Review: Sleep No More

Review:

This is something I've had on my shelves for a while and picked up at random one evening. I'm not sure what I was expecting but turned out I really enjoyed it and finished it within a few days. Fast paced plot, intriguing mystery, fairly original world building and likeable characters.

Though I did find it got very silly and all over the place at the end, and I figured out who the killer was immediately, it was still an enjoyable read. Mostly because its not something I have come across before. Charlotte is a solitary girl who keeps herself away from people because of her unusual ability to see the future, She is an Oracle, along with her aunt, and they have terrible visions of things to come. The visions are painful and Charlotte is warned no matter what she sees, don't get involved. Which strikes me as kind of weird. What is the point of having Oracles who can see the future if according to the leaders who make the rules, the mysterious Sisters of Delphi, (or something along those lines) not to get involved or trying to stop terrible things from happening?

Charlotte struggles a great deal with this. The tension is built very well, made worse when seemingly random teens with no real connections start to die. There's a good sense of community fear driven into the narrative as well as Charlotte's own misgivings in dealing with her powers and a new character who comes on to the scene who says he can help her learn to control her abilities. Whilst Charlotte wasn't the most exciting main character ever, she was however, mostly sensible and likeable, and her inner struggles were quite moving. 

When things seem pretty bad for everyone, there was a ray of light for Charlotte when the boy she has had a crush on for years finally starts talking to her and a relationship builds between the two of them. Due to her visions striking any time anywhere Charlotte keeps to herself and is thought of as the freak of her class. So it was sweet to see her getting fluffy and flustered as her crush starts talking to her more and more and their friendship slowly becomes something more. A nicely developed romance, though takes an interesting twist at the end.

For the most part, the book had some fairly original world building in its visions and Oracle powers. Until the end. The killer is revealed and the world building goes haywire. All sorts of stuff happens and its fast paced but its a bit of a hot mess. That being said, for the most part, it was a good read and I'm looking forward to the next book in this series. 

Crosses off two of my challenge squares - Purple Cover for Bookish Bingo Summer 2015, and Start a Series for Story Sprites Round 1.

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1203868/review-sleep-no-more