The Girl In Between

This book taught me about a disorder I had not heard of before and the descriptive language made me fall for this book. Read it cover to cover. Didn't want to put it down.

The Girl In Between caught my interest right away. A girl who sleeps a lot, weeks at a time who goes to some other place when she is sleeping? Sounds interesting. Right from the first pages I was drawn in. Only it didn't stay that way. The book sounded interesting, I was hooked, but then the story/writing kept going from great to just so so and back again. It was an odd read as I didn't find it consistent. Sometimes I was loving it, sometimes not so much. Strange.

So the story of Bryn and Roman is interesting. Bryn sleeps a lot, more than a normal person, and it really affects her life. How could it not? When the story opens she finds out her ex-boyfriend, Drew, whom she broke up with before she went to sleep a few weeks ago has moved on to someone else. Drew keeps showing up and wanting to get back together, but it written in a cartoony villain like way. I couldn't quite get a feel for who he really was or why he was being like this. He seems to not be able to remember the horrible things he did to Bryn, even when she points them out to him. Strange. Maybe there is more going on with him that you will find out in later books, like the dark that seems to be after Bryn takes him over or something. I don't know.

I also had an issue with the connections between characters. I didn't see any. Between any of the characters. I never really felt like I got to know any of them. Roman, the guy from Bryn's dreams? Well apparently they fall in love. I really didn't see that at all. They barely became friends and suddenly it is just like we are in love. Oh, okay...you don't even seem like you care that much for each other. Roman seems like he just doesn't want to be alone in the dream world, like anyone would be better than no one. So it was hard to really get into the story when you can't connect or understand any of the characters.

The cousin/best friend was the same way. I didn't understand her or why she did the things she did. She, the cousin, likes their other best friend, and he likes her, but she won't do anything with him. Why? Well I am not quite sure. I know what they told me, but it wasn't shown that she was afraid and didn't want to losing him and whatnot. The conversations Bryn and her had about everything were strange a lot of the time. They didn't come off as realistic or how people actually talk. It was more to let the reader know something instead of showing the reader through the persons actions and feelings. So it was not that great.

But in between all of this odd character conversations and such it would get a bit interesting. The whole Klein-Levin Syndrome was interesting. I didn't know anything about it prior to this book so I was happy to learn a bit about that. Bryn's dream would was also pretty cool, and the dark shadows were well done. Kind of creepy and you could tell not good for Bryn or Roman. Those were the best parts of the book and really kept me reading to find out what was going on. Unfortunately this is part of a series so you have to continue reading to get the whole story. I probably will eventually, but this story itself wasn't good enough for me to run right out and get the next book. Good, interesting at times, but not a great read.

What would you do if you were trapped and forced to re-live your memories? What about if you trapped in someone else's memories?

Longing for a normal life, The Girl in Between (also known as Bryn), battles a disease that has no cure and spends more time in her memories than she does in her current reality, not that it's her choice to do so though. Bryn's story seems like a typical YA Contemporary Romance until a mysterious boy enters her memories, when she knows that she's never seen him before in her life, so how could he be a memory? With mounting strangeness, The Girl in Between takes a turn for an epic paranormal, soul-mate type romance that refuses to let go of the reader's attention.

I'm not going to lie, this book was absolutely breathtaking. The story is perfectly paced, I don't recall becoming bored at all, and it is so stunningly written that I felt myself “watching” it unfold instead of simply reading it. The author captured the land of Bryn's memories in such a way that is was believably mysterious and dynamic. There are several references to Bryn's favorite book, Through the Looking Glass, and I couldn't help but to notice their similarities that were surely intentional and very well captured.

Unfortunately, there is a very high amount of cursing, including the f-word incredibly frequent; derogatory sexual comments, though no scenes (a few mentions and thoughts of “almost” sex scenes) and many kissing scenes. There are also a lot of family issues discussed, such as a distant father, suicidal mother, cheating father, and other things of this likeness (though not primary topics). As the book progresses, the dark theme of the book begins to show and readers may not like the “evil” presence.

I was very disappointed that so much bad language was used, because this book would have surely scored a 5 star rating had the previously mentioned been omitted. However, I am still willing to give The Girl in Between 4 out of 5 stars because of how flawless the storyline itself was.

This is a LiteratureApproved.com review.