Insomnia by J.R. Johansson

This novel is a little reminiscent of Wake by Lisa McMann with the idea of stepping inside people's dreams, but it definitely has its own twist on the concept. Insomnia is the first book in a new series.

Parker has not had a restful night's sleep in the past four years. Every time he goes to sleep, he slips into the dreams of the last person he made eye contact with. Watching other people's dreams, however, does not allow his brain to get the rest he needs in order to survive. Parker realizes he's living on borrowed time. That is, of course, until he meets Mia. When he steps into her dreams, they are so peaceful that he's able to sleep and form his own dreams. Before long, he becomes obsessed with seeing Mia's dreams. Things take a turn when his obsession makes him a stalker and Mia starts getting threatening emails that she believes are from him. When her dreams start turning into nightmares and Parker can't account for what he's doing in his sleep, something needs to change in order to save Mia and possibly himself.

I wouldn't necessarily say this book is filled with terror or an over abundance of spookiness (like the comments lead you to believe), but it is an entertaining story. Something is clearly going on and you don't know how much you can trust Parker - the narrator. You definitely sympathize for him. What's going on is out of his control and he really wants to do the right thing. You care for him and want to see him survive. The novel ends with the start of a secret being revealed to hook a reader into the next book.

The whole idea of Parker and his abilities is intriguing, but I wonder how far the story can go before it gets a bit redundant. McMann took this concept and made only a trilogy. It will be interesting to see how this series develops.
MMK