Monday, May 27, 2013

ARC Review: Insomnia (The Night Walkers #1) by J.R. Johansson

The blurb as seen on Goodreads:
Release Date: June 8, 2013
Publisher: Flux
360 Pages

Instead of sleeping, Parker Chipp enters the dream of the last person he’s had eye contact with. He spends his nights crushed by other people’s fear and pain, by their disturbing secrets—and Parker can never have dreams of his own. The severe exhaustion is crippling him. If nothing changes, Parker could soon be facing psychosis and even death.

Then he meets Mia. Her dreams, calm and beautifully uncomplicated, allow him blissful rest that is utterly addictive. Parker starts going to bizarre lengths to catch Mia’s eye every day. Everyone at school thinks he’s gone over the edge, even his best friend. And when Mia is threatened by a true stalker, everyone thinks it’s Parker.

Suffering blackouts, Parker begins to wonder if he is turning into someone dangerous. What if the monster stalking Mia is him after all?



Not going to lie, the cover is what initially drew me into this book. I mean, look at it. It’s the perfect blend of creepy and beautiful. Then I read the description. While it reminded me a lot about the Wake series by Lisa McMann, it was also just interesting enough that I had to take a look.

Insomnia is the story of Parker Chipp who doesn’t sleep. Instead, he enters the dreams of the person he last held eye contact with. He’s exhausted, his mother thinks he’s on drugs, and he feels like he’s losing it. That is until he meets Mia. Mia’s dreams are different and Parker can sleep inside of them. Then Mia gets a stalker and everyone thinks it’s Parker. 

This book was…interesting. I wanted it to be a lot creepier than it was. Parker’s obsession with Mia was downright disturbing, and not in the good thriller type way. It was no wonder everyone thought he was the stalker. I mean, he waited outside her classroom, soccer practice, showed up at her house, all just to look her in the eyes.

I felt the “darkness” aspect was an interesting twist, but one I felt wasn’t executed right. What started out as creepy darkness taking over Parker turned into a nagging conscious or an annoying bully. I guess I just really wanted to be scared by this, to be sucked into this psychological thriller and I wasn’t.

Johansson’s debut novel is a good read with an interesting idea. However, I felt it missed its mark slightly with just too many grey areas and the predictably of who the stalker was and how the mysterious skull man ties into everything. 

I will likely continue the series because I think this is a series that could grow and there were just too many unanswered questions. 

I received an e-copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

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