When We Wake - Karen Healey

Karen Healey has a talent for breathing new life into tired, overdone genres that I have virtually given up on. In When We Wake, Healey throws out all the dystopian tropes that readers have come to dread and instead creates a fresh, sharp and worryingly familiar future for Australia. 

Opening in Melbourne in the year 2027, we follow 16 year old Tegan Oglietti - environmental activist, Beatles obsessive and madly in love as she heads off to a government protest in the city. When things get out of hand and she is shot, Tegan wakes up in a government facility 100 years in the future - the first cryonically frozen human to be successfully revived. 

Thrust into a world of spiralling climate change, legislated xenophobia, and layer upon layer of conspiracy Tegan has to cope with the sudden loss of family and friends while also battling a severe case of culture shock. Feisty, determined and quick to adjust Tegan leads a brilliant cast of characters living in a chillingly plausible future that will leave you questioning who we are as a country and more importantly - where we're heading. - Amelia