Review: Insomnia by JR Johansson

Her eyes saved his life.
Her dreams released his darkness.

After four years of sleeplessness, high school junior Parker Chipp can't take much more. Every night, instead of sleeping, he enters the dreams of the last person he's made eye contact with. If he doesn't sleep soon, Parker will die.

Then he meets Mia. Her dreams, calm and beautifully uncomplicated, allow him blissful rest that is utterly addictive. But what starts out as a chance meeting turns into an obsession; Parker's furious desire for what he needs pushes him to extremes he never thought he'd go. And when someone begins to terrorizing Mia with twisted death threats, Parker's memory blackouts leave him doubting his own innocence.

My Review:

Insomnia is a thrilling page-turner that I sped through, loving every page.  I had trouble putting this book down because I wanted answers to the mystery.  Luckily, even though this is the first in a series, the mystery is solved at the end of this book.  

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD

One of the cool things about reading from Parker's POV is that he isn't even sure if he's innocent or not.  He has memory blackouts at night, and he worries that he could be the one sending creepy emails to Mia during those blackouts.  He knows he has a darker side, and he calls it Darkness.  The book shows how difficult it would be to be in Parker's situation.  Near the beginning of the book, he finds out that Mia's dreams give him real rest.  This makes him determined to meet her eyes every day so he can be in her dreams.  When he waits for her in the parking lot after her job, or goes into the store where she works right before closing, it makes sense that she would be freaked out.  He scares her, but he is desperate to get his rest.  I can see why Mia would assume the creepy emails are from Parker after seeing his stalkerish behavior.

Mia was a character who had been through a lot, so she really didn't need a creepy stalker added to her list of problems.  Parker finds out about some things that happened to her in the past when she starts having nightmares.  She has one nightmare that always turns into this other nightmare where Parker is the villain.  Mia doesn't realize that he isn't really the bad guy.  Mia lives in a foster home with the Sparks family.  Their son, Jeff, is the captain of the soccer team, with Parker as his co-captain.  Mia becomes the captain of the girls' team.

Finn and Addie were great characters as well.  Finn is Parker's best friend.  They are both on the soccer team.  They have some issues when Finn calls out Parker on his stalker behavior, but eventually Parker confides in him.  Addie is Finn's sister who is a year younger than Parker and Finn.  She becomes friends with Mia, so she is mad at Parker when he starts stalking Mia.  I hope there will be some more romance between Addie and Parker in the next book.  I think once they tell Finn, they will make a good couple.  Parker just needs to stop worrying about breaking the bro-code.

If you like YA paranormal, read this book.

Katie