Sleepless 

by Michael Omer

Narrowdale Series, Book One

Book Description

Don’t fall asleep. Don’t dream. Don’t get caught.

Amy knew she’d hate Narrowdale, a boring suburban town. How could it possibly compare to L.A., where she lived her entire life? Being a high school freshman in a new place made things even worse.

And that was before she started having the same nightmare over and over again. Before she woke up every night to a shrill whistle outside her window. Before she met a homeless man who seemed to know way too much.

Some things seem to happen only in Narrowdale, where dark secrets are hiding beneath the surface…

MY THOUGHTS: 3.5 OUT OF 5 FLEURS DE LIS

14 year old Amy isn’t too thrilled when she has to leave LA to move to a small town called Narrowdale right before her freshman year. Not only is it bad enough that it’s taking her a while to make friends, but she’s starting to learn that this own is hiding more than a few secrets. Like the homeless man who seems to be able to read minds and see the future. Like the terrifying dreams that are haunting Amy’s every night.

When Amy decides she can’t take any more sleepless nights, she begins to dig into the truth about what is going on in Narrowdale. And a nearly ten year old crime catches up with her in a life threatening way.

To be honest, this story starts out very very slowly, with Amy overexplaining the mundane details of her day. But the book is only 160 pages so it was a very quick read…although it took nearly to the halfway point for any action to be going on.

I guess you could say Narrowdale is a kind of supernatural town, with things going on no one can explain and that no one really tries to. The citizens just accept that the town’s “quirks” are a way of life. There’s really no explanation given about why the town is the way it is, so I suppose we are going to accept this fact as well.

Amy is just OK as a main character, though at times it seems she can’t make up her mind about what type of person she wants to be. Sometimes she’s shy, others snarky, others a class-skipping rebel. Her constant narration of every little detail became annoying quickly.

Once the story hit its’ stride about the reason Amy was having her dreams/visions, things moved very quickly. Amy and her partners investigate, pry, and just plain get lucky breaks, but they find out the truth. This truth puts them in danger, of course.

I truly appreciated that this story didn’t have some budding romance or awkward meet cutes with its characters. Amy got by with help from her friends, but she didn’t need a boyfriend, and that was great.

The end moved very, very fast in comparison to the beginning, and I wish the climactic moment had been fleshed out more. It’s also interesting to note that Sleepless is the first book in a series set in the town of Narrowdale. Maybe we’ll learn more about this place after all.

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