Chasing Yesterday #1 Awakening by Robin Wasserman

This is the first novel of a series about a young girl trying to find out who she is after developing amnesia. J.D. (Jane Doe) was the only one injured/involved in an explosion in an abandoned warehouse area. She has no memory of who she is and was shipped off to a Center of Juvenile Services to wait to be found. There she made friends with a boy named Daniel and an enemy out of a girl named Mel. In one act of defense, J.D. managed to exhibit an unnatural amount of strength, seriously injuring Mel. As this is going on, J.D. has haunting visions of an evil man and destruction, sometimes going into trance like states. Soon, though, J.D.'s mother arrived, stating that J.D. was in fact Alexa Collins. Her mother insists that she visits Dr. Styron who treats her with hypnosis, although not revealing what was said when she was under. At the same time, it appears as if Dr. Styron is the man she keeps dreaming about. J.D. is told not to leave the house and isn't given allowed contact with other people other than her mother and Dr. Styron. All of this is just a wee bit suspicious, almost too much to not raise a few eyebrows. Even as she starts to remember some things, she's a bit suspicious of people and the mystery unfolds as to what happens when she's hypnotized and who she really is, or isn't.

Since this is the first novel, there aren't too many answers. In fact, the answers that are revealed also present more questions. That's to be expected, though. It was an easy read and a bit interesting, but it could be better. It was almost too simple, too obvious. The surprises were predictable. I think that older kids might be bored, although with the heroine being only 13, I guess this is for early high school rather than later. It wasn't a bad read, but it was too easy to figure out what was going on.
MMK