A dream wrapped in razor wire or razor wire wrapped in a dream

4.5 stars

To everyone who knows her, Waverly Camdenmar appears to be pretty much perfect. She is intelligent, successful, one of the most popular girls in school (thanks to her Machiavellian scheming on behalf of her best friend, whom she’s pretty sure she doesn’t even like anymore). Said best friend keeps referring to her as a robot or android, but thanks to her, Waverly fits in. No one knows that nearly every night, Waverly battles insomnia and runs until her feet bleed. She also fears she may be a sociopath.

Marshall Holt is one of the school’s notorious stoners. His home life is pretty terrible, he knows that he is very likely to fail all his classes (not for lack of aptitude, he just doesn’t particularly care) and he drinks himself into oblivion, gets stoned or does harder drugs, just to make the world recede for a while. He’s had a crush on ice queen Waverly Camdenmar for more than a year, but is pretty sure she doesn’t even know he exists. Then one night, he’s pretty sure he sees her in his bedroom, but he writes that off as a hallucination. She also comes and holds his hand when he’s tripping badly on acid under a patio table at one of his brother’s parties. Is his intense lifestyle starting to take its toll, or is something strange happening?

One night, sick of insomnia, Waverly reads about a relaxation technique and tries it to fall asleep. She dreams herself into Marshall’s bedroom, and the next night to his brother’s party. She has no idea what is happening, but every time she tries the relaxation ritual, she ends up wherever Marshall currently is, and he seems to be the only one that can see her. While they barely acknowledge each other’s existence in the daytime at school, at night, they start to have private, intimate and in-depth conversations. An actual relationship between them would be entirely impossible, or would it?

Full review on my blog.