Review Of Neverwake (Dreamfall #2) By Amy Plum

For most people, nightmares always come to an end. But for Cata, Ant, and the others, there may be no escape from theirs. After an experimental treatment meant to cure their insomnia went horribly wrong, the teens were dragged into a shared dreamworld where their most terrifying fears became reality.

The six of them have no way of waking up. And they’re beginning to realize that if they die here, they might actually die in the real world. One of the dreamers is already gone, and anyone could be next. The only thing they know for certain is that they have to work together to survive. But as they learn the truth about one another’s pasts, they soon discover they are trapped with something far worse than their nightmares….

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Neverwake is the sequel (and last book in the duology) to Dreamfall, a YA science fiction/horror.

I read Dreamfall probably about six or so months before reading this one, reading lots of books in between, so I didn't really remember everything that occurred in the first one. The book did a pretty good job of refreshing my memory on plot lines and such, but not so much on characters. I'm not talking about a Who's Who, but more of getting a feel for the characters personalities again. Now, I don't remember if they had more personalty in the first one and I'm just forgetting, or if the characters were that bland in Dreamfall, too. You could kind of see personalities(?) of Ant and Cata (and Jaime, but right now I'm only talking about the kids on the inside) in their POV chapters, but it really wasn't much. You could also sort of get a feel for the characters by how they talked, but not that much.

It really took me the first eighty/a hundred pages to get into this book. I found the nightmares, especially the first two, to not be as scary or exciting as the ones in the first book, but that too could be because it's been a while since I read the last one.

The thing that really annoyed me in this the most was Jaime. He was a pre-med student that was observing the clinical trial to cure insomnia for, I don't know, I think it was for school credit. (Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.) He somehow, even though he has no medical experience whatsoever, picks up on the fact that they were in a shared dream state. How he drew that conclusion is a mystery to me. I mean, I know it (probably) says how he got from A to B. But he is a frikin' pre-med student. He's not even in med school yet, but he knows exactly what is going on with them.

Overall, though, I did like the book a lot. Once I got into it, It was really hard to put down. It got scarier, but that might just be because I read some of it late at night when I was tired. The dialog was pretty good, as was the writing. It definitely isn't one of my favorites, but it's a good read.