Emma Averell is a successful solicitor. About to become partner in a law firm, on the cusp of turning forty but she has a secret that she has kept from everyone. A secret that is determined to come out and destroy her life.

What a sensational read. I was instantly gripped and could not put this down. As the weariness and tiredness engulfs Emma you, as the reader, are completely encompassed by her paranoia and mental unraveling.

The twist at the end threw me a little but actually it was perfect and will leave you thinking about the book for a long time.

I haven't enjoyed a book this much for a long time.

A super easy to listen to, well narrated story that fell flat for me in terms of intrigue and suspense. Everything felt fairly obvious (except for maybe one thing that's pretty unbelievable imo), but a quick read that I imagine a lot of people will love.

Thanks to NetGalley, HarperCollins and Sarah Pinborough for an eAlc in exchange review.

This is a must read for anyone who enjoys a good thriller!!
Absolutely loved the characters, the plot, the tension - impossible to put it down.
Certainly recommended

It took me a while to get into the story, at the beginning it started a bit slow and I started thinking maybe this one wasn't for me, but then suddenly out of nowhere I was interested and couldn't stop listening to it. I wasn't particularly interested in the characters, but the plot did grip me and I wanted to know what was going to happen next. I didn't see the ending coming, definitely unexpected for me, it was a bit out of the box, but I feel it tied everything for me. All in all a pleasurable listen that I would recommend.
Thanks for the opportunity to listen this ARC.

After previous books from this author I was keen to try this and got the audio book ! I’m not a massive fan of Audio but did have a go for this !!! I enjoyed listening to it and the audio was easy to listen to with a great narrator !!! But it was oh so slow !!!!! I wanted more to happen quickly !! I’m not a massive fan of slow burn ! I know a lot of people are but I love instant action !!! I didn’t guess the twist and did enjoy it overall !!! A good listen thanks

I loved reading Behind Her Eyes in 2017 and Cross Her Heart in 2020 so this was the author’s third book for me. Insomnia definitely leans towards Behind Her Eyes with the story hung up on one shocking twist. Even though I’m not a fan of unrational things I could get behind what she had planned all along so I didn’t feel cheated in the end. My patience was pushed to the limit at the beginning however and I have to congratulate myself for seeing it through.

This was one of the biggest slow burner novels I have read in the last years and it was only at 40% into the story that the first big exciting thing happens that pulls the story open and presents at least a mystery I could perhaps get my head around more. Up until that point Emma Averall is having weird thoughts, she has numbers in her head, she recites certain words (which will stick in your head too by the end of the book!) and there are a few other strange things happening that remind her of her childhood. She’s worrying about her 40th birthday coming soon because her mother went crazy on her 40th birthday and she wonders if the same is happening to her. The author doesn’t give anything more to cling to so despite all this weirdness I felt a little bored at times and I didn’t feel as much tension as was probably intended. Thankfully a suspicious death marked the turning point and I became more interested in Emma and her family from thereon.

I didn’t really feel the connection with Emma but that didn’t deter me from my goal to find out the truth. Emma is an unreliable narrator so during the whole story I was left wondering if she really did have mental health issues and whether she had anything to do with this death. I didn’t want to believe so but there was always some degree of uncertainty. The author seemingly enjoyed keeping her readers in the dark, only ramping up the craziness a few notches as the story progressed so, much like Behind Her Eyes, I had to wait till the end for it all to make sense.

You have to undergo this story and wait for the surprise but if you do hang in there is a great twist waiting for you in the end.

Emma starts to get insomnia and worries about turning 40 and having mental health problems like her Mother.

I found this book a bit slower than Pinborough’s previous books. I did guess the involvement of a character early on, although not the ‘why’.

The thing that kept me listening was that I had the audiobook but I am not sure if I would have continued if I was reading. I will still read Pinborough’s future books but this was just a little dragged out for me.

Many thanks to Netgalley for this ARC audiobook.

I loved Sarah's other book Behind Her Eyes and I was so excited for this one.
And as expected, she did not disappoint.
Her plots are always well crafted and twists that are new and original in the fictional world.
I did not see that coming!
Thoroughly enjoyed a lot!

A good read. I do occasionally like thrillers that have 'family drama' at the core of their storyline and this was one of those. I liked that we had no clue whether Emma was mad or whether Phoebe was behind it all. I found myself constantly flitting between the 2. The ending was an interesting twist but felt a little bit rushed, especially the last 10%. I did end up really enjoying this, it was fast paced and easy to listen to. The narrator did a great job too. Thank you to the publisher and to Netgalley!

I was very excited when my request for this audio book was approved! There was hype surrounding this book and the cover grabbed my attention right away! However, after reading, I am a little less excited. It took me awhile to get through it, stopping often and considering not to finish, but I hate not finishing so I pressed on. I feel like it was a long long story before you got to the good part. I did enjoy the twist, and I love how the characters and plot history was all tied together! By the end I was hanging on every word to know how and what happened. The narrator was great, easy to listen to, it was the drawn out story to follow that was not so much. This was definitely not a story I have heard before, nothing similar to other thrillers I've read, so I enjoyed that aspect of it as well.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the audio copy!

I really enjoyed this book, it sucked me in from the start and I liked not knowing who was responsible for things till almost the end. I wasn’t a fan of the ‘magic/psychic’ type idea near the end but other than that it was a good read.

Insomnia is the latest from psychological thriller author, Sarah Pinborough. You’ve probably heard of her previous book “Behind Her Eyes”, which had such an unexpected ending it was accompanied by the hashtag; #WTFThatEnding on its release back in 2016. It’s now a Netflix series.

There is a little bit of a tie-in between that book and Insomnia, but absolutely not one you could guess, more of an Easter egg for fans, I would say.

In Insomnia we meet Emma, a successful solicitor, and married mum of two. She’s rapidly approaching her 40th birthday which wouldn’t be a big deal, except she’s been dealing with crippling insomnia recently, and weird events have started happening that she is regularly blamed for by everyone she knows. Her life is falling apart basically, and this echoes exactly what happened to her own mother when she turned 40. Emma has a terrible sense of dread that something terrible is coming but she doesn’t know what, or how to stop it. All she can do is try to keep her family safe, but whether from herself or someone else, she’s not sure.

Firstly, I love Pinborough’s writing style. She knows how to structure an all consuming thriller, and pepper it with red herrings and a constant sense of unease. I listened on audio and thought the narrator was excellent. The ending was definitely not something I could gave predicted (for sure another WTF moment!) and overall I enjoyed this book.

My issue is the unreliable-narrator-being-gaslit trope, that I mentioned recently makes me genuinely struggle to keep reading. For whatever reason, it makes me so anxious it’s really hard for me to continue with a book like that, which is absolutely my own problem! 😅

That said, I think thriller fans will like this book, and even though it takes a while to get going, once it hits its stride, you won’t want to put it down.

With thanks to @harpercollinsire and @netgalley for the opportunity to read Insomnia.

I really don't like being negative about novels, the time it must take to write a book and then someone reads/listens to it and then they dislike it must be very annoying for a author but I liked the idea of Insomnia, but as an audio book it just didn't work for me, the narration was by Sarah Durham and she was so slow and drawn out whilst reading this and Emma the main character was so darn miserable that I just had to skip to the end and even then i wasn't really interested in what happened I just felt I owed it to Netgalley to finish it. None of the characters grabed me and sadly this book just didn't gel with me.

Utterly unique, exquisitely crafted and quietly powerful. I loved it and want everyone to read this novel! The perfect book to wrap yourself around on a dark night! This book needs to be on your radar! I love it so much!

Really enjoyed this. Atmospheric, and full of tension. Be warned though - the audiobook was a bit scary! But in a good way.

Emma, a successful divorce lawyer, is fast approaching her 40th birthday and starts suffering from crippling insomnia. She remembers how her mother ended up being committed to a psychiatric hospital just after her 40th birthday and when she starts doing the same strange things that her mother did, Emma worries that she too might be going mad.

Although this was a little slow at the start it soon hooked me right in as I tried to work out what was happening. I thought I had it sussed but the red herrings tricked me so it turns out I was totally wrong! The writing is superb and the author managed to deliver another ynexpected ending.

As an occasional insomniac myself I thought Ms Pinborough portrayed the feeling of helplessness as you lay awake for most of the night and then have to try to function during the day.

The narration by Sarah Dunham was excellent and added to my enjoyment of the book.

An unstoppable listen that is like listening to a grownup version of a bedtime story.
Not only is the plot line addictive there is something about the narrator and the way it’s read that has an almost hypnotic affect on you.
A great book and an amazing audiobook!

I was really impressed by this thriller as I found the concept very different and interesting. I found the characters likeable and empathised a lot with them. I was shocked by the twists and truly didn’t know what to expect next.

My first Sarah Pinborough but it won’t be my last. Thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Absolutely loved listening to this audiobook, the story had me gripped from the beginning and towards the end I just had to keep listening to find out what would happen. Sarah Durham does a great job in narrating, making Emma’s fear and paranoias really come through.

Emma is a successful lawyer with a living husband and two children. However as her 40th birthday start approaching she starts suffering from insomnia, which is just like what happened to her mother as she had a psychotic break on her 40th birthday. Emma is terrified the same thing is happening to her as strange things start happening and even her family starts doubting her.

A tad creepy and terrifying at times, you won’t be able to stop listening and you will never guess the end!

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for letting me review this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5* Emma Averell is 12 days from her 40th birthday, the point at which her mother was involved in an event that would change the life of Emma and her sister.

Emma is a successful family lawyer, shooting for partnership with a husband and 2 children. But as her birthday looms she is dogged by insomnia and through a series of events and circumstances she begins to question whether her mental health is as stable as she thought. Twisty and incredibly tense, we join Emma as her mind slowly unwinds and the evidence of her dangerous behaviour increases. Reading this book feels like lying awake in the middle of the night worrying about something. However, I was not hugely taken with any of the characters, including Emma.

I listened to the audiobook and the narration from Sarah Durham was excellent, adding to the tension throughout.

Thanks to Harper Collins Audio and Netgalley for the ARC.