T
itle: Blind Study
Author: Jacquelyn Sylvan
Genre: YA Supernatural Thriller
Age Group: Young Adult
Rating: 4,5 stars
Purchase: Amazon
Review copy provided by Enchanted Book Promotions in exchange for an honest review.
Eighteen-year-old Alice has spent the last year of her life in a hospital bed, held hostage by pain from a freak accident. Doctors can neither explain nor cure her condition, and her medical insurance is about to run out. Then, she’s offered one last chance—inclusion in a study for a revolutionary new pain medication.
Miraculously, the medication works. There’s only one side effect—vivid, terrifying nightmares, of imprisonment in a pitch-black cell, with no memory of her identity or how she got there. At least, she thinks that’s all they are, until someone from her dreams shows up in real life.
When other sinister happenings cross the boundary between dreaming and waking, Alice must choose: return to a half-life of isolation and agony, or confront the malevolent force behind the dreams, before she and those she cares about are trapped in their nightmares forever. But by the time she makes her choice—it may already be too late.
What an amazing, at times frightening, at times heartwarming, read. Blind Study introduces us to Alice, our MC, right away, but in the most dire of circumstances. Alice tumbles down a cliff trying to save a little girl, and spends the next year in a hospital bed. Even long after her injuries have healed, she’s struggling to cope with tremendous pain. The doctors are baffled, and no one is able to come up with a cure. Until she signs up for new, revolutionary pain medication.
The medication helps, but there’s a side effect no one could’ve dreamed of. Terrifying, vivid nightmares begin to haunt Alice every moment she’s asleep. In the nightmares she meets Riley, an Iraq war veteran who lost his legs in the war, and who participated in the new medication program as well. Riley and Alice grow closer to each other as they stand side by side to fight the nightmares.
When the nightmare realm starts to cross over with the regular world, Alice has to confront the creatures of her nightmares, or quit the drugs and go back to her solitary life, ruled by pain.
Alice has to make tough choices, and she’s in a tough position. The pain makes her a rather unlikeable character, but the guilt she feels afterward for what she’s done, instantly brings her back to the likeable side. She’s down-to-earth and realistic, but she has a rather dark and gloomy view on things, probably due to the accident. Riley is a lot like her, and that’s probably why they work so well. I really liked their interactions, the bond of respect they had for each other, and well, everything. For such a tough guy, Riley can be rather sweet, and that really warmed my heart.
The plot was quite original, and the story was refreshing and intriguing. It was fast-paced, and the writing was decent, ideal for a YA book.
One of my favorite YA reads of the year. If you’re in the mood for some chilling YA novel with supernatural elements and endaring characters, check out Blind Study.
Speak Your Mind