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.
"Someone in a car veered toward him, clipping his rear wheel. But he clung on for his life, weaving left, right, the swelling crowd surging after him like rats after the piper as he fled into the sun."
