Emma Averell loves her life--her high-powered legal career, her two beautiful children, and her wonderful stay-at-home husband--but it wasn't always so perfect. When she was just five years old, Emma and her older sister went into foster care because of a horrific incident with their mother. Her sister can remember a time when their mother was loving and "normal," but Emma can only remember her as one thing--a monster. And that monster emerged right around their mother's fortieth birthday, the same age Emma is approaching ...
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Emma Averell loves her life--her high-powered legal career, her two beautiful children, and her wonderful stay-at-home husband--but it wasn't always so perfect. When she was just five years old, Emma and her older sister went into foster care because of a horrific incident with their mother. Her sister can remember a time when their mother was loving and "normal," but Emma can only remember her as one thing--a monster. And that monster emerged right around their mother's fortieth birthday, the same age Emma is approaching now. Emma desperately wants to keep her successful life separate from her past, so she has always hidden her childhood trauma. But then she's unable to sleep, and now losing time during the day, also one of the first symptoms her mother showed. Is the madness in her blood, just as her mother predicted? Could she end up hurting her family in her foggy, frenetic state? Or is she truly beginning to lose her mind?
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Fine. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 448 p. In Stock. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Brand New, Perfect Condition, allow 4-14 business days for standard shipping. To Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. protectorate, P.O. box, and APO/FPO addresses allow 4-28 business days for Standard shipping. No expedited shipping. All orders placed with expedited shipping will be cancelled. Over 3, 000, 000 happy customers.
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This is one of those books that you are either going to like or not ... for me, I liked it. It's a proper mind-messing read where you don't know what's real and what's imagined.
Emma, the main character, is not what I would call a particularly likeable one; mind you, not many of the characters in this book are if I'm honest but that doesn't really matter to me that much and, if anything, it makes it even more intriguing as you don't know where the story is going to go.
It does start off pretty slowly while the scene is being set but during this time, there is the slow drip, drip, drip of information and the creation of tension, suspense and misdirection that all comes together in the end.
This is a complex and original story which uses a touch of the "unknown"; it's dark, unnerving and unsettling and I would recommend to anyone who enjoys something a bit different in their psychological thrillers.
Many thanks to HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction and NetGalley for my copy in return for an honest, unbiased and unedited review.
KindigBlog
Mar 7, 2022
A chilling & unsettling psychological thriller
As someone who finds it incredibly easy to sleep anywhere and everywhere, I have a worry that one day I'm going to find out I have used up all of my sleep and end up with insomnia! Therefore, Insomnia by Sarah Pinborough seemed like the perfect, unsettling read for me.
We meet main character Emma who is worried about turning 40, as that's the age her mother was when she stopped sleeping and started having mental health issues. We watch as Emma starts to battle with insomnia and deal with her life unravelling around her in the week leading up to her birthday. I enjoyed the unreliable narration of the novel, with events being missed out from Emma's perspective and being revealed later on. This really kept the reader on the back-foot at all times, unsure what was real and unable to fully trust our narrator. Emma isn't the most likeable of characters though, keeping a lot of memories private and making some really silly decisions.
Although there's a lot of twists and reveals through the book, I did feel that it got a bit repetitive in places. There's a lot of night-time chapters where the same unnerving things happen to Emma which I think could have been edited down. I like the progression of the story though and the stakes are kept high throughout. I didn't have any sympathy for the rest of the family - I would have liked to think that if my husband noticed any worrying change of behaviours, particularly insomnia that he would talk to me about it with compassion, unlike Robert who just seemed to accuse Emma of things without any love or care. I think a lot of the issues in the book could have been made 100 times better with some basic communication between the characters which stretched my suspension of disbelief a little.
The end twist was a good one and although I had guessed who the person responsible was, I hadn't really been able to work out how they slotted into the story. Although it seemed a little convenient, it was a good idea and made for a satisfying reveal. I'm finding it hard to read about books that make mental health their punchline twist or main storyline at the moment as it seems a little dated for the 2022 climate. However, adding an almost supernatural element to the story helped to not make the story as controversial as it could have been. This does however, leave the reader with more questions than answers by the end.
Overall, Insomnia is an unsettling and chilling psychological thriller with a supernatural twist. Thank you to NetGalley & HarperCollins UK - Harper Fiction for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
