The Girl in Between by Laekan Zea Kemp (The Girl in Between; 1)

The Synopsis:

Bryn Reyes is a real life sleeping beauty. Afflicted with Klein-Levin Syndrome, she suffers episodes of prolonged sleep that steal weeks, and sometimes even months, from her life. But unlike most KLS patients, she doesn’t spend each episode in a catatonic state or wake up with no recollection of the time she’s missed. Instead, Bryn spends half her life in an alternate reality made up of her memories. For Bryn, the past is a place, until one day a boy she’s never met before washes up on the illusory beach of her dreams with no memory of who he is.
But the appearance of this strange boy isn’t the only thing that’s changed. Bryn’s symptoms are worsening, her body weakening as she’s plagued by hallucinations even while awake. Her only hope of finding a cure is to undergo experimental treatment created by a German specialist. But when Dr. Banz reveals that he knows more about her strange symptoms than he originally let on, Bryn learns that the boy in her head might actually be the key to understanding what’s happening to her, and worse, that if she doesn’t find out his identity before it’s too late, they both may not survive.

I read this book on my own time and was not required to write a review. Therefore all comments and opinions are entirely my own.

Review:

What would you do if you were trapped and forced to re-live your memories? What about if you trapped in someone else’s memories?

Longing for a normal life, The Girl in Between (also known as Bryn), battles a disease that has no cure and spends more time in her memories than she does in her current reality, not that it’s her choice to do so though. Bryn’s story seems like a typical YA Contemporary Romance until a mysterious boy enters her memories, when she knows that she’s never seen him before in her life, so how could he be a memory? With mounting strangeness, The Girl in Between takes a turn for an epic paranormal, soul-mate type romance that refuses to let go of the reader’s attention.

I’m not going to lie, this book was absolutely breathtaking. The story is perfectly paced, I don’t recall becoming bored at all, and it is so stunningly written that I felt myself “watching” it unfold instead of simply reading it. The author captured the land of Bryn’s memories in such a way that is was believably mysterious and dynamic. There are several references to Bryn’s favorite book, Through the Looking Glass, and I couldn’t help but to notice their similarities that were surely intentional and very well captured.

Unfortunately, there is a very high amount of cursing, including the f-word incredibly frequent; derogatory sexual comments, though no scenes (a few mentions and thoughts of “almost” sex scenes) and many kissing scenes. There are also a lot of family issues discussed, such as a distant father, suicidal mother, cheating father, and other things of this likeness (though not primary topics). As the book progresses, the dark theme of the book begins to show and readers may not like the “evil” presence.

I was very disappointed that so much bad language was used, because this book would have surely scored a 5 star rating had the previously mentioned been omitted. However, I am still willing to give The Girl in Between 4 out of 5 stars because of how flawless the storyline itself was.