Author: DC Pierson
Dates read: April 2, 2010 - April 7, 2010 (6 days)
Pages: 226
Picked up a day with this book on my way back toward my schedule. I chose this one because I’ve seen the author perform at Upright Citizen’s Brigade and know that he’s fantastically funny and smart, so I figured this book was sure to be one I’d like. I was right.
This novel is about a fifteen year old loner named Darren befriending an odd kid named Eric who turns out not be able to sleep nor to need to, just as the title suggests. Darren and Eric’s friendship is formed over their partnership in crafting an elaborate fantasy world they intend to span comics, books, movies, and TV series, and Eric reveals his sleep secret to Darren only after they’ve spent months blocking out a lot of the real world while building their pretend one. Darren’s fascinated by Eric’s sleeplessness and sees it as a super power while Eric just sees it as part of his life. Because they’re teenage boys, a girl comes between them. But a chain of events begins that alerts mysterious forces to Eric’s special “power”, throwing them back together despite the girl as they try to keep Eric safe from whoever it is that wants to get their hands on him.
This is a fantastic book. While everything I’d read about it made it out as if the majority of the book detailed Darren and Eric on the run after Eric’s power is made known, that aspect of the story is actually only about a third of the book. The real story is the friendship between Darren and Eric, which is incredibly realistic and painfully accurate in its depiction of what it felt like to be a teenager. More than anything else, the territory tread by this book is the feeling of not belonging, of not trusting that the people around you really understand and care for you the way they seem to, of wondering what it is that people say about you when you’re not around. Of course, Eric’s power and the fantasy world the boys create are both used metaphorically to illustrate these themes, but they’re delicate and subtle allegories that also work literally in the plot. There wasn’t a boring moment or false note in the entire book, a combination of factors I’ve rarely found in one story. I highly recommend this novel.
