SLEEPLESS

Emma Montgomery and her classmates went to New Orleans to help people rebuild their shattered home. When they return to Sea Cliff, on Long Island, ghoulish visions and grisly deaths alter the student philanthropists’ lives, so Emma partners with Jake Hardale to uncover the root of their dark dreams. Scratching slightly at the basic tenets of many a thriller, Fahy leaves much of the rich premise of his novel unexplored: brainwashing, subliminal suggestions and voodoo. Readers have read Emma’s story many times over, and even the youngest horror-movie fan will be able to predict the novel’s arc. Uncertain relationships tenuously link the characters together, making their interactions feel forced, with none of the emotional investment that makes gruesome deaths more than a mere splash of blood. The murky murder motivation stretches credulity, which removes readers even further from the story. The author never connects readers to the scene or the events, leaving them looking at both characters and story through slowly drooping eyelids. (Horror. YA)