‘Don’t close your eyes. Don’t fall asleep. Don’t let them in.’ - cover tag line.

My thanks to HQ Digital for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Sleepless’ by Louise Mumford in exchange for an honest review.

This was an engaging read that mixes elements of science fiction with an intense psychological thriller.

Its main character is Thea, an insomniac who hasn’t slept more than three hours a night for years. Then an ad for Morpheus, an innovative sleep trial, pops up on her phone. She eagerly accepts a place on the trial even though it involves travelling to a remote island and surrendering her mobile phone and personal possessions, including her shoes. Okay....

Thea’s mother, Vivian, has been an activist all her life and warns Thea that aspects of the trial sounds cult-like. It’s not long until Thea starts to think that her mother may have been right. She begins to investigate and naturally discovers that there is more going on. Plenty of action follows as Thea and her allies seek to exposure the truth and escape the locked down island.

Thankfully, I only experience insomnia rarely but rarely is quite enough thank you. In her Acknowledgments Louise Mumford shares that she is an insomniac and so had plenty of personal experience to serve as research. I certainly found Thea’s desperation to find a solution powerful. Mumford also captures the hallucinatory nature of dreams and the hypnagogic state.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

Firstly a big thank you to Hq for my copy to review.

As someone whos life revolves around sleep both in excess or lack of i was really intrigued by this book.

This is a mixture of dystopian thriller and sci fi . Cleverly written and thought provoking. Would your lack of sleep prompt you to take part in a sleep study despite not knowing all the details? Would you be prepared to put your body and mind in sciences hands?

Fast paced and action packed with twists and turns. Revelations are made as the pages are turned. If you’re a fan of black mirror then i reckon you’ll enjoy this book.

A great read especially if youre looking for something fresh and original . I wish Louise every success with her debut book .

Published 11th December

I really enjoyed this book.
Thea’s insomnia is controlling her life and she’s finding it hard to function during day to day life.
She decides to try a new sleep program but doesn’t realise what she’s letting herself in for.
Located on an island, the sleep centre is a modern building full of state-of-the-art equipment where people undergo experiments to try and improve sleep patterns.
Pretty soon after arriving, Thea begins to realize there's something wrong and starts to question everybody and everything around her.
I do enjoy some science fiction books and this one definitely held my attention but I didn’t realise it was going to be a sci-fi story from the blurb, however, this is a great page turner that I really enjoyed.
Thanks to HQ and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

Sleepless daringly dances between genres – thriller to dystopian – something which it accomplishes quite well despite my reservations. The plot is compelling and good use is made of the ‘fogged sleep deprived human brain’ in making the reader question how reliable a narrator the MC is.

Being an insomniac I’m always tempted into these horror/thriller stories of those who cannot sleep, but I keep finding myself disappointed. The idea of an app promising sleep to those who can’t find it and then that same technology creating a nightmare is a sound one. And I was on board for over half the book, but it went off the rails at some point. The idea held, but the plot was too frenetic and fantastical.

If you skip REM sleep, there will be consequences. There’s no way around that. At some point I do hope there will be some kind of breakthrough for all of us who struggle more than they sleep, but the world of speculative fiction is definitely not giving us a lot of hope! As usual, the help only hurts in the end.

It was the corporate machination that I think kept this one from landing firmly. Though I suppose the truth probably lies somewhere in the fiction. Between greed and power not many of our problems will ever truly be fixed.

Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for this free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! This book was utterly gripping! I loved it. A real page-turner. As soon as I started reading it I was hooked and it was so hard to put down!
Original story, great characters and I thought the descriptions were brilliant. So well-written.
Awesome book!

Thea joins a sleep study named Morpheus to combat her chronic insomnia as she has tried everything else. She joins a large group of other volunteers on an island off the coast of the UK where they undergo various classes and studies. At first things seem to be working, but after the first week Thea notices odd occurrences which don't seem right: a face at the window of an old abandoned monastery, and the fact that the phones are always busy when she wants to call home. It seems the sleep study isn't about helping them at all, but about using them.

I was expecting a straight forward thriller when I started reading this, but it turned into more of a science fiction thriller by the end. Not that this was unwelcome, I enjoyed reading it. It had a good pace and was very well written. Thea was a character that it was easy to have empathy for, although her mother and her 'Menopausal Army' was a bit laboured. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who likes science fiction which isn't afraid to get a bit dark and disturbing.

Thanks to NetGalley and publishers, HQ, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

I was really looking forward to reading this after reading the blurb as I love a good psychological thriller.

Unfortunately, it wasn't quite what I expected.

The storyline started off really promising as I could relate to the main character Thea who has insomnia. She gets accepted into a sleep trial on a remote island. This is when the story seems to go rather off beat for me as all kinds of crazy breaks out. This is very much more of a sci-fi read at this part.

There were also a few chapters about Thea's mum which I didn't really "get". It didn't feel relevant to the story.

Not convinced about the ending either.

Feel somewhat disappointed, but this wouldn't put me off reading another book by the author as there were some good ideas and the writing flowed quite well mainly. Just a mix match of genres for me. That's my personal opinion though. Others may feel differently.

Many thanks to netgalley and the publishers for an arc.

I was intrigued by the description but just couldn't get into the story. The struggle had started with the first chapter, then I, sadly, had to quit altogether at around 25%. I don't know, maybe, I'd discovered this book too early, meaning that sometimes you need to be in a certain state of mind to enjoy certain types of narratives. This is purely subjective, and I am sure many readers will find it as compelling as the blurb promises.

When you can’t sleep, night after night, you will try just about anything to put that right. That’s what it’s like for Thea. As desperation hits and she sees an advert for a sleep trial she jumps at the chance to take part, but are things as they seem??

I got really hooked at the start of this one, felt it was going to be a real page turner but unfortunately, for me, it lost its way.
The story didn’t go as I envisaged it would but took a bit of a sinister turn which I wasn’t expecting.
It is well written and the author develops the story and characters well but I just couldn’t get into it as much as I thought I would from the synopsis.

I would certainly try another book from this author.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publishers and most importantly the author, for the chance to read this book, in exchange for an honest review.

Wow what a book is kept me up at night. I highly recommend this suspenseful psychological thriller the characters are accurate in the plot captivating. I highly recommend it

Thea is a young woman who's insomnia is controlling her life. She can't sleep. She can't properly function in day to day life. She struggles to develop meaningful relationship. The final straw comes when she is in a car accident. At that point, desperation sets in and she's willing to do anything to fix her chronic sleeping problem. Which is why (against her mother's judgement and all the huge red flags flying) she decides to try a new sleep program.

Located on an island, the sleep center is a modern dome full of state-of-the-art equipment where patients undergo experiments, lecture and lifestyle changes to try and improve sleep patterns.
Pretty soon after arriving, Thea begins to realize there's something wrong and starts questions everybody and everything around her. Of course, escaping the island will be no small fete.

It took me a loooong time to get through this novel. It was a slow and tedious read for me unfortunately. The beginning held my attention and kept me entertained. It started out as a thriller with a bit of Gothic mystery thrown in courtesy of an abandoned and derelict monetary with a dark past. But the tone completely shifted at the halfway mark and became a cliched sci-fi mess of a story. Nothing groundbreaking here. The plot was as generic as any dystopian sci fi film of the 70s and the end was an unsatisfying fizzle.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book, it was fast paced, full of action and I really struggled to put it down. I also really liked the character of Thea and was quite intrigued by the potential romantic natures of the developing relationships.

When we first meet her she’s just caused a pretty bad car crash that could quite easily have been fatal, but somehow no one is harmed - apart from the cars. This however provides Thea with a wake up call, and after a pop up from a sleep app on her phone, she decides to sign up for a brand new sleep trial.

Things soon develop and you see discrepancies arising and the questions start popping into your head but you’re soon carried away by the pace.

The only thing that held this book back forward me was the ending.. I felt it was really abrupt and left a lot of unanswered questions. I feel like it was more a cliff hanger for a second book so I would say to people to read it but to expect the cliff hang. I think had I expected it I wouldn’t have been quite so disappointed. I also wouldn’t have kept searching for a few extra hidden chapters!

Not a massive fan of sci-fi and probably would have let this one pass if ai had known the story woukd go this way, a fairly decent story though and written well but just really nit my thing

3 stars. The synopsis of this book caught my interest right away and it started off with a bang but the more I read, the more I felt like it was just all over the place. This one just wasn’t for me. The writing style was easy to read but I just didn’t connect with the characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and HQ for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Insomniac Thea's quest for sweet dreams takes her into a nightmare scenario when she signs up with a tech company who are experimenting on the causes of sleeplessness. Trapped on a small island with her fellow insomniacs, Thea gradually recognises that the Ing Corporation are less than altruistic in their motives for sorting out folk's sleep problems. The question is, can she escape before she is put to sleep permanently?
I think keen readers ofthriller dystopian fiction might enjoy this story, but it wasn't for me. I needed the characters to draw me into the plot, but I wasn't convinced by them - they lacked the backstory that would make them truly rounded. I did like Vivien, Thea's mother, who plays a strong part in the plot - like Thea, she is feisty and determined in the face of an unseen enemy. The plot is well -paced and there is plenty action, but it is not the kind of story I enjoy.

Sleepless by Louise Mumford - A debut novel
A psychological thriller/horror that perfectly identifies with the struggle of insomnia.
Thea Mackenzie has been an insomniac for years, often getting only an hour or so of sleep per night. Insomnia caused her to crash her car; she is desperate to cure it. She sees an advert by a high-tech company offering help to chronic insomniacs through a one of a kind' sleep trial', which sounds like it could cure her insomnia. Thea's mother Vivian, is wary, convinced Thea is about to join a cult.
Thea applies and is found to be a suitable candidate. The programme takes place on the secluded St. Dunstan's Island; its only sights consist of an abandoned monastery and lighthouse.
Rosie is another participant who decides she is going to befriend Thea, they connect, along with Ethan and Rory.
Soon inexplicable strange things start to transpire.
The author has created an original and well-written story. Her descriptions of insomnia, dreams and hallucinations are expressive. I relished in the evil of those running the sleep trial and the chilling way that the trial deteriorated into disorder. Whilst reading, you realise a lot of time has been invested in researching the subject matter.
I want to thank NetGalley, HQ and Louise Mumford for a pre-publication copy to review.

Insomnia has always been one of my biggest fears of developing. I can't imagine how horrid it is not to be able to fall asleep. This book was a decent thriller with a sci-fi twist. I am not much on sci-fi, so I can't rate it very high, since its not my thing. I did like the setting of the remote island. I just did not enjoy the whole high tech company part.

As a fellow insomniac I read the title and blurb and thought it well worth a read. It was a little i believable but I enjoyed reading it. But maybe I’ll read something else at bed time going forward

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to preview Sleepless by Louise Mumford.

Insomnia - terrible thing - you can't sleep, can't think, and you wonder how long this can go on. For Thea she is so desperate that she signs up with a company to help her. She signs up and goes to a place that promises to help her. She is sent to an island with other people who share this problem.

But this place is not ordinary and Thea is soon part of something that is not normal and she has more problems than just not sleeping.

Mix of mystery and syfi - 3 stars.
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