The Insomniac Society
by Gabrielle Levy
A book about 5 people having a problem with insomnia. It was an odd book - you will either love it or hate it. I didn’t know what to expect . Five people meet to try and solve their problem with sleep. Touching on what is the real underlying problem ? Reasonably well written as we follow all the character journey and points of view. A bit slow and the odd darker moments overall reasonable read.

The premise is simple and lacks detail
The characters are well written. The book explores relationships well
Overall an enjoyable book

Wanted to get into this one, but it felt slow and heavy and not very conducive to losing oneself in. The switches between POVs also proved confusing - everyone but Claire was in 3rd Person and so you had the names to go by and relate to where/who you are with in the text, then it'd veer to Claire's and no mention of her name and after being with all the others, you kinda feel like you're swimming in deep waters now because you have no clue who the 1st Person POV is supposed to be, and this can be really unnerving at times.
The story also felt rather pedantic at times - could've been because it's a translation. Not the translator's fault, but French narrative tends to be deeper and more introspective than English prose, so to read this heavily normal feel in French in translation, well it just didn't translate very well, unfortunately

This is a lovely little book about the five people from different walks of life, who have one (but key) thing in common - they are insomniacs. They meet with the therapist to try to work on their conditions. The therapist proposes a new technique of how to try to get the sleep defficiency under control - and this change brings new development and challenges...

I very much liked the humanity aspect, the warmth with which the authoress embraces the characters of her novel. They differ, but they are all presented sympathetically and the complications their condition presents are treated with dignity (as the long-time lack of quality sleep really is a harsh thing). I, also, liked them all. This novel may does not bring some radical understanding or solutions, but it is also not another nice story without any food for thought. There is enough to be pondering about in this gentle story. Lovely as a cup of tea in the rainy day and also invigorating like that tea.

I didn’t love his one. It was inoffensive but not memorable, and I didn’t care about the characters as much as I wanted to. Not for me, sorry.

I found this a bit too close to home as I struggle to sleep much and it felt too hard to read it unfortunately

As an insomniac myself, I was very interested in this title. Thanks to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the ARC.

The premise is simple yet powerful. Five insomniacs come together to discuss their issues and try to work out what keeps them awake. But will they get to the root of the problem? And will they be able to face it?

I expected this book to be a light read. What I didn't expect was the deep explorations of relationships and their intricacies that this book brought out so beautifully. The characters were well-written with their own quirks and traits that made it easy to follow.

All in all, a good book.

3.5 stars.

Huge fan of this author following this book and this is another absolutely superb read. I have nothing negative I can say about this book. It has been a great read filled with interesting characters and a unique plot.

As an insomniac myself, I was intrigued by the premise! It was a quick read, great for before bedtime (ironic I know), and I really enjoyed seeing the different characters develop and explain their reasons for their sleep troubles.
It was a darker book than I expected at times, but to me it made it more powerful. I did sometimes find it difficult to distinguish between the characters, so perhaps it would have been beneficial to have a character list at the start.
Overall, an enjoyable book.

Really enjoyed this book. Didn’t really know what to expect. The author gently guides you into the storyline of each character, never too much, but enough that you know a little bit more and stay intrigued. I enjoyed the way it was written in days, from each persons point of view. I’ll recommend.

When I read the premise of this book I was really intrigued as to where it would go, but unfortunately this just wasn't for me. I personally found the book confusing and kept loosing track of which character was which, and what we already knew about them. I don't know if it was because I was reading this as an e-book, but I tried both the kindle download and the NetGalley app download and neither helped me. I even tried using the text to speech function on the kindle to get it read out loud and still didn't help me.

The book follows 5 characters, Claire, Jacques, Michèle, Lena and Hervé who all have one thing in common: Insomnia. They are brought together in a support group ran by Marie-Hélène who is determined to help them fix their problems and be able to sleep again.

However I found the characters infuriating as they had all signed up for this group and being hand-picked from a bigger group, yet none of them took it seriously or wanted to be there, and so were not helping themselves at all. They didn't fill out their sleep logs properly (I know therapy homework is annoying and can seem ridiculous but from experience I know it can also be eye-opening to potential causes and can help you change your ways to help yourself) and didn't follow any of the specialist's advice (such as stop taking sleeping tablets, going to bed at a certain, no naps etc) and then blamed her when nothing changed and their lives worsened.

As someone who struggles with sleep myself, I understand how frustrating it can be lying there and knowing that your alarm will go off soon and you'll have to function on X amount of hours sleep. But these people were being given advice and support and were completely ignoring it. There was also another plot line involving mysterious goings on, seeing a strange woman or recieving a call at the same time each night but honestly I didn't really care for it.

I think others would really enjoy this book but personally I just got confused and frustrated with the characters and didn't care for what was happening to them. I would be interested in potentially reading more from this author in the future.

What a wonderful idea, not to sleep anymore. Yet, if it happens too often or you spend too much time lying awake in bed, it becomes insomnia and can even be pretty frightening. Thus, Claire, Jacques, Michèle, Lena and Hervé become a therapeutical insomniac group lead by specialist Hélène to find sleep again. It is due to quite diverse reasons that the five of them spend their nights roaming. Hervé is stressed out by his job, Lena misses her father, a former baker who always got up very early in the morning, Michèle is haunted by the children she lost and Jacques by a fatal mistakes that happened months ago. Claire is just fed up with her whole life, her job, her relationship, her living in small village outside Paris. The five strangers quickly become a small but fond community not only united by their inability to sleep.

Even though all of the characters are at a critical point in their life where they are confronted with making tremendous and far-reaching decisions and where they have to confront inconvenient truths of themselves and their lives, Gabrielle Levy’s novel nevertheless has to offer some feel-good factor. I adored the five patients from the start, they are drawn with so much care and love that you simply cannot not like them. They are ordinary people, people you can meet anywhere, at work, in the stairwell, on the street, but they immediately develop a bond due the fact they form a brotherhood in suffering.

Beautifully written, I simply floated through the novel enjoying sharing some time with the small group who meet as strangers and whom you leave as friends. The author wonderfully captured those small moments, hazardous encounters that can make a difference in life.

As fellow insomniac, I was really intrigued by the premise of this book and found that it did quite nicely deliver. This was by no means an easy to stomach book - there are some individuals who have insomnia for horrible reasons, after all - but it did make me more conscious of my own subconscious (wow, did that make sense?) and how our psyche influences our sleeping pattern. And for that, I really think this was an educational and immersive read.
I did however, never quite connect to the characters. They were fleshed out enough, but I never found something I could really relate to.

While reading a book i love different lives and perspectives. This delivered on that however i didnt feel any connection with the characters. I enjoyed it however but i felt there could of been more human in the characters.

This novel resonates with me as an insomniacs sufferer and I could understand the characters frustrations and pain and struggles to get through the day. The story was written sensitively and was interesting to explore the characters inner clues and thoughts during those dark hours of the early morning when sleep wouldn't prevail and to find out more about the build up to the circumstances surrounding their lives and sleep deprivation. This was an interesting and thought provoking read and something a bit different.

This is not an easy read. I wanted to read this book as like a lot of people right now am suffering from light insomnia, so I wanted to know more. As you learnt more about the 5 characters I became more and more grateful for my own situation.

Although not an easy read I am really glad I did read it and I have learnt a few things from the book.

I was given an advance copy by netgalley in exchange for an honest and fair review which I have done so.

Really enjoyed this book ,I like a lot of people suffer from occasional insomnia .Reading about these five people their lives.their struggles with nsomnia and looking for help really involved me,#netgalley#hodderstoughton

I loved the blurb and concept of this. As someone who suffers from insomnia myself I was really interested to read it, ironically while struggling to sleep. I didn’t quite live up to my high expectations but enjoyed the read.

As someone who does have trouble with sleeping the premise of this book did interest me. Dealing with a group of 5 people who suffer badly from insomnia it made me realisye that perhaps I'm nowhere near as bad as they are.
The book starts off slowly as it flits from one character's viewpoint to another, which is confusing to start with, but I found that I did get used to this and it let their reasons for their problems to be gradually revealed. The story did start to grow on me as it went on, the subject matter can be depressing but this is part of the character of the book, which never pretends to be a light read. Instead you can see how the characters struggle as the course continues and their lives start to intermingle and hoping for a successful outcome. Again not an exciting or romantic book, but an insight into other people's problems against which you can relate your own and, hopefully, make you appreciate your life.
I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley, however this did not influence my review of the book.

A group of 5 strangers from different backgrounds and interests all have 1 thing in common. They are all struggling to fight against the tide that is slowing drowning them, insomnia. There is a glimmer of hope with the sessions from a sleep specialist but it’s not as straightforward as they expected, following the strict sleep schedules is too hard of a challenge. Each member of the group slowly realises that they need to let go of their very own personal demons before they can move on but that’s easier said than done.

Fiction gives a window into different situations and allows the reader to see through the eyes of someone else. I found the characters of Claire, Jacques, Michèle, Lena and Hervé interesting and appealing. As each of their backgrounds were unravelled, their emotional traumas became easy to sympathise with and you genuinely hoped they could break their cycle of misery.

My only issue was the switching of the characters by the times of the evening. At times, I felt that it could’ve been clearer as sometimes it took a few moments to understand which character the story was focusing on.