Sleeper by MacKenzie CadenHead #Bookreview

Title: Sleeper
Author: MacKenzie CadenHead
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Published Date: August 1st 2017
Genre: Science Fiction, Mind, YA
Page Count:272
Format: Paperback
Source: Giveaway win

My Rating: ★ ★ .5

Goodreads Summary: 
As if surviving high school wasn’t hard enough, Sarah Reyes suffers from REM Sleep Behavior Disorder, a parasomnia that causes her to physically act out her dreams. When she almost snaps her friend’s neck at a sleepover, Sarah and her nocturnal habits are thrust into the spotlight and she becomes a social pariah, complete with public humiliation.

When an experimental drug comes onto the market that promises nighttime normalcy, Sarah agrees to participate in the trial. At first, she seems to be cured. Then the side effects kick in. Why does a guy from her nightmare show up at school? Are the eerily similar dreams she’s sharing with her classmates’ coincidence or of her making? Is she losing her mind or does this drug offer way more than sleep? 

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 My Review:

Sarah has a sleep disorder that causes her to have such vivid dreams that she actually acts them out in real life, causing possible harm to her and those around her as well. In the past, she's tried medicines and therapy but they haven't worked. So instead she gets tied to her bed each night to stay safe.
At her first sleepover though things go wrong, causing her to seek out a new medicine to stop her vivid dreams.
This medicine though is still in trial and is one that could have not so good effects. In the trial, she also meets another teenager who has the same disorder. This seems like a really great thing, they'll have something in common and maybe they won't feel so alone. But things quickly get weird once they've started taking the medicine.

Honestly, I really wanted to like this book, and the first third of it I did like. But at about the halfway point, things took a bad turn that you just can't recover from. The other teenager starts wanting to and encouraging Sarah to do things that aren't good, and have real life causes to those around them.

While Sleeper does mention sexual and physical abuse, it never really goes in depth into them. Also,  emotional abuse happens quite a bit towards the end. Nothing gets fully addressed in this book and most things just get glazed over and not mentioned again unless it is to cause some form of emotional trauma to get the victim to comply.

One thing I did like about this book is Sarah's friendship with her best friend. Everyone needs a friend like her one that will help them and not judge and go along with them in order to stop something bad from happening.