The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had To

December 7, 2009
Fifteen-year-old Darren Bennett lives in an entirely recognizable teenage world: he's obsessed with science fiction and video games, bullied by his older brother, and completely baffled by the opposite sex. On the other hand, Darren's new, socially awkward best friend, Eric Lederer, lives a life unrecognizable to everyone: Eric can't sleep, at all, ever, a revelation he shares with Darren in strictest confidence. After overcoming his shock, Darren delights in exploring Eric's anomalous condition through a series of trials involving, among other things, roofies. When a typical high school fight over a girl leads Darren to tell a stranger about Eric's bizarre secret, Darren is caught up in the kind of fight-for-your-life adventure he so often daydreams about. Combining a coming-of-age tale with science fiction, Pierson performs a nimble, satisfying balancing act, with enough drama of the day-to-day high school variety to keep the more fantastic elements in check. The result is a fast-moving narrative with an authentic, heartfelt voice, plenty of laughs and spot-on cultural references, and a raucous climax.

November 15, 2009
Inspired first novel about a high-school misfit who freaks out when he discovers his best friend has an extraordinary gift.

The trippy story begins with artistic dork Darren Bennett meeting a kindred spirit in the brilliant, equally geeky Eric Lederer. Before long they're collaborating on TimeBlaze, a multimedia epic incorporating time travel, an evil conspiracy and plenty of video-game–inspired imagery. But while the duo spends time working on primitive drawings (incorporated in each chapter), Eric confesses an enormous secret. Not only can he not sleep, leaving him plenty of time for homework and midnight exploring, but he's never slept. Oh, and every few weeks he enters a hallucinatory delirium."You know that subconscious thing you were talking about?" Eric asks. (Darren has been discussing dreams.)"I think my mind just processes those things all the time behind the scenes. My imagination is something of a badass." It's all a big noodle-bender for his new buddy."If Eric can exist despite the fact that Eric existing is impossible, then other things that are impossible can happen," says Darren in just one of his insightful, occasionally profane and hilarious OMG moments. A falling-out over Christine, girlfriend of first one boy and then the other, leads Darren to spill the beans on Eric's"thing"; soon a mysterious agent is out to capture the sleepless lad, leading to a big showdown and a genuinely unpredictable ending. A bit racy for younger readers, this geek-friendly comedy will appeal to mature teens and open-minded adults who get past the unwieldy title to find the ribald humor of a Judd Apatow movie married to a science-fiction-fantasy spectacle. Pierson is a member of Derrick Comedy, a trio known for its YouTube videos and a feature film (Mystery Team) that premiered at Sundance in 2009; let's hope he saves some time for more books.

Is it a teen-angst novel? Sci-fi? Funny as hell? All of those things and more.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

December 15, 2009
Like any right-thinking teenager who has grown up on Star Wars and comic books, Darren knows that if theres anything unique about you, men in suits and dark glasses will show up and take you away. This knowledge takes on a new immediacy when Darren discovers that his new best bud, Eric, has a strange, well, superpower: he literally never sleeps and never has to! The good news about this is that it gives Eric lots of time to think about TimeBlaze, the multiplatform sci-fi epic he and Darren are creating. The bad news is that what they imagine starts to become real, including, yes, a man in a suit and dark glasses! In his first novel Pierson, a member of the sketch comedy group Derrick Comedy, has written a witty coming-of-age novel with some engaging twists (anything is possible, remember). And in Darren and Eric, he has created two engaging and memorable co-conspirators and co-protagonists.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)