Insomnia (Night Walkers, #1)

by J R Johansson

[Angie]

I received an ARC through NetGalley.

Parker calls himself a Watcher. He literally watches other people’s dreams every single night. At the beginning of Insomnia, it’s been four years since he’s gotten any real sleep and it’s really starting to show. After a doctor’s visit, his fears are confirmed: lack of sleep will kill him, and soon. Then he meets Mia. He catches her eye and that night enters the peaceful realm of her dream where Parker is able to actually fall asleep and have dreams of his own. Now he hopes to catch her gaze every day before heading home so he can get some rest. Unfortunately, Mia finds his persistence creepy and beings having nightmares of him stalking her. It doesn’t help that she’s also been getting threatening e-mails from someone who may be Parker.

Insomnia started off really good. It was weird, but in a good way. I really enjoyed the idea of Parker entering the dreams of the last person whom he’s made eye contact with. There’s even explanations for what happens if that person isn’t asleep or if he fails to catch anyone’s eye during the day. We just don’t know why this happens, but I was okay with this. Parker doesn’t know anyone else with this ability, so it would make sense that he doesn’t fully understand what’s going on with him. Eventually Parker starts having blackouts and can’t remember leaving his house at odd hours. It’s entirely possible that he is the one stalking Mia, and psychosis has already settled in.

Where Insomnia started to lose me was when important points started getting glossed over. One of the biggest one was Parker’s seemingly creepy behavior towards Mia. He’s desperate to enter her dreams every night, but we don’t actually seem him following her around until after he’s already labeled a stalker. He goes from normal to freak with nothing in between. I think it would have made the story more interesting if we had actually seen him act strangely in regards to Mia. Then there’s Parker’s bedtime “experiments.” He ties his arm to the bed post using dental floss to see if he’s left in the night. We never get any explanation for his late night/early morning disappearances either. I felt like that was just stuck in there so we’d think he was the real stalker.

The ending was a bit of a disappointment. It wasn’t really shocking, other than in it’s randomness. I never really believed the stalker situation and had a kind of “so what” attitude towards the reveal. I was also annoyed by the presence of the Blind Skull character. He’s there in order to make this series, but I think Insomnia would have worked well as a standalone. Despite its faults, I did enjoy it. It was creepy and mysterious, but just started to fall apart toward the end.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.