Friday 30 May 2014

DNF Review: Paranoia

Paranoia
Author: 

Publication Date:  June 8th 2014        
~A copy was provided by Flux and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review~




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In the aftermath of the events that nearly killed him, Parker Chipp is trying to learn to cope better with life as a Watcher. And it seems to be working...until he wakes up in jail with a hangover and 12 hours of missing time. Darkness has somehow taken control and Parker doesn't have a clue how to stop him. He finds an unlikely ally in Jack, the mysterious guy in the motorcycle jacket who offers to help Parker master his abilities as a Watcher. But even as they practice, the darkness inside Parker is getting more and more powerful, taking over Parker’s body and doing everything he can to destroy Parker's life.

When Jack reveals that there is another kind of Night Walker, known as a Taker, Parker starts to wonder if the strange things happening in Oakville are more than just a coincidence. After all, people are more than just sleepwalking. They're emptying their savings accounts with no memory of doing so, wandering into strange parts of town and disappearing, they're even killing other people--all in their sleep. If Parker wants to find out what's happening or have any hope of seeing his father again, he’ll have to defy Jack and put his own life in danger...because the more he learns about these other Night Walkers, the more certain he becomes that his life isn't the only one that could be lost.

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You can read my review of Insomnia here. Though, I wouldn't, it was one of the first I ever reviewed and it is awfully written.



Oh, Insomnia, I did like you, but sorry Paranoia. It is not happening.
This one I really am so disappointed on, as I said, I did like the first, Insomnia. But where I wasn't too bothered about the believability and found relatable in Insomnia, I found really unbelievable and annoying in Paranoia.


In Insomnia we discovered what Parker is, that almost what he could do, though we didn't know the why/how that we didn't get in Insomnia since it was more focused on how Parker coped and the unravelling of a mystery, in Paranoia we get what the answers. And there's a lot of them. And most of them were answered in one go which become a lot of info dump and over complicated things. We know Parker's a watcher. But then there are builders, and the takers. The builder build dreams for the watchers to let them sleep and heal them, whereas the takers are pretty much explanatory. They take. When a dreamer is sleeping they take control over them.  But, takers don't live that long and that's when we have some icons who've died young come into it. Which, to be honest, I didn't really like. It didn't seem random or weird in to have the name drops in Love Letters to the Dead, because of what it was about, but it didn't work for me in Paranoia.

But, that isn't why I didn't finish it. What I loved about Insomnia was the relationship Parker had with Finn and Addie, and how close they really were, and how awkward it was with the blooming feelings between Parker and Addie. Not that Finn was aware. But there was no love triangle, I loved that. That's what I found annoying in Paranoia, with the new addition of Jack, welcome to the love triangle of Addie, Parker and Jack. Then things get a little complicated with the sextangle/hexagon triangle? I don't even know, but welcome to the second love triangle between Mia, Finn, and Parker. Supposedly, you can tell Finn likes Mia, and there are little things that makes Finn think Mia likes Parker (which, makes Parker think she likes him too- when Addie's the only one he wants.) So, it's starts  a tear in their relationship, while Parker's scared to tell Finn about Addie and Addie's fed up of being the closeted girlfriend and my brain is dead with the tween drama.

This is why a change of moods really effects what you read, maybe I would've liked it a lot better if I was in the mood for that kind of drama, but I wasn't. So I put myself out of my misery.