Review: The Girl In Between by Laekan Kemp

[Mama_Of_One_2015]

I put this in the 'Young Adult' forum, as the main character is seventeen, and has a typical teenage life, except for one thing: she has a sleep disorder where she falls asleep for weeks at a time. She is the only one with the disorder to actually "go somewhere" consciously with her memories in her head (not dreams) instead of just sleep, and the book starts out with a boy somehow coming into her space of memories. During the length of the book, she has to figure out if he's real and if so, how can she find him? Based upon some of these elements, this book could also be classified as a sci-fi or a fantasy.

I gave this book 3 stars - I thought the plot idea was quite original, and there were enough twists and turns to keep me guessing. The book also ends with a bit of a cliffhanger, with some questions unanswered, but still enough that I felt like the book was complete. This book is the first of a 3 book series.

I would have given this 4 stars, but there were some writing quirks that made this harder than most for me to read. I had to re-read the beginning again the next day to fully understand what was happening. There were some characters that I felt were under-developed, with some facts that would be useful to the reader to connect emotionally with the main character. For example, the main character has an episode right after a fight with her boyfriend, and wakes up to find that he has already moved on. The author glanced over that and didn't provide the reader with any kind of raw emotion felt by the main character - anger, confusion, jealousy, love, hate? It felt like the main character had no chemistry with any of the supporting characters.

With that being said, I thought it was a really interesting book, and I look forward to reading the next one.

[micoleon13]

I've just stumbled across a series by Laekan Zea Kemp with the first book The Girl In Between. It follows Bryn who suffers from a sleep disease, losing days or weeks at a time, as she goes to her dreamscape of memories. Suffering for years, she always sees the same thing when she's asleep, until a boy suddenly appears washed up on shore. A boy she has never met before, so how can she dream of him?

I found this book on Amazon for free and immediately was sucked in. I was wondering if anyone else has come across the series and what they thought.

-- 27 Jul 2017, 16:04 --

I hadn't found anything on the forums, but I must have not looked hard enough!

I'm glad you enjoyed it as well. The next in the series goes more into why it's happening and the ultimate end game.