influenced my opinion of this book.
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