Dead Asleep
By Jennifer B. White
Review brought to you by OBS staff member Autumn
Summary:
If it were possible, I’d never sleep again.
Everyone was talking about my dreams—even though I hadn’t told a single soul about them. Wherever I went, strangers were discussing my nocturnal visions. I wanted to chalk all of this up to coincidence, but then, only minutes after a chance encounter with a young woman I didn’t know, after she told me in perfect detail of the dream I’d had the night before, she was killed. And I knew I’d have to figure out what was happening to me.
My only hope was a woman who had a knack for falling dead asleep. With help from Claire, a narcoleptic, I would have to take a sleep-journey into the past and future affecting everyone’s life, including my own.
Some things to know about me—my name is Kevin Macy and I’m a partner in an ad agency in Boston, Massachusetts. I’m divorced, I smoke, and I’m an accomplished alcoholic. Not that it has anything to do with my story, but it’s part of who I am. And in the course of reading about these supernatural and bizarre events, those things will factor in.
Another important note—and this you will have a hard time swallowing, I’m sure—while on this strange journey of discovery, I died. And I mean that in the realest of ways—dead as a door nail—bought the farm—kicked the bucket. You get the picture. Of course being dead didn’t “stick,” otherwise I wouldn’t be able to tell you my curious tale. (Goodreads)
Review:
Dead Asleep is a book that will have you questioning what you know about life, about death and that maybe nothing is ever just a coincidence.
Kevin Macy is sleep walking through his life. He has a successful business and a failed marriage to prove it. The one aspect that he is always unsure about is his dreams. He never stops to think about the people or situations that he experiences in them until he meets Claire. Claire is the quirky narcoleptic woman that he is sure that he has seen before. He has seen her in his dreams. This sets the two of them up on a mission of epic proportions. They uncover that there are others that are “dreamsharing” with them and that maybe they will be able to stop Kevin’s prophetic dream of his own death.
I loved that this book caused me to think so deeply about what I would do in the same predicament as the characters. It leads you through dream sequences that suggest that everyone is connected in some fundamental way and that even with the passage of time, those that leave a mark on your heart, are never really far from you.
White’s writing style is modern and smart. The characters are well rounded and the story line is precise and intricate. She best describes the very soul of the book itself with “We each know what it is to die. We know what it is to be in-between. And we know how special life is.” Dead Asleep is for dreamers everywhere.
