Sleepwalk Society by Kendare Blake

• 11/14/2013
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Sleepwalk Society
Kendare Blake
PRA Publishing (2010)
ISBN 9780982140710
Reviewed by McKenzie Tritt (age 16) for Reader Views (8/09)

Violet’s name is rather ironic, seeing as how she’s the colorless, boring one in her group of friends. There will always be Terran, the ambitious, bubbly blonde to outshine her, and Joey her best guy friend who has quite the temper. Freshman year of college has just ended for Violet and Terran, and now they’re back at home. Violet still doesn’t know what she wants to major in and Terran is tired of feeling like she always has to be better. On top of all of that, they have to deal with their family and boy problems. And there are enough boy problems to last a lifetime with Terran around.

Then there’s Joey, the other piece of the three-person triangle. He has always had a thing for Terran, and now it looks like he might just get a chance with the girl of his dreams.  But after what happens at a party one night, things will never be the same.

Violet must deal with her parent’s nonstop nagging to choose a major, but she also has to deal with a newfound love interest. This special boy just so happens to be Joey’s cousin, Brandon, who is stopping by until he feels the need to move on to someplace different. With him, Violet learns about love and life and she develops her perspective on just how much, or little, time she has in the world. She’s a cynic with a romantic side – quite contradictory, really.  But as her friends develop and change, so does Violet and her views on what is happening.

Kendare Blake’s “Sleepwalk Society” had good intentions, but it didn’t quite get there. I found the characters hard to connect with, and the dialogue to be strange. I couldn’t imagine these teens having the in-depth conversations that they did about life and love. What they talked about seemed too mature for their age, and I can’t imagine the average teen being able to relate to their views. The basic plot was good enough, but there wasn’t that special something that made it spark to life. There were a couple of interesting plot twists, but other than that I was left feeling like “That’s it?” The end seemed too abrupt; something more needed to happen. I would recommend this book to people ages 14 and up because of the content. “Sleepwalk Society” by Kendare Blake wasn’t a terrible book; I just found myself having a hard time connecting with any of the characters and I seemed to flow through the book without caring about what happened in the end.