Thank you to NetGalley and to Gallery Books for an ARC in exchange for this review.

Josie has spent 10 years escaping her past. Her father was murdered, her sister betrayed her, and her mother ran away. She has found new life in NYC with her boyfriend and has been able to move on and hide from it. An investigative reporter brings new life to the case and believes the convicted murderer is not the one who killed her father. Josie's life begins to unravel and she has to return to her past to confront what she has been hiding from.

So this book starts off promising. It had great promise. However, at some point, I lost interest. I can't exactly put my finger on it - I think maybe it was how annoying Poppy was (which I get was the point of her, to be the annoying reporter). I did finish it, but I was not wowed. It's not a bad read, and I almost feel bad for not liking it. I wanted to feel great empathy for Josie, but I never quite got there. I am sure other people will love this. Just not for me.

This was an amazing first book for Kathleen Barber. The story flowed at a steady pace, the characters were fleshed out nicely…I even know what they look like. I liked that it was current… a psychological thriller about a mega-hit podcast. I also liked the use the narrative of the actual podcast, tweets, and comments. It threw me off a little at the beginning trying to decide what it was…but I grew to LOVE it! I found only one typo (at location 554). I will be watching for more books from this author.

Are You Sleeping grabs your attention and keeps you involved from start to finish. Well written and paced, the plot explores the mind, interpersonal relationships and the impact of the internet on society. Usually I have mystery plots figured out within a few chapters, but this one managed to provide just enough doubt to keep me guessing. One of the best I have read in several years. Thank you to Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Loved this book. Kept my attention and made me want to keep reading. I really liked how it related to the podcasts that are so popular today. It's a great read!

If you prefer delayed gratification and subtle nuance over "in your face"pronouncements, Are You Sleeping is the book for you. Riding on the coattails of the public's fascination with "true crime" stories such as the podcast Serial and Netflix's Making of a Murderer, Are You Sleeping features "investigative journalist" Poppy Parnell trying to uncover the truth about who killed college professor Chuck Buhrman thirteen years ago. Based on eyewitness testimony from the victim's daughter Lanie, a seventeen year old neighbor is convicted of the crime and sentenced to life in prison. But there's no closure for the Buhrman family-his wife becomes a recluse who ultimately leaves her children to join a cult, while Lanie tumbles down a path of drugs, casual flings, petty crime, and is estranged from her twin sister Josie over an incident from high school. Upping the intrigue factor (and keeping the plot flowing at almost breakneck speed) is the format-alternating between transcripts of Reconsidered-Poppy's podcast, tweets from Poppy's listeners, and Josie's narration. Are You Sleeping has plenty of suspense-especially when Lanie starts questioning her memory of who she saw murder her father. When she uncovers evidence that may solve the crime Lanie rushes to the police station without thinking of the consequences (no explanation is given as to how Lanie knows where the murder weapon is or why she didn't say anything for over a decade), and she is interrogated by the police for hours without asking for a lawyer. While this is in keeping with Lanie's reckless nature it seems strange that Ms. Barber (a former attorney) would allow any of her clients (even fictional ones!) to speak to law enforcement without legal counsel. A minor detail to an otherwise compelling and timely read.

This book was PHENOMENAL!!!!!!!!!!!! As a fan of "Serial", I was instantly in the zone of the whole podcast-true crime story addiction that the characters are experiencing in this tale. I found the bits with the little sister waking up her twin with the "Are you Sleeping?" in the whisper voice to be so freaking creepy. I thought the multi-layered story aspects here worked so well and I was hooked. This was the type of book that when you had to put it down to go do real life stuff, I thought about it, waiting to get back to it, like an old friend. Fantastic!

The story itself isn't bad, it's only been done before...many times. It was easy to figure out the who, what and why of this mystery early in the book. The story does have some good supporting characters, such as Caleb, Ellen and Aunt A. They are the ones that make it worth the read.

This book was not awful but not great. I breezed through it over the course of three days, but could have finished it in one sitting had I had the time. It erred more toward the fluffy and light (despite the morbid subject matter) and much less toward the edge-of-the-seat, heart-racing tension I desired. The novel itself is well-written, and the plot easy to follow. I cannot say that I was disinterested, but I figured out how the story ended long before the plot came to its conclusion. There were no red herrings, no major plot twists, and no complexity to give me pause or cause me to doubt the conclusion I came to.

My biggest issue is that the characters, especially the women, are as shallow as a kiddie pool. I feel like Barber had a lot of space to work with her characters, but they all kind of stay the same and left me wanting to roll my eyes. This was the novel of many overdone female tropes. We have Ellen, the superficial, vain cousin who is obsessed with controlling not only with her own appearance, but with those of others in her life (such that they satisfy 'conventional' ideas of female beauty). We have Aunt A, who is just called 'A' instead of 'Amelia' and who is presented as an over-emotional mess for the larger portion of the novel. Perhaps Barber intended this to seem affectionate and endearing, but to me it seemed awkward and weird. Then there's 'bad twin' sister, Lanie, who is an addict who (shocker!) likes to dress in baggy clothes with black eyeliner and spurn authority. Erin, mother to the twins, is the flighty, free-spirited, mentally ill non-conformist who abandons her family for a cult in (again shocker!) California. There's Poppy, the investigative journalist who is (maybe?) the antagonist of the novel because she nosily and insensitively pokes and prods into the murder of Josie's father. Lastly, we have our protagonist, Josie, who came across as vaguely Mary Sue-ish: she's a pretty girl with 'inky' black hair and startlingly blue eyes, the 'good twin' with a dark and tormented past that she is still trying to run from, has a gorgeous supportive foreign boyfriend who is supportive of her even when it's revealed that she has been living a lie.

I had a hard time empathizing with any of the women in this novel because of these one dimensional tropes. Even conversations between the women are filled with stereotypically feminine conversation topics- men, manicures, town gossip. In the face of conflict or complex emotions or anything problematic, they drink wine or have some other sort of alcoholic beverage. I would have loved if the novel had gone deeper into the relationships among the female characters. Barber had a chance to write something powerful about the dynamic that exists between sisters, between mother and daughters, among women in a family, and instead she fell back on overused tropes and ended up barely scratching the surface.

Overall, I'm happy that I read this, but it just wasn't quite my cup of tea. I wish it had been heavier, darker, and more tense. I would happily take this along to read on a plane or while lounging on the beach in the sun.

I’ve just finished an ARC copy of “Are You Sleeping?” from Net Galley (in exchange for a fair and honest review). Easily done.
“Are You Sleeping” is an engaging psychological thriller that makes of use of social media in a thought-provoking way that truly resonates with what’s happening in society today.
The premise is that a blogger, calling herself an investigative journalist, tries to reopen a closed murder case. When the blog goes mega-viral it throws the lives of people connected to the original murder into a dangerous tailspin.
What makes this novel work is a main character that you REALLY care about (most of the time), and a blogger that makes you cringe with every appearance (almost all of the time). For me it was the ‘most of the time’ and the ‘almost all of the time’ that lifts this novel a step above many, and keeps you thinking about social media effects long after you’ve read THE END. Kudos on a terrific debut.

“Between my laptop and my phone, I'm nearly always connected, and it's rare that I go an hour without engaging in some form of social media,” Kathleen Barber blogged (booksbywomen.org , 2-March-2017). “Reasonable minds can differ whether this constant connectivity is enhancing or ruining our lives, but no one can deny that it's changing them … today we communicate by "liking" and commenting on each other's Facebook posts. The way that we interact with other humans--something that is at the core of almost every novel, no matter the genre--is being fundamentally altered.”

Barber’s debut novel, “Are You Sleeping,” shows the new face of 21st Century fiction, with podcast transcripts, twitter feeds, news articles, obituaries, and other social media seamlessly woven into the prose. Journalist Poppy Parnell has progressed from blogging about cold cases to podcasting about a "closed" case after learning a young man is serving time for a murder he probably didn't commit. Her podcast, “Reconsidered,” goes viral. The murder victim's daughters have their lives torn up all over again when the case is re-opened and publicly discussed, more ubiquitously than the latest Kardashian antics. The prose is laced with Tweets, reddit comments, texts, and emails, showing how novels have been transformed by the advent of social media.

Parnell’s mega-hit podcast alternates with the first-person narrative of Josie Buhrman, who’s spent the last ten years concealing her real identity, shunning her twin sister, and shedding her family's reputation. Her father, the victim in the podcast, was murdered when the girls were fifteen. Their mother, already a little bipolar or mentally unstable, ran away to join a cult, leaving Josie and twin sister Lanie to be raised by their aunt.

Lanie steals her sister’s high school boyfriend, and Josie is so incapable of getting over this betrayal, she slams the door shut forever on her only sibling, changes her last name to Borden, lies to everyone in her new life about her old life (orphaned, she says, and an only child), goes backpacking for years, drifting aimlessly until she meets Caleb and settles down with him as a domestic partner in New York, always meaning to tell him she’s lied about her whole life, but afraid she’ll lose him if she does.

Josie’s story opens with a mysterious phone call in the night. It might be from her estranged sister, or it might be a bad phone connection, or it might be she dreamed parts of it. Her confusion sets the tone for the rest of the novel.

Investigative reporter Poppy Parnell sets off a media firestorm with her podcast about the long-closed case of Charles Buhrman’s murder and 17-year-old neighbor Warren Cave serving a life sentence for the crime. The podcast is blamed for the subsequent death of the estranged mother and widow, she who’d abandoned her daughters to their Aunt A and retreated to a secret cult that cuts all ties to family. Josie has no intention of attending her mother’s funeral or risk facing her evil twin, until forced by Aunt A. Most of the story takes place in small-town Elm Park, Illinois, which has hardly changed since Josie shed its dust from her bootsoles years ago.

The story is well written, but it’s about people I just can’t like. I’m not sure how much of my reaction should be blamed on my upbringing. In November 1975, my sister disappeared. In March 1976, her body was found. The shock and horror may abate over time, but it’s like Rose Kennedy said: “The wounds remain. Time - the mind, protecting its sanity - covers them with some scar tissue and the pain lessens, but it is never gone.” Little did I know what a blessing it was that my Germanic Midwestern farm parents were so stoic. All of us were. Pragmatism dictates that life must go on, so nobody gets to go crazy, shut down, act up, act out, run away, or do any of the psycho stuff that Chuck Buhrman’s wife and daughters do. And I do include Josie. She may not go “bad” the way Lanie does, running with bad crowds in high school, committing petty crimes, acting like a brat with bruises, but Josie is so far from stoic or mature, or charitable, I had a hard time figuring out why Caleb would fall for her.

Most readers will think these are vivid, well-drawn characters, but I see weak, self-absorbed, petty, superficial women who have no idea how to cope with a man’s infidelity. It might be easier to like Aunt Amelia, except that all her family members reduce her name to A, even her husband. Why does that bother me? I’m not sure, but it diminishes her. At least Poppy Parnell names her: Amelia.

Poppy is the biggest disappointment in the novel. In real life, I know an investigative reporter who’s devoting thousands of hours (and years) of her life to Iowa Cold Cases. Social media aficionados, Google “Jody Ewing” and you’ll see a woman who cares passionately about uncovering the truth and providing closure for families of murder victims. No fame, no fortune, not even a way to break even on her own expenses running the site. Jody Ewing is the polar opposite of Poppy, who charges like a mad rhino into personal lives and gleefully airs other people’s dirty laundry, or tragedies, in the name of “entertainment.”

I should have skipped ahead, once I’d gotten a third of the way into the novel, seen how it ended, and saved myself a few hours of precious reading time. Josie remains annoying. Lanie does more stupid stuff. So many details seem contrived to me.

Maybe I’m just too irritable. Josie has her long, black hair bobbed and bleached platinum. Eyebrows too. Thinking she’ll not be recognized by the podcasting piranhas when she goes back home for a funeral. Aunt A and cousin Ellen, however, get her hair dyed black again. So why waste space in the novel on the bleaching, if Josie gets spotted anyway at the funeral, and Ellen complains about black dye under her nails, as if anyone is stupid enough to buy a box of hair dye and not use the disposable gloves that come inside. Scene after scene, people drop things, break things, deliberately throw and break things, and I just have no desire to hang out in their Point of View, miserable, bitter, out of control. Why did I stay? Stupidly, I believed they would do this character-arc thing, part of the famed three-act structure of the novel, part of the hero’s journey.

Poppy Parnell doesn’t change her ways. The truth shall set you free, a fortune cookie tells Josie, another plot contrivance that annoyed me (how overdone is the fortune teller, the fortune cookie, in fiction).

I could keep listing details and quote excerpts from the text, but I need to go think about something else now. Like how to find a ruthless, exploitative journalist like Poppy Parnell who’ll uncover the truth behind my sister’s murder. Unfortunately, real-life killers don’t operate like fictional killers. Murder weapons are destroyed, never to be found again. Diaries are burned. Evidence is bungled by the police, misdirected, used to frame the innocent. More than forty years later, the memories of any possible witness are now unreliable, inadmissible as evidence.

Thank you to Kathleen Barber, Simon & Schuster, and Netgalley for an advanced reader copy of Are You Sleeping in exchange for an unbiased review. Given my sister’s Cold Case, I’m pretty sure I’m biased. Given my own Midwestern farm upbringing, I’m never going to “like” people like Lanie, Josie, their mother, or the mother of the emo-boy convicted of murder, his only motive being the same stupid motive everyone else in the novel suffers: the notion that infidelity is a crime punishable by death.

On the bright side, millions of readers are sure to love this novel. It’s well written, well edited, and intriguing. I’ve just read too many things like this already, and lived the drama, already, to be enthralled.

I loved "Are you Sleeping" which again has two very different sisters at the heart of it and reminded me just a little of the brilliant "Six Stories" which I also loved recently - but I think that was just the podcast aspects which really do work well in telling the wider story.

In "Are you Sleeping" a new podcast re-examining an old murder opens up old wounds for an already fractured family. Taking in themes of memory, sibling relationships and traumatic past events, Kathleen Barber weaves a tense, atmospheric and genuinely fascinating tale of a family dynamic gone horribly wrong and the possible miscarriage of justice this has caused. The mystery elements are well woven and clever, the story twists its way to a rather heartbreaking ultimate solution and it is utterly gripping from first page to last.

I was completely engaged with the ebb and flow of the relationship between twins Laine and Jo -both of whom had very different reactions to events around them - estranged but trying to find a way to come back together under extraordinarily trying circumstances, I loved how the author managed the dynamic between them both in their similar and dissimilar qualities. Added to that the ever changing path to the final truth of the matter encompassing loss, parental influence and how our perceptions change with life experience, this was a completely wonderful read featuring some very memorable characters.

Highly Recommended.

((Review also on Goodreads - Amazon upon release))

4 Stars.

What happens when your past comes back to haunt you? In “Are You Sleeping” by Kathleen Barber, the main character, Josie Burhman finds out. And for her, it isn’t pretty.

Josie has spent ten years hiding from her past, going so far as to legally change her name and traveling abroad aimlessly for five years before setting down roots in New York. But as we all know, you can’t escape your past for long. Josie’s father was murdered, thirteen years prior. Her mother, unable to cope, takes off for California, joining a cult, leaving Josie and her twin sister Lanie, in the care of her Aunt. Lanie loses it and strikes out at everyone she loves. And Josie? She leaves right after her High School graduation. Ten years later she is living a new life in New York with her boyfriend Caleb. The problem? He knows nothing of her past and Josie doesn’t want him to find out. Unfortunately for Josie, an investigative reporter creates a series of podcasts reopening the investigation into her father’s death, which coincides with her mother’s suicide. And then? All hell breaks loose, forcing Josie to go back home for the first time in ten years in order to confront her family and her past.

In “Are You Sleeping” the author, Kathleen Barber, did a phenomenal job of keeping me on the edge of my seat. Every time I thought knew what was going to happen I was wrong. The pacing of the novel was quick, the storyline drew me in immediately and the characters were all consuming. The character of Josie gripped me and she wouldn’t let go. There were times when I was completely exasperated with her, yet I liked her a lot. And the character of Ellen, Josie’s cousin? Loved her. She made me laugh. A lot. I also liked the social media aspect of the story as it created a dynamic I am not familiar with. I found “Are You Sleeping” to be a suspenseful mystery that flowed fairly well and kept me interested throughout, thus if you are looking for a good mystery, this is it.

Thank you to NetGalley, Gallery Books and Kathleen Barber for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Published on NetGalley and Goodreads on 3/11/17.
*Will be published on Amazon on 8/1/17.

Sometimes being sick in bed has its perks....like being able to read Are You Sleeping in one day! I can't say enough good about this book! It is an amazing psychological thriller that kept me guessing. I love the characters in this book because they are so real and raw. Going through what Josie and Lanie went through is enough to send anyone over the edge, but then having it dragged up by some podcast gone viral years later....I am sure I would have gone off the deep end. You will become immersed in the story very quickly and you won't want to put it down! I highly recommend it!

Thank you to Kathleen Barber, Simon & Schuster, and Netgalley for an advanced reader copy of Are You Sleeping in exchange for an unbiased review.

I was attracted to this story's premise because it examines the social ramifications of podcasts like Serial. How does retelling and re-investigating a murder (like the first series of Serial's podcast) affect the victims involved in the case?

Are You Sleeping has a female narrator, Josie, who has tried hard to flee the life she once had growing up in a small Midwestern town. After backpacking the world in an attempt to find solitude from the trauma of her father's murder and other family issues, she finds herself in the furthest place from home and her rural upbringing: New York. She has a posh apartment, a sweet and caring boyfriend from New Zealand, and an enjoyable job at a bookstore. Things couldn't be better for Josie from an outsider's perspectives. That is, until the life she tried to escape comes back to haunt her when a blogger/"reporter" decides to reopen Josie's father's murder and make it into what becomes a viral podcast.

Things start to fall to pieces for Josie and her family as their past becomes a "commodity" (to use the author's words) to sell a podcast. Josie, who changed her name for anonymity purposes after her father's death, is forced to confront the family she left behind when her estranged mother commits suicide. She is also forced to deal with her twin sister, who has a sordid past that continues to follow Josie. Her family comes together for her mother's funeral in the town in which Josie was raised, and soon secrets are unraveled that will provide more fodder for the crazed followers of the podcast. Was her father truly murdered by the next neighbor's son, or was it someone in the family or community?

The twists and turns in this book make it fun to read, but the best part of it was the character development. Josie's character felt authentic and real as did the characters surrounding her. A really enjoyable suspense/thriller that will keep you turning the pages!

In a sea of psychological thrillers this book really does seem to stand out!
Really enjoyed the twisty and suspenseful plot!

I was lucky enough to receive an advanced copy of this book, many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher. I went into this book blind having never read this author before and having no idea whether it was going to be good or not. Within the first few pages, I knew I was going to love it. Also loved the social media aspect in this book. Who killed Josie and Lanie's father and why? Was Warren guilty or innocent? It was a page turner, I read within two days and really enjoyed Josie's character as well as Aunt A and Ellen, not too sure about that Poppy Parnell though, haha. Very impressed and looking forward to more books by this author.

Talk about an addicting, compulsively-readable book. The author truly kept me needing to know what was going to happen next, with a captivating format that includes the transcripts, commentary, and social media of an investigative reporter (a la the Serial aspect of the story), coupled with the first-person narrative of Josie Buhrman, the daughter of the murdered man featured in the podcasts. Josie's storyline was immersive, fully developed, and​ she portrayed a​ like-able voice in which I was dying for a happy ending. Did I get one, you'll have to read to see. A book I'd recommend to all the thriller fans out there.

I loved this book. I couldn't stop reading. The author seamlessly integrated modern elements without it feeling forced. I liked the characters and and story was interesting from beginning to end.

I really enjoyed Are You Sleeping. I loved how it had a ripped-from-the-headlines feeling to it, and the mystery was enough to keep me turning the pages as fast as I can. I wish the ending hadn't been so abrupt but everything was resolved in a satisfying way. The social media elements (as in comments from message boards/twitter/etc) sounded exactly like what you would expect them to, well done to the author. I look forward to more from Kathleen Barber.

Thoroughly enjoyed this title - read it in less than 24 hours because it was so gripping! The unique format of interspersing Serial-like podcasts was refreshing and modern. I would have, however, preferred a bit more of an ending for the main characters and not ending on the podcasters opinions/spin on the story. All in all a great read.