Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - Insomnia

Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Insomnia by Sarah Pinborough

27 reviews

ashleyalyse's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

While I did really enjoy this book, I still found myself with unanswered a questions at the end that I felt should have been resolved better.
It was an enthralling read, I listened while I did chores around the house which allowed me to forget about how much cleaning I was doing.

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theinstabookworm's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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soobooksalot's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Maybe 40 isn't the new 30 in Insomnia.
Emma - wife, mother, lawyer - is about to turn 40. The same age her mother was when she stopped sleeping and became debilitated and institutionalized due to mental illness. And declared her youngest daughter would be the same.
In the days preceding her birthday, Emma has also stopped sleeping.
I did enjoy Insomnia, full of unreliable events and characters and gaslighting, but I had hoped it would be creepier.
There's definitely tension and foreboding throughout. I think the pacing was off for me with this one - if the entire book was like the final quarter, it could have been more of a win.
I enjoyed Sarah Pinborough's Behind Her Eyes and will read more of her backlist someday.

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maddireads13's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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foldingthepage_kayleigh's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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tspice24's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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marieeh's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

2.5

I guess I just don't really like Sarah Pinborough's writing. I can't quite place what exactly it is, it felt really middle of the road for me and I had a hard time staying motivated to finish it. Since reading Behind Her Eyes I knew to at least suspect that there could be a

supernatural element

and there was, but this one was not quite as shocking for me. Maybe because I did expect it.

The story itself was fine, if a little forgettable. There was one side plot in particular that felt really unnecessary to me, and in my opinion was not handled appropriately:

Chloe being groomed/abused by her parents' friend. It wasn't handled in the way you'd expect a parent to react to something like that. Even after it came out what was going on, her parents didn't do anything? It just kind of was brushed under the rug.

As for the meat of the story, some things just felt a little too convenient. And I guess I just didn't like the main device that caused everything to happen in the way that it did.

How time is cyclical and the reason Emma's mother lost her mind at her 40th was simply because she was having premonitions/visions and had to do these things to warn Emma of the danger that was coming for her in the future at her own 40th... but if she hadn't done those things, none of it would have happened to Emma, Caroline, etc. I just didn't like it.

My final little complaint was the epilogue. It's fine to write a stand alone book, you don't have to create a whole universe for each of your books to exist in together, and even if you do put them in the same universe, characters don't have to interact. Maybe I've just read too many books lately where that happens but I'm tired of it (maybe I'm just no fun!).

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