I received this book for free from Blogging for books to read and give my honest review.
Where to begin? I think this book cured my insomnia. Okay not really, if anything it cause me to have nightmares. It wasn't awful but it drove me crazy quite a bit. The premise is the whole world suddenly is overcome with an epidemic. But unlike your other zombie type apocalypse stories this one isn't a virus or exposure to a toxin or a curse or whatever. It is insomnia. Which honestly sleeplessness might be worse than a virus. A virus has a cure, sudden insomnia is something wrong in the brain itself. Yes, it could have been caused by a virus but no where in the book were we given that as a fact. It just happened. And it didn't seem to be contagious...it picked its victims with no real pattern. One day people started sleeping less and less, driving the entire world into hysteria. I say entire world because that's what they say but how do we know it is the whole world? What if its just us crazy American's and the rest of the world is just standing on the sidelines going "good riddance". As for the characters, I wasn't irritated with the number, I was okay with that. It was too unnecessary points of view. I'll explain below.
**SPOILERS**
Moving on to my thoughts. I wasn't mad at the hallucinations and strange speech. I get it. Lack of sleep will literally make you a nutter. What got me was the animal instincts that showed through the surface. It is like they were no longer human. No longer able to process right from wrong, good from bad. It was terrifying. Your body is beyond exhaustion. It is beyond the realm of sleeplessness a BRAIN can handle. That is the key. Your BRAIN needs to shut down. If it can't bad things happen. It was torture for me to read about these poor souls who just wanted to rest but were unable to. They could feel the waves of sleep rushing in and then nothing. Add in the heartbreaking stories of those who could still sleep...the sleepers and it was the stuff of nightmares...well if you can sleep that is. They sleepers lived in fear of sleeping because the sleepless would savagely murder them to "get the sleep out of them". How messed up is that?!? Can you imagine not being able to sleep, not because you can't but because your life could be snuffed out just because you can.
The characters were okay. The only ones I really liked were Lila and Chase...and Felecia near the end. You would think I would have preferred the adult but no, he made me mad. You have Briggs whose can only think of finding his crazed wife. She succumbed to the insomnia, tried to kill him and escaped their apartment. I can understand going look for her but once he ran out of leads he really should have given up and oh I don't know maybe looked for others like him. Speaking of his wife, Caroline, she CLEARLY was unstable before the epidemic. She showed telltale signs of depression/anxiety/possible bipolar, the insomnia just enhanced it. Then we meet Chase who is basically normal but he has penis problems. He is OBSESSED with his ex Felecia but they broke up because he can't get it up. His whole story arc was messed up! I really thought he was immune then we get to the crazy chapter where he has a never ending erection and steals sheep. His friend Jordan was odd but seemed to mean well. We don't know what happens to him, assumed dead. Then there is Felecia. She seemed to actually love Chase but the no way to be intimate thing came between them, that and he was jealous of her BOSS. She comes off as selfish at first but she really isn't. She actually cares so much. And she is brave. She volunteers for a procedure that killed her superior. And it works...she's going to be okay (or not). We have this poor child Lila who is all alone and almost murdered by her parents who can't sleep. She is smart, she is a survivor and we have no idea what happened to her! We are teased with the idea that she fell to insomnia but then she falls asleep (I think) and that's it, no more story about her.
I enjoyed it for the most part but there were unnecessary parts. Like why do we need to read a whole chapter about Briggs' brother and sister in law slowing going insane and probably doing something horrible to their newborn. Why was that necessary??? Why do I need such great detail of the never ending erection. I get it "if it lasts more than x hours see a doctor". But we get insane details about this to the point where it is almost uncomfortable. It felt too scattered. Too many things going on and not enough answers. What happened to Lila, how in the world did Briggs survive the overdose, have they found other sleepers or is it just those at the compound, is Briggs the answer to all of this since he can still sleep without an implant...so many questions. Also, how come the genius scientists are looking at the animals? As far as we can tell they are still sleeping, shouldn't that tell us something?
Whatever the case may be it was an okay story. The ending was forced. There is all this build up where you think all main characters are coming together to fix this and then boom back to Briggs' point of view where he's at the sleep compound telling stories to those with implants since they can't dream. He finally gets over his wife and it ends with him dreaming of something other than her, The end. What?!? I just didn't like that end. I felt like the end should have had hope for everyone...not just him. Like there is a whole city of natural sleepers and the world is going to be okay because they found a fix (that doesn't involve brain surgery). Or he found Lila and I don't know...I'm not a writer but the ended needed something more.
Thoughts as I read:
Page 10 — March 17, 2015
"They looted until the police arrived, some naked and others bristling with guns and knives. They chased off the mob. Then it was this tribe of cops themselves..."
Well the world went to shit
Page 12 — March 17, 2015
"Where you did what? She asked, her face now full of sorrow. "You don't go for so long all around and around if you're who you said you are."
Oh wow, insomnia is bad m'kay (Caroline to Briggs)
Page 31 — March 17, 2015
"That they would be doing what young couples do - before things got too tangled in his head and his body refused to follow."
Oh...he can't get it up....odd for a youngin
Page 35 — March 17, 2015
"A chronic wasting disease superbug triggered by a weaponized mammalian prion, ticking in the thalamus. Born in the meat of elk and deer. Bambi's revenge."
Well that's disturbing
Page 64 — March 18, 2015
"I think I should kiss you. I think that would be the best thing for you."
Honestly I thought the same thing....(Jordan to Chase about his "issue")
Page 65 — March 18, 2015
Page 69 — March 20, 2015
"Go you with them and find wood that burns."
Cryptic
Page 70 — March 20, 2015
"Go away, dad. You can see that there is a nasty business here. F**k, your beard is such a ruiner."
Dad....must be hallucinating...Lila is a very young girl.... (Lila's dad to Lila)
Page 79 — March 20, 2015
"The letter, which she read by the fire, told her to never return to the house. It said they were already gone, that they would sleep forever."
Well that's heart breaking
Page 90 — March 20, 2015
What?!? Oh god please don't hurt your baby - (In reference to the jacked up side story of Brigg's brother and sis in law...why?)
This book is messing with my head...a talking Newborn...is this trainspotting???
Page 97 — March 20, 2015
Omg!
Page 103 — March 23, 2015
"Wow. He could rape a boulder with this thing."
Really?!? Good lord!
Page 124 — March 23, 2015
**SPOILER** Brain surgery done by insomniacs does NOT sound like a good idea!!!
Page 131 — March 24, 2015
"She moved to the margins of his periphery and seemed to settle there, just out of view, a soft dark edge to his field of vision."
Uh oh....is he succumbing to the insomnia...isn't that a sign?!?
Page 132 — March 24, 2015
Wtf is happening to chase?!? Why is he in a truck with sheep, why was he naked by the creek, wtf happened?!?
Page 132 — March 24, 2015
purple as of a few days ago and craning up at the wheel as if trying to see over the dash. Tight and aching, the engorged appendage."
Jfc that's not good!
Page 137 — March 24, 2015
"So I shut everything down on my own with my own hands one by one because I'm not letting them do it! I'm going to do it myself goddammnit..."
Oh god, did he kill his family?!?
Page 143 — March 24, 2015
"It was as though he told his cock an incredible story and it had laughed and cried, then turned to him and said , "then what?"
Yikes! He pleased himself and its still...wow.
Page 143 — March 24, 2015
"What they needed was a shake-up"
Oh god those poor sheep! Why is no one looking into why animals don't seem to be affected?!?!
Page 145 — March 24, 2015
"The hatchet, he thought. I can separate them"
Omg! Run sheep!
Page 148 — March 24, 2015
"Maybe just one leg of the sheep like a torch."
This is getting painful to read
Page 148 — March 24, 2015
"He sensed that a black moon had risen, a sphere of sleeplessness...."
Ha! The book did the thing!
Page 152 — March 24, 2015
"Now he would reach the eye and blind it."
Omg don't stick you dick in hole in a restroom!
Page 153 — March 24, 2015
This story is making me increasingly uncomfortable...
Page 172 — March 25, 2015
"she strung up an eleborate web of trip wires all the way down the stairs, hanging bells, cans and jangly ornaments..."
Noise makers...smart little girl!
Page 186 — March 25, 2015
"The idea did not come to him immediately"
Is he going to kill himself?!?
Page 187 — March 25, 2015
"What could maybe be unbearable is knowing that something was dreaming inside you"
Did no one realize how depressed she was?!? He mentions her "quirkiness" but she had REAL issues before...
Page 188 — March 25, 2015
Ok so he somehow doesn't die...
Page 188 — March 25, 2015
"Because he was the dreamer, they did not know if what he was telling them was a dream or not. When they asked, Dr. Lee would say..."
Well clearly he finds the sleep center.........what is happening?!?!
Page 198 — March 25, 2015
"She heard another chime."
Did she get lost....she didn't really mean to leave Felecia...why is she following chimes?!!?!?
Page 199 — March 25, 2015
"She should have never touched it"
That's the same thing Jordan said about the horses. . . .does that mean something...(in reference to the sleep device in Felecia's skin)
Page 202 — March 25, 2015
There's only 13 pages left.....I'm not gonna like the end am I...?
Page 211 — March 25, 2015
"Someone went after the implant, dug it right out of her head. Tried to pound it into his own skull with a rock. Bashed his f**king brains out. We think it was the boyfriend."
I mean I figured chase killed her but yikes!
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