What do you think?
Rate this book
Wake Up!
A tattoo artist struggling after a busted engagement rescues a mysterious stranger who agrees to help with the bills. Not soon after, she's abducted one night to witness her new roommate play in a dangerous, high-stakes game. An unconventional (literary??) trans-noir thriller about gambling, dysphoria, starring in each other's dreams, and cutting the past off.
134 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 31, 2026
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 12, 2026
My review on tumblr consisted of "what a fucking weird book, 5 🌟" and I stand by that. This book was refreshing after trying to sift through a pile of overly-sanitized, advertiser-friendly trans books. These stories exist in spades, but mainstream traditional publishing doesn't like to make much room for them.
Are you a fan of unreliable narrators? Messy relationships? Even messier main characters? Characters that you sometimes root for and sometimes want to shake? Do you like watching a car crash happening in slow motion? A gloomy atmosphere? Truly interesting word combinations and odd phrases that you'll end up adding to your vocabulary? Like asking "what the hell is happening?" while being completely engrossed in the story?
If the answer is yes, give this a try. Support small, Indie Press. Support small press that is fighting tooth and nail to get the stories you crave.
Are you a fan of unreliable narrators? Messy relationships? Even messier main characters? Characters that you sometimes root for and sometimes want to shake? Do you like watching a car crash happening in slow motion? A gloomy atmosphere? Truly interesting word combinations and odd phrases that you'll end up adding to your vocabulary? Like asking "what the hell is happening?" while being completely engrossed in the story?
If the answer is yes, give this a try. Support small, Indie Press. Support small press that is fighting tooth and nail to get the stories you crave.
April 14, 2026
This is a cleverly constructed short transgressive tail, part of the wonderfully alternative 'Seasons' series, that certainly just sucks the reader right in and demands that they think things though from outside the box.
Highly enjoyable but, as undoubtedly this master storyteller intended, the literary visitor, like me, may leave still leave without being 100% certain about what has actually gone on. This dark adventure still leaves room for thought, that's for sure!
Truly captivating from start to finish and definitely recommended to any reader of modern and progressive, fictional literature.
Note to self: Learn the rules of Mahjong (Japanese)...after the 'penciled-in' visit to the local tattoo parlour!
Rating; 4.3 brightly glowing stars of the highly unusual.
Highly enjoyable but, as undoubtedly this master storyteller intended, the literary visitor, like me, may leave still leave without being 100% certain about what has actually gone on. This dark adventure still leaves room for thought, that's for sure!
Truly captivating from start to finish and definitely recommended to any reader of modern and progressive, fictional literature.
Note to self: Learn the rules of Mahjong (Japanese)...after the 'penciled-in' visit to the local tattoo parlour!
Rating; 4.3 brightly glowing stars of the highly unusual.
April 20, 2026
Before reviewing this individual volume, I want to put out in the world that to me this publisher is the same as A24 is for films. I anticipate with absolute excitement reading one of their books. Each new release from tRaum Books is a literary delight. They are beautifully designed books that belong in any bibliophiles collection. And more than that they are always intriguing stories, filled with memorable characters and striking writing. I am so proud to be published by them, and always doomed to be suffering from imposter syndrome!
Added to the anticipation of something new from this press, I'll add Merey is one of my favourite writers, I reread and am always in awe of their novels. So expectations were exceedingly high, and 'Wake Up!' still left me surprised by the quality of its prose and construction.
Merey lists their inspiration at the end, and there's something glorious about a story that can contain elements of 'Akagi' and Alexander the Great (although I might have to have a handbags at midnight moment fight over him and Hephaistion being the best couple...and not only because my Alexander the Great knowledge is patchy!). Personally from very early on this story made me think: 'Mulholland Drive'. Having recently watched 'David Lynch Cooks Quinoa' and been absolutely enchanted, comparing anything to one of his works is about as high as it gets for me.
Though, of course, like many of the other books from this publisher, 'Wake Up!' shouldn't be compared to anything other work of art; it's a unique beautiful challenging read that is also a very quick and easy read.
Tian is dealing with grief. Or perhaps not dealing with grief. She's lost and she's dreaming her life and (spoiler alert) perhaps at the end leaving the narrative to live her dream.
With a work like this, each reader is going to be reading and remembering a different version of the story. This is a book that needs to be experienced rather than explained, the phrase I think comes closes to explaining it is a realistic dreamscape. I have so many questions, but the beating heart of this story, is that none of them need answering.
Added to the anticipation of something new from this press, I'll add Merey is one of my favourite writers, I reread and am always in awe of their novels. So expectations were exceedingly high, and 'Wake Up!' still left me surprised by the quality of its prose and construction.
Merey lists their inspiration at the end, and there's something glorious about a story that can contain elements of 'Akagi' and Alexander the Great (although I might have to have a handbags at midnight moment fight over him and Hephaistion being the best couple...and not only because my Alexander the Great knowledge is patchy!). Personally from very early on this story made me think: 'Mulholland Drive'. Having recently watched 'David Lynch Cooks Quinoa' and been absolutely enchanted, comparing anything to one of his works is about as high as it gets for me.
Though, of course, like many of the other books from this publisher, 'Wake Up!' shouldn't be compared to anything other work of art; it's a unique beautiful challenging read that is also a very quick and easy read.
Tian is dealing with grief. Or perhaps not dealing with grief. She's lost and she's dreaming her life and (spoiler alert) perhaps at the end leaving the narrative to live her dream.
With a work like this, each reader is going to be reading and remembering a different version of the story. This is a book that needs to be experienced rather than explained, the phrase I think comes closes to explaining it is a realistic dreamscape. I have so many questions, but the beating heart of this story, is that none of them need answering.
April 14, 2026
Don’t worry. Life’s just a bizarre adventure. A terrible dream.
A bizarre adventure and a terrible dream are a couple of things that describe this book quite well, because the whole thing is a dreamy experience. Not so much as it being filled with the fantastic, but more a falling between of moments and feelings that jumps through time. A mix of quietude and the world flipping upside or falling apart.
The dream of this book is mainly that of a trans woman, Tian, stuck in so many shades of the past and the pits of self-hate, and a strange trans man who stumbles into her life who seems to exist in world all his own where every person is an open book and the skies rain mahjong tiles. Together, they’re two garbage bags that make a fucking dumpster fire. Together, they develop a weird comfort and bond, find a dim peace in the dark of an apartment room tracing tattoos in the neon light. Odd queer connections between messy people are one of the areas Merey always shines in writing, making such beautiful bonds between wayward souls, and this book is no exception as you wade through the dream with them.
Of course, that is the quietude, while much of the book is the world flipping around or falling apart instead. Glimpses into the past that shaped them; glimpses into the things that cannot be let go; glimpses into what it’s like to fall so entirely into the things consuming you to the point it becomes a part of yourself you don’t know how to escape from. Of what it’s like to be in a cage, to be the cage, and be the key all at once.
Most of all, this is a book about change, about moving on—and like the title—about waking up. Of escaping the endless dreams we might lose ourselves in within our lives, especially of the past. Especially in the detrimental ways we view ourselves. In a queer lense, it’s often such a prominent thing...that sadly, much of us have had rougher times of life and some moments seem to keep living on forever inside us. Most of us queer folk have rougher times of ourselves, from how the world and people have treated us, it twists us away from letting ourselves truly live, ending up stuck so much in hiding, self-policing, and self-hatred. But that’s not really living. You can’t live until you take your life as your own instead of it being prisoner to something else.
Even if this book is about change, which is a good thing, things are never so clean. Waking up often takes a lot to get there, a pain driven deep. You don’t wake up in dreams by kissing your true love—you wake up in dreams by falling off a cliff to your death. So don’t expect a dream full of nothing but life from this book, but the one you wake up from that leaves an ache in your heart, a bittersweet sensation as it swirls around and around in your head and you grasp at so many pieces of it to pull closer to understand what it's saying to you and only you. Even as it aches, though, I promise it’s one you’ll be happy to have experienced in the end.
A bizarre adventure and a terrible dream are a couple of things that describe this book quite well, because the whole thing is a dreamy experience. Not so much as it being filled with the fantastic, but more a falling between of moments and feelings that jumps through time. A mix of quietude and the world flipping upside or falling apart.
The dream of this book is mainly that of a trans woman, Tian, stuck in so many shades of the past and the pits of self-hate, and a strange trans man who stumbles into her life who seems to exist in world all his own where every person is an open book and the skies rain mahjong tiles. Together, they’re two garbage bags that make a fucking dumpster fire. Together, they develop a weird comfort and bond, find a dim peace in the dark of an apartment room tracing tattoos in the neon light. Odd queer connections between messy people are one of the areas Merey always shines in writing, making such beautiful bonds between wayward souls, and this book is no exception as you wade through the dream with them.
Of course, that is the quietude, while much of the book is the world flipping around or falling apart instead. Glimpses into the past that shaped them; glimpses into the things that cannot be let go; glimpses into what it’s like to fall so entirely into the things consuming you to the point it becomes a part of yourself you don’t know how to escape from. Of what it’s like to be in a cage, to be the cage, and be the key all at once.
Most of all, this is a book about change, about moving on—and like the title—about waking up. Of escaping the endless dreams we might lose ourselves in within our lives, especially of the past. Especially in the detrimental ways we view ourselves. In a queer lense, it’s often such a prominent thing...that sadly, much of us have had rougher times of life and some moments seem to keep living on forever inside us. Most of us queer folk have rougher times of ourselves, from how the world and people have treated us, it twists us away from letting ourselves truly live, ending up stuck so much in hiding, self-policing, and self-hatred. But that’s not really living. You can’t live until you take your life as your own instead of it being prisoner to something else.
Even if this book is about change, which is a good thing, things are never so clean. Waking up often takes a lot to get there, a pain driven deep. You don’t wake up in dreams by kissing your true love—you wake up in dreams by falling off a cliff to your death. So don’t expect a dream full of nothing but life from this book, but the one you wake up from that leaves an ache in your heart, a bittersweet sensation as it swirls around and around in your head and you grasp at so many pieces of it to pull closer to understand what it's saying to you and only you. Even as it aches, though, I promise it’s one you’ll be happy to have experienced in the end.
April 15, 2026
There's a survival horror videogame series I really love called Forbidden Siren. In these games, you play as multiple characters in nonchronological chapters as they face a greater threat than any one of them could understand. They're set in locations that look and feel like real locations but are actually fragmented pieces of the past, floating in a world detached from reality. The storytelling is intentionally disorienting and elliptical. Events are laid out and then overridden. There's always a sense that there's more we're not being shown, that the truth is off screen and we're just getting bleak and narrow impressions.
Now this may be a trans noir thriller and not a horror game, but I kind of felt like I was playing a Forbidden Siren game when I was reading this.
ALSO one of the joys of reading so many works by the same author is you start to get a feel for their pet themes. Merey is always putting his characters into situations that by all logical they should leave because they're painful, but can't or don't because of far more complex / toxic / fascinating / erotic / nuanced reasons, which by the end are still FRUSTRATING to experience but more UNDERSTANDABLE.
Now this may be a trans noir thriller and not a horror game, but I kind of felt like I was playing a Forbidden Siren game when I was reading this.
ALSO one of the joys of reading so many works by the same author is you start to get a feel for their pet themes. Merey is always putting his characters into situations that by all logical they should leave because they're painful, but can't or don't because of far more complex / toxic / fascinating / erotic / nuanced reasons, which by the end are still FRUSTRATING to experience but more UNDERSTANDABLE.
Review of advance copy received from Author
I find myself struggling to begin this review, primarily because I have so many thoughts I don’t know where it might make sense to begin. This mirrors the book, I suppose: Wake Up! is a nonchronological narrative following our protagonist Tian, who finds herself in the muddy middle ground of relationships with roommates, ex-girlfriends, coworkers, and seedy men in seedier basements. The chapters often forgo continuity, following senses of appropriate atmosphere, confusion, terror, and retribution rather than a Point-A-to-B timeline. Much as memories, or dreams.
Tian and her ex break up, fueled by a change in Tian’s gender identity and a persistence of her ex’s egotism. This separation leads to increased self-criticism and bills—and these bills pave the way for Tian to welcome (used loosely) a strange man named Al into her home. Al possesses a curious photograph, a strange power, and a penchant for gambling; gambling, which allows Tian for the first time in a while to live without worry.
However, worry soon returns, as Al’s dealings come to light quite ungracefully for Tian.
I pause on providing too many details, as the specifics and reveal order of said specifics is crucial to the reader’s experience.
Whether the multiple relationships within this novel end “well” or not, that’s really up to the reader. Spoiler: they do end, but some in ways you will not predict, some in ways you might smile, others in ways that you (or at least I did) might cheer. Wake Up! explores love, melancholia, and identity with an accuracy and earnestness that both hurts and makes one feel seen. It is rare a book so successfully puts the emptiness of queer grief to print, allows the reader to wallow in it—so much so I fail to think of a recent comparison. Perhaps Winterson’s Written on the Body would be the best; earlier than that, the works of Sappho. But Merey takes these sensations and feelings, explores them in a contemporary setting, and presents their characters in ways where you don’t always feel that you can like or dislike them, but you can certainly understand them.
In short terms: Merey’s work is important.
In longer words: excepting niche extreme horror, in a world of contemporary queer writing that seeks to sanitize relationships or present every story as an “It gets better!” commiseration unto a reader, Wake Up! has no trouble showing that relationships are hard. Relationships fail. Queer, trans relationships specifically face these hardships even moreso, battling not just the traditional hurdles of cishet relationships, but also internalized trans- or homophobia, societal backlash, the subsequent economic repercussions in losing support structures, and more.
Much like these characters, many people often want to just be seen in such a way.
Wake Up! is gripping from start to finish—drenched in emotion, dysfunctional in the right ways, written in language equal parts mesmerizing and relatable, with an ending that invites recontextualization. As we (especially the queer “we”) grow, improve, and review our relationships and sense of self as fluid, non-sequential progression, we too are like memories or dreams: able to be recontextualized and reimagined.
Tian and her ex break up, fueled by a change in Tian’s gender identity and a persistence of her ex’s egotism. This separation leads to increased self-criticism and bills—and these bills pave the way for Tian to welcome (used loosely) a strange man named Al into her home. Al possesses a curious photograph, a strange power, and a penchant for gambling; gambling, which allows Tian for the first time in a while to live without worry.
However, worry soon returns, as Al’s dealings come to light quite ungracefully for Tian.
I pause on providing too many details, as the specifics and reveal order of said specifics is crucial to the reader’s experience.
Whether the multiple relationships within this novel end “well” or not, that’s really up to the reader. Spoiler: they do end, but some in ways you will not predict, some in ways you might smile, others in ways that you (or at least I did) might cheer. Wake Up! explores love, melancholia, and identity with an accuracy and earnestness that both hurts and makes one feel seen. It is rare a book so successfully puts the emptiness of queer grief to print, allows the reader to wallow in it—so much so I fail to think of a recent comparison. Perhaps Winterson’s Written on the Body would be the best; earlier than that, the works of Sappho. But Merey takes these sensations and feelings, explores them in a contemporary setting, and presents their characters in ways where you don’t always feel that you can like or dislike them, but you can certainly understand them.
In short terms: Merey’s work is important.
In longer words: excepting niche extreme horror, in a world of contemporary queer writing that seeks to sanitize relationships or present every story as an “It gets better!” commiseration unto a reader, Wake Up! has no trouble showing that relationships are hard. Relationships fail. Queer, trans relationships specifically face these hardships even moreso, battling not just the traditional hurdles of cishet relationships, but also internalized trans- or homophobia, societal backlash, the subsequent economic repercussions in losing support structures, and more.
Much like these characters, many people often want to just be seen in such a way.
Wake Up! is gripping from start to finish—drenched in emotion, dysfunctional in the right ways, written in language equal parts mesmerizing and relatable, with an ending that invites recontextualization. As we (especially the queer “we”) grow, improve, and review our relationships and sense of self as fluid, non-sequential progression, we too are like memories or dreams: able to be recontextualized and reimagined.
April 7, 2026
Man with the Long Hair: They say that dreams are only real as long as they last. Couldn't you say the same thing about life?
--Waking Life
This is going to be a weird review, but this is a weird book. Stay with me.
When I was in high school three of the movies I loved most in the world were Run Lola Run, Oldboy, and Waking Life. Disjointed realities. Broken connections. Who would you be if you weren't. This book reminds me of all of them. This book reminds me of all the things I've loved in the world that etched themselves on my body and mind like a tattoo, like a gravestone.
"Lord God, sometimes it feels like Tian’s whole life is sleepwalking through a graveyard, tracing the carved names of all the people and things that could never love her back."
High school was like that, young adulthood was like that, repetitions of loss, reaching for things I couldn't grasp. Growing up doesn't spare you from loss but it changes it. Tian knew that her brothers knew she loved them, even if she couldn't say it. She carried them with her forever, tattoos and scars on her body, shared burdens and joys with their memories. And she let herself change. She let love change her.
Sometimes we get a second chance. To say goodbye. To find someone new. Does it matter if it's a dream or reality?
--Waking Life
This is going to be a weird review, but this is a weird book. Stay with me.
When I was in high school three of the movies I loved most in the world were Run Lola Run, Oldboy, and Waking Life. Disjointed realities. Broken connections. Who would you be if you weren't. This book reminds me of all of them. This book reminds me of all the things I've loved in the world that etched themselves on my body and mind like a tattoo, like a gravestone.
"Lord God, sometimes it feels like Tian’s whole life is sleepwalking through a graveyard, tracing the carved names of all the people and things that could never love her back."
High school was like that, young adulthood was like that, repetitions of loss, reaching for things I couldn't grasp. Growing up doesn't spare you from loss but it changes it. Tian knew that her brothers knew she loved them, even if she couldn't say it. She carried them with her forever, tattoos and scars on her body, shared burdens and joys with their memories. And she let herself change. She let love change her.
Sometimes we get a second chance. To say goodbye. To find someone new. Does it matter if it's a dream or reality?
Review of advance copy
4.5⭐️
Thank you to Book Sirens and to the author for an ARC in exchange for a honest review.
This book is extremely difficult to put to words but I am attempting to try for the sake of the review!
First of all, this is my first book from this author but I was completely drawn in by this stunning cover. 10/10.
This book is written non chronologically which took some getting to used to but once I did, I really enjoyed the format.
The actual story itself is carried by these very interesting to read about characters that are complex and relatable. I felt myself feeling seen as a trans and queer person. I thought it explored topics such as identity, relationships, and love extremely well and felt really hard hitting to someone who is currently experiencing a breakup.
The writing style was fun to read. For just a little example of a quote that I loved…
“You can break things off, but you don’t just turn off your love for the person you were ready to spend the rest of your life with, right? Emotions aren’t a faucet. Even if that other person managed to turn off their love faucet for you.”
This book honestly just speaks to me.
I will probably continue to read the authors backlist because I loved what I read!
Thank you to Book Sirens and to the author for an ARC in exchange for a honest review.
This book is extremely difficult to put to words but I am attempting to try for the sake of the review!
First of all, this is my first book from this author but I was completely drawn in by this stunning cover. 10/10.
This book is written non chronologically which took some getting to used to but once I did, I really enjoyed the format.
The actual story itself is carried by these very interesting to read about characters that are complex and relatable. I felt myself feeling seen as a trans and queer person. I thought it explored topics such as identity, relationships, and love extremely well and felt really hard hitting to someone who is currently experiencing a breakup.
The writing style was fun to read. For just a little example of a quote that I loved…
“You can break things off, but you don’t just turn off your love for the person you were ready to spend the rest of your life with, right? Emotions aren’t a faucet. Even if that other person managed to turn off their love faucet for you.”
This book honestly just speaks to me.
I will probably continue to read the authors backlist because I loved what I read!
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Not the Korean BBQ scissors!
With Wake Up! Merey delivers another deliciously delirious installment of the Seasons series. The short chapterlets themselves read like dream segments, weaving back and forth through the timeline of Tian and Al's short time as roommates.
At first read, everything seems perfectly normal, but once the comically small dice have been cast, reality gives way to the madness of gambling, the divine, to dreams. After I turned the last page, I had to discard my previous understanding of what was real and what was dream - and curiously enough, that made the book all the more satisfying.
Some spoilery shower thoughts I had below:
With Wake Up! Merey delivers another deliciously delirious installment of the Seasons series. The short chapterlets themselves read like dream segments, weaving back and forth through the timeline of Tian and Al's short time as roommates.
At first read, everything seems perfectly normal, but once the comically small dice have been cast, reality gives way to the madness of gambling, the divine, to dreams. After I turned the last page, I had to discard my previous understanding of what was real and what was dream - and curiously enough, that made the book all the more satisfying.
Some spoilery shower thoughts I had below:
Review of advance copy received from Author
Merey writes characters that make me want to know all their idiosyncrasies. Their lives are so much their own that I should be grasping to relate to them, yet I feel such a strong sense of familiarity with Al and Tian. I may never understand the intricacies of high-stakes mahjong but I do understand queer relationships that defy convention and resist definition.
Wake Up! is both a standalone and undeniably part of Seasons. It's hard to put into words, but that same feeling of knowing and wanting to know these characters binds these books together. At this point when I see Merey's name on a book I know I'll love it in ways I can't imagine until I'm in it.
I'm so happy I grabbed this ARC. I'm leaving this review of my own accord.
Wake Up! is both a standalone and undeniably part of Seasons. It's hard to put into words, but that same feeling of knowing and wanting to know these characters binds these books together. At this point when I see Merey's name on a book I know I'll love it in ways I can't imagine until I'm in it.
I'm so happy I grabbed this ARC. I'm leaving this review of my own accord.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews