Thea has been an insomniac for as long as her sleep deprived brain can remember. She struggles through her life with every area of it tainted by her lack of sleep until it all comes to a head, causing danger to Thea and others. After this (ironic) wake up call, Thea is desperate to find a solution to her insomnia and signs up to a research trial at a sleep clinic which promises to not only solve her insomnia but make Thea the best possible version of herself. She is at her wits end so she can ignore the fact that the people running the trial know more about her than she has told them can’t she?

As someone who works in sleep medicine, I was both intrigued by this book and concerned about how the subject matter would be handled. I needn’t have worried. I really enjoyed reading this book. I found I became immersed into Thea’s story very quickly and my interest was held to the end.

I wanted a little more detail in some areas, for example, the differences in the other patients and the tech used in the trial. Perhaps a little more depth and back story for some of the characters too. However, I can see that it’s delicate balance between providing this information and in doing so not affecting the pace of the events of the novel.

The book flew by for me in a fast paced, nail biting whirlwind of tension. I enjoyed the sinister characterisation of those running the sleep trial and the gory and chilling way that the trial descended into chaos. The corrupt motivation involved is scarily plausible. It’s not often that I like an ending that is up for interpretation but I really enjoyed thinking about how the book ended and speculating what occurred.next. It’s a fantastic debut novel and I’ll definitely be up for reading more from this author.