Insomnia

Johansson, J.R. Insomnia: Book 1 of the Night Walkers. 2013. 347 p. ISBN 978-0-7387-3593-1. Available at FIC JOH on the library shelves.

What if you could experience other people’s dreams, their memories, their terrors and their fantasies? High school senior Parker Chipp has this strange ability, but it is literally killing him. He can’t help spending his nights visiting the dreams of the last person he made eye contact with. Unfortunately it means he can’t have his own dreams, and the lack of sleep is slowly sapping his life. When he meets Mia everything changes. Her dreams are so peaceful he can actually sleep in them, and he begins to feel better physically.

Unfortunately, Mia soon begins to hate him since he’s always trying to make eye contact with her at the end of school, and events begin to spiral out of control. Parker feels that he is losing himself, and making eye contact with Mia becomes an obsession. Dark and violent thoughts lurk around him, and events soon overtake him. Will Parker find a way to control his dreams before they kill him?

As the first book of a new series, Insomnia sets the stage for continuous action and suspense. The main characters are well defined and fully fleshed out. Parker’s inner thoughts and his battles with his own demons, as well as outside forces, are vivid and add to the story. Plot twists abound, and when Parker thinks it couldn’t get worse, he invariably finds he  is wrong. Will Parker solve his problems before the lack of sleep kills him?