This book had an interesting concept and I was hooked through the entire story! The idea of a simple podcast changing so much in so many different lives is gripping and I loved how this story was told and how it all played out. Fantastic read.

Actually 4.5 stars.
This is another book based around someone hiding from their past. What sets it apart from all the others is that it delves deeper and covers more subjects just than this. We have the media involvement which is predominately a podcast but this is coupled together with the now very topical use of social media and there are examples of this dotted sporadically throughout the text, complete with scarily accurate comments both good and bad.
Josie hasn't had a good time of things. Her father was murdered, witnessed by her twin Lanie on whose evidence, the man responsible was convicted and imprisoned. Their mother then left them in the hands of their Aunt when she left to join a cult. No wonder Josie changed her name and moved to escape it all. Then, one day all her nightmares come at once when investigative journalist Poppy Parnell (great name) re-opens the case in the form of a podcast. The man convicted has always protested his innocence and Poppy believes that there is more to the case than originally came to light. Then Josie's mother dies and she is forced to lie to her current boyfriend Caleb who knows nothing of her past, as she returns home to face her past and, in doing so, also face her sister, her twin, once close, now exiled. What will she find when she gets there and will it eventually lead to the truth?
This book lead me round the houses and then some, the author skillfully weaved a tale that had me meekly following every twist and turn as, quite early on, I gave up trying to second guess. The characters were delightful, all in different ways. Some I connected to immediately, others took a while and the odd one, well, I had enough in the bag that the odd one didn't hurt at all. I especially liked Aunt A and her daughter Ellen. I also really enjoyed some of the character interactions both positive and negative, and there were some whose development along the way was so well done that the majority came across as completely credible. Obviously, you're not really supposed to like the baddies in books, in this case one of them being Poppy, as some of the things she did to get her story were a little sneaky as well as the way she spun some innocuous things into being something big, but at the end of the day, she has a job to do and I guess she did it very well. The one I didn't really connect with was Caleb, for what reasons I have no idea but to me he didn't quite work.
As well as the ending, the author delivered shock after shock throughout the book. Boy did she put her characters through the mill as well as me as a reader and I lost count of the number of times my jaw dropped or I held my breath as another one landed in front of me.
The narrative flits n time back to before the murder, just after and then to the present day. Sometimes I find it hard to follow these multiple timeline books but i found this one very easy to get to grips with and never got lost. I loved how the past was injected/uncovered at just the right. times in the present to move the story along a bit further.
All in all another cracking debut, can't wait to see what the author offers up next time.

My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Podcasts, murder and cults, oh my. I was a huge fan of Serial so when a book is described as "Serial meets Ruth Ware's In a Dark, Dark Wood" I knew it was a book I had to read. I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning to finish, because I just had to know who killed Chuck Burhman. In my opinion, for a thriller to earn a five star review I've got to be stumped on the "whodunnit" or there needs to be some other twist I never saw coming at the end. I figured out who killed Josie's father before it was actually revealed. It was still a great read; I just like a little more shock value in the ending. I also felt that Josie and Lanie's relationship was a little cliche, but Lanie's manic character made up for it. Overall, a great, fast-paced read with a very modern twist. I expect we'll see more books centered around podcasts as they've become so popular.

It’s been thirteen years since Josie’s father was murdered and twelve years since his murderer was imprisoned. The tragedy destroyed the family. Josie hasn't talked to her mom or twin sister in over a decade. She thought she left all of that baggage in the past, but blogger/journalist Poppy Parnell is hosting a hit serial podcast that's bringing the closed case back into the public eye. Josie panics. She’s spent the last decade trying to forget that night and now everyone is talking about it. She changed her last name and hasn't even told her long-term boyfriend the truth about her family. As horrified as she is by the idea of the podcast, she can’t resist listening in. She begins to doubt her sister's story, losing the only closure she ever had. Could her sister have been mistaken, or even lying, about what she saw that night? Has an innocent man been in jail for the last twelve years?  Things get even worse for the Buhrman family when Josie’s mother dies shortly after the release of the second episode. The untimely death forces Josie to come out of hiding and confront the painful past she has been running away from. Will she finally have to face the sister who betrayed her?

It's an addictive read, but not a memorable one. The non-generic cover reeled me in, but in the end it felt like many of the other thrillers I’ve read lately. These first-person narrators with dark pasts are all starting to sound the same: bland personalities & the obsessing over past events with increasing detail as the story goes on. However, I liked that Josie had to go back to her hometown and interact with her family again, so she wasn't completely isolated from other people. I loved her bossy but loyal cousin Ellen! The other problem was that I didn't have the sense of urgency that I like to feel when I read mysteries. No one seems to be threatened by outside danger and Josie isn't driven by finding the truth. In fact, she spends most of the story pushing away the one person who knows what happened.

Some of my favorite parts of this book deal with social media. Josie experiences having the worst moments of her life viewed as entertainment. Her story forces us to witness the ramifications of viewing someone's tragedy as a guilty pleasure. Poppy claims she’s merely an objective party trying to ascertain the truth, but her sensationalist reporting leads to people harassing the family. Interspersed between the chapters are Reddit threads, Twitter discussions, Facebook threads, and podcast transcripts. The author nailed the back-and-forth between the armchair detectives! Everyone is certain their theory is the correct one. People with firsthand knowledge are eager to betray the family and share what they know with the masses for a tiny taste of fame or Internet points. The listeners create caricatures out of the Buhrmans and tend to analyze every clue in the least charitable way possible. For instance, Poppy and many of her fans assume that the Buhrman family's reluctance to talk means they're hiding something—but perhaps it just means they want to be left alone.

What was the final breaking point between the sisters? What really happened the night of Chuck Buhrman’s death? Are You Sleeping? is a story about a family ripped apart by tragedy. One-by-one, the Buhrman women went their separate ways, taking on new identities to escape their emotional pain. Josie's mother joined a cult and her sister turned to drugs. Josie traveled the world and avoiding forming any attachments for as long as she good. Will anyone in this family ever be able to forgive themselves? Is there any chance for closure in this family's future? Hopefully, they'll be able to sort out the truth—preferably before Poppy Parnell broadcasts it to her five million listeners.

Great book! So intense all the way through. The story is perfect, juicy yet not ridiculous. I will be looking for more from this author. Loved the book!

Great book. Brilliant plot and main characters. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. Very enjoyable.

At first it was hard to get into as so much happening and many characters. Very interesting storyline and kept me interested. Lots of character depth to help you see what is happening. Enjoyed this book and look forward to more from this author.

Great read! I could not put this down once I started reading it. I fell in love with the characters and felt their emotions while reading this book. Is a must read!

Cults, murder, and reputation collide in this thrilling page-turner...

This was a great modern idea for a book, taking influence from the popular true-crime podcasts and for me this was the strongest theme of the book - real families dealing with the fall out of a crime of national interest. There were similarities with Gillian Flynn's Dark Places - but not as grim.
I looked forward to reading this but had worked out who the killer was quite early as it was seeded in the story (the friend the girls mother had stayed with had been sleeping on drugs so she could have easily slipped out - however this lack of alibi wasn't revisited during the reveal, which was odd!)
Also I found the main character Josie rather frustrating as she kept trying to hide from the truth and there was a lot of going over old ground, also the sister Lanie was awful I couldn't understand why anyone gave her the time of day!
Still, a really interesting idea and an enjoyable read although a lot of it could have been cut out for me.

The premise of this book is brilliant and while for me it fell slightly flat, it was a tense mystery about a decades-old murder that's blown wide open after it becomes the topic of a podcast. The writing kept me hooked and I loved how each chapter began with an excerpt from the podcast to give the reader an understanding of what other people involved in the case had to say, rather than just trust the POV of the main characters. Super clever and super fun!

How would you feel if your father’s murder was being covered in a non-fiction podcast? Would you be grateful that someone was looking further into his murder or would you be upset that all the old information is being dredged up once again? That is the premise of this novel. The podcast in this book has a remarkable, and author acknowledged, resemblance to the popular podcast, Serial, in its first season.

Josie, the good twin, and Lanie, the bad twin, are both in the house during the crime. Lanie testifies that she saw Wesley, a goth teenage neighbor, commit the crime. After the murder, Josie and Lanie’s mother left the girls with their aunt and joined a cult. Wesley was convicted of the murder. His mother contacted the podcast in the hopes of getting more information to prove her son’s innocence.

This is categorized as a mystery/thriller but it was easy to guess whodunit. It seemed almost a Young Adult read because so much of the story was flashbacks to the twin’s youth. There are many twists and turns and as many red herrings as there are subplots. It also has complex family dynamics underlying its other themes.

Overall, I think this novel would appeal to older teens or readers that like to read about how families interrelate. However, I wouldn’t recommend it to mystery/thriller readers that are looking, like I am, for the next Gone Girl.

I want to thank the publisher, author and netgalley for an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Great read! Looking forward to reading more by this author! Highly recommend!

Here is a review by Mandy: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2032672631

What a great book! i received a copy of this book from net galley and could not wait to start it. it is a book that you just don't want to put down. the story keeps you on edge all the time, wondering what really happened. it is a modern story with a podcast digging up a murder case that is already seemingly solved but the convicted murders mother not having it. i highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a story that could go anywhere. one of the best books i have read this year.

What are the stories we tell ourselves?

A podcast about the Charles Buhrman murder of 2002 is about to reopen old wounds for daughter Josie and possibly create new ones. Living in a protective box, Josie has managed to piece together a new life in the Big Apple with Caleb. But the past's reach is not far Journalist Poppy Parnell's clutch. Poppy seeks unanswered questions about Josie's fathers untimely death. Is Warren Cave the man convicted of Buhrman's murder the actual assailant or was a lie told? Josie is forced to confront her many secrets and the buried truth in a family's dark closet.

From the transcript of "Revisited" to the opening scene, an emotional charge is created like the atmosphere before an electrical storm. Immediately the lies start unfolding. The narrative flows freely and the plot twists seamlessly. Josie character is well developed and relatable. As Josie's world starts to be revealed we slowly start to see a women become undone. Poppy Parnell’s is completely unlikable and portrayed as a villainous reporter who will overstep any boundary to achieve her goal. The story plot unfolds in the setting of social media which make you pause at the impact of the words cast freely out into the universe. A fantastic read for the summer! Highly recommend this well written suspenseful novel.

Thank you Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Josie Birnmham has built a new life for herself and partner Caleb in New York, far away from her disaster of a family in the midwest. To make her life easier, she’s kept a few details of her life from Caleb. he knows nothing about her father’s murder, her mother’s membership in a cult, or her sister Lanie. But a reporter with a podcast about Josie’s father’s unsolved murder is about to change all that. Josie’s carefully constructed life begins to fall apart and when her mother dies, she has to travel home to confront her sister and the lies and secrets that have kept them apart.