Dnf

The book starts off with psychological thriller vibes then descends into a sort of dystopian science fiction. It's a debut which seems to be dividing opinion. I neither loved nor hated it. The audiobook narration by Helen Keeley is first class and elevates the material. Keeley skilfully assigns different voices and quirks to each character, helping to distinguish them and bringing Louise Mumford's creations to life. My favourite of which was undoubtedly Thea's Mum Vivian, with her Menopausal Army of women warriors, vagina scarf and key trick to fend off potential offenders. My biggest takeaway is that I will never complain about insomnia, ever again, for fear of being spirited away to a giant testicle in the middle of nowhere.

Thea is a lifelong insomniac. When her lack of sleep causes a three car pile up, the same day she receives a notification about trials for a new sleep app, she decides it's time to do something about it.

Morpheus promises to fix everything. It's a six week trial that's supposed to not only solve sleep problems but everything from weight loss and stopping smoking, too. And Thea just barely makes it into the trial.

At first, everything seems fine. A little odd, but fine. And Thea is starting to sleep. Just a little, but it's making all the difference.

And then Thea starts to suspect something is off about the trial. They're sequestered on an isolated island with no cell service. And the company isn't researching just sleep solutions. In fact, it soon becomes clear that Morpheus can control a person's sleep as well.

Louise Mumford's debut is a pretty terrifying read!

So let's start with the fact that I do have insomnia. A double dose in fact. The stress induced kind that keeps you up all night, watching the clock and doing the math, "If I can fall asleep now I can still get x amount of sleep."

But I did a sleep study a few years ago, on sleep meds. As it turns out, my brain doesn't actually enter deep sleep.

So all that's to say that I'm exactly the kind of person who would jump at exactly the opportunity Thea is given in Sleepless! The promise of an app that can solve all your sleep problems, to a person who is in severe lack of sleep...

Morpheus doesn't really come across as too good to be true. So it's easy to see how Thea and the others would easily be manipulated. It all seems so very scientific. And the participants are under the company's complete control. But it seems logical: they're housed in a facility on an island, provided clothes, a schedule, healthy foods (no caffeine, for example), and they're monitored along the way.

All in the name of science.

All for the testing and improvement of an app that promises to be truly revolutionary.

Obviously it is actually too good to be true. But I don't want to give anything away! Suffice it to say the true twists in this book are not the ones you expect.

Through no fault of the book, I happened to have a pretty bad flare up on my insomnia this week. Which meant more time for me to dive into Sleepless! And yeah, it does make a perfect up-all-night read!

As mentioned, this is Mumford's debut novel. I loved every minute of this one and can't wait to see what she'll do next!

I love the premise of this book! Thea has not been able to sleep for more than a few hours every night and it's starting to affect her life. She is invited to attend a sleep trial so she can find help to get more sleep. She meets other participants in the trial, all with their own reasons to be there. I find studies on sleep really fascinating, and I liked how the book shows the different ways lack of sleep can affect someone - nightmares, sleep paralysis, insomnia, etc. I liked Thea's sense of humor and the other characters are interesting too. I also liked Thea's relationship with her protective mother.

I expected the story to go down the path of bad company and tech gone wild, and in a way it does. But the plotting is not cohesive and I found myself confused about the characters' motivations. It's hard to understand who the Big Bad is because it's never made clear, nor exactly what their intention is. While it seems that certain people have their eyes on Thea for nefarious purposes, the way she is treated doesn't exactly reflect that. The ending is disappointing. I never understood what the endgame was after all that. While I liked the tinges of horror in the story and how the action moves fast towards the end, I wish I wasn't left with so many questions.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for a review copy.

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I enjoyed this overall, but there was something about the writing style that didn't quite work for me, it felt quite disjointed and clunky. The plot was an interesting one though - Thea joins a sleep study after years of insomnia, but once she's on the island where it's taking place, all is not as it seems and things start to get weird.

I think it would make a great movie, or a limited series on something like Netflix and I hope the story gets picked up.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publishers and Louise Mumford for an advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to HQ, NetGalley and Louise Mumford for allowing me to read and review this book.

Thea suffers from extreme long term insomnia and when she is in a car accident that’s her fault she realises she needs to do something about it. Spending her days walking round like a zombie on only 4 hours sleep that week she decides to take part in a sleep experiment where they claim to be able to fix you.

A very eerie, sci-fi thriller with something constantly going on. Sometimes maybe too much that I felt myself trying to keep up. Unlike anything I’ve read so far Sleepless is original, imaginative and interesting. I also enjoyed the characters in this book; Thea, Vivian, Rosie, Ethan and Rory, just to name a few. On the other hand I feel like I’m left with a lot of questions unanswered, I would like to know more about the technology. more about the people behind it and what their aim was. Leaving the door open for a follow on? Maybe so. Well worth a read.

“Morpheus- Dream your way to a better you - one sleep at a time”

This was an interesting read that can’t really decide what genre it wasn’t to be, part thriller, part dystopian, we follow Thea as she tries to seek treatment for her insomnia, which has gotten so bad she was in a horrible car accident that could have killed people. When she starts seeing ads for Morpheus, an app that supposedly helps you sleep, she joins the study trial which is only located on an island. Towards the second half of the book is where things shift from outright thriller to more of a dystopian feel. Not to say that is a bad thing, it can just be somewhat confusing for the reader. It was an enjoyable read and one I recommend but don’t jump it to the top of the pile. At 3.5 out f 5 its worth an afternoon.

Thank you to Rachel’s Random Resources and author Louise Mumford for the review copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

"Morpheus. Dream your way to a better you - one sleep at a time."

I struggled with this one. It's taken me two weeks to get through it, and so many times. I wanted to put it down and not finish it. But after so long trying to get through it, I felt like I needed to see it through to the end. I was immensely disappointed and honestly couldn't find a single positive about this book.

Review to come