What an original book, it went places I didn't expect which is always a good sign.
I really enjoyed following Thea's trials and tribulations as she battled insomnia. This book had a surprise around every corner and drew you into the story.
The action towards the end of the book, actually probably more than that, would have done justice to a movie. In fact I could definitely see this on the big screen, the island with its air of uncertainty, the hint of menace outside the centre, it has all the ingredients for a good thriller.
For some there may be slightly too much tech/sci-fi content but it is necessary for the plot.
I loved the book and wouldn't we all want a Vivian in our lives!

Thank you to HQ, NetGalley and Louise Mumford for allowing me to read and review this book.

Thea suffers from extreme long term insomnia and when she is in a car accident that’s her fault she realises she needs to do something about it. Spending her days walking round like a zombie on only 4 hours sleep that week she decides to take part in a sleep experiment where they claim to be able to fix you.

A very eerie, sci-fi thriller with something constantly going on. Sometimes maybe too much that I felt myself trying to keep up. Unlike anything I’ve read so far Sleepless is original, imaginative and interesting. I also enjoyed the characters in this book; Thea, Vivian, Rosie, Ethan and Rory, just to name a few. On the other hand I feel like I’m left with a lot of questions unanswered, I would like to know more about the technology. more about the people behind it and what their aim was. Leaving the door open for a follow on? Maybe so. Well worth a read.

Thank you Netgalley for my advance copy. Thea had been suffering from insomnia for years surviving on just one or two hours sleep a night. After a minor car accident Thea decides she needs professional help. She sees a advert for a new sleep app from Morpheus and thinks this could be the answer to her sleep problem. When she signs up for her trial her worst nightmare starts.

I only need a few words to describe this book ; inventive, thrilling, believable, exceptional and well written. Being a poor sleeper myself I could see how someone could be attracted to a cure for sleeplessness. I couldn't put this book down with the result that I probably slept less than ever but it was worth it. Highly recommended.

Good story, its a fairly obvious plot in places but wasn't a boring book. I would reccomend this read.

The blurb given about the book really grabbed me and seemed just up my street however I am sorry to say this was not the case.

It started of OK but I found it really slow and once on the Island everything was totally unbelievable. I didn't find any of the characters had any depth of character and I didn't warm to or like any of them. I did complete the book as I wanted to know what would happen and the ending was an even more disappointing finish. It ended very abruptly in my opinion.

I guess this book was just not for me.

I would like to thank NetGalley and HQ Stories for my ARC for which I have given my voluntary and unbiased review

Interesting concept!
Sleep is a complicated thing. The sleep trial in this book was indeed complicated and sneaky. I have to say I was wondering why these subjects would agree to the rules of this sleep trial, but when you are deprived of sleep I guess you dont think things through. It sounded like a good thing but it went horribly wrong.
I did like this book but it didnt grab me like I had hoped it would. The whole time I was reading it I felt like I had heard this story before. Then I remembered a movie i watched that was quite similar.
I felt it was too drawn out and I found myself wanting to skip parts of the story.
It really was interesting, just didnt move as fast as I like.
Thank you Netgalley for the free book in exchange for an honest review!

A distorted tale of how a sleep deprivation experiment can go wrong.

As the heroine undergoes a sleep experiment, she discovers something she wishes she hadn't.

This story is interesting and I found I had to find out what happened even though my time was extremely limited.

The narrative follows the thinking of Thea, and is very well written from that perspective.

Pacy and interesting.

Usually I start off my reviews by recapping the plot (NO spoilers, of course); however, I just don’t feel I can do that with this book, because, frankly, it made no sense. It certainly didn’t seem to tie in with the blurb that was provided, so that’s something they publisher really needs to work on!

Thea can’t sleep – no reason is ever given. She sees an advert to become a paid participant in a trial she does no research on, and almost immediately disappears to a deserted island to take part in goodness knows what. The whole set-up reeks of some bizarre sci-fi plot, and is just plain weird. Very little makes sense.

Then, suddenly, Thea becomes obsessed with something she either did, or didn’t see, whilst out walking, and the plot completely unravels from there. In fact, it gets so weird I wondered at one point if this was a cut-and-shut because, because it seemed to be a completely different style of read – far more miserable dystopian oddity than thriller!

Generally speaking this would not be a genre I’d usually reach for; however, I’m happy to explore new horizons. The problem is having this presented as one thing, when it very clearly isn’t, and then honestly, being a very poor representation of the genre it is.

I hate to offer nothing constructive, as a writer, I know how gut-wrenching this process is, but I have nothing positive to say. There is barely any character development, a lot of tell and no show, relationships between characters are assumed and make no sense, bizarre things start happening almost as though someone thought “that would be good, let’s whack that in too,” instead of producing a cohesive story-line.

The ending just made me wonder what the Hell had happened, and why I’d spent such an inordinate time wading through something that ultimate made no more sense than it had in the beginning.

Maybe this would appeal to some people, I couldn’t comment, but the only thing I can say is, if you have a desire to DNF this at any point, go with that gut instinct – it will not be a book for you. I wish I hadn’t ploughed on.

Wow! Very twisted and messed up, who can you trust?! Is everything as it seems?! Gripping throughout.

I am afraid that Sleepless by Louise Mumford caused quite the opposite reaction in me. The novel starts with a whimsical character, Thea, who suffers from insomnia and is desperately seeking a cure. She happens upon an advertisement for a sleep trial and so begins her adventure, culminating in a form of imprisonment on a lonely island called St Dunstan's.
I liked the characters Thea, her mother Vivian and Alastair the publican. They would easily have fitted well in to a humorous spoof thriller but as a trio were realistically human and likeable. I didn't think the story that good and thrill it didn't do.

This book had such a good premise but unfortunately it didn't deliver.
I was bored.
Nobody should be bored whilst reading a thriller.
I didn't particularly like the characters, couldn't relate to anyone and therefore was rooting for nobody.
Such a shame because the idea was a good one.

This is an excellent, page-turning thriller. The heroine begins by fighting insomnia and ends up fighting to stay alive against a malicious entity that she sees as a “Big Tech” company and that her mother describes as a cult. The author explores the difference between the two and ultimately finds that there is none. Many Big Tech companies are indeed run the same way as religious cults (and God help the customers and shareholders in the long run). Commentators and especially cartoonists were describing Apple, the Corporation and its strangely-loyal customer base, as a religion back in 1986 and it hasn’t altered course much in the following third of a century. Sleepless, however, is timely, because we are now at a fork in the road, where Big Tech’s proprietors either get their way (which will be perfect only in their own minds, while to most of us it will be intolerable) or they finally receive the wages of high-handed arrogance.

Not every large company producing tech products is like this: I can’t remember Joseph Lucas telling me how to live my life the way that Bill Gates, for example frequently does -and considering that Joe was paying me, while it’s me who pays money to Bill Gates, I cannot see from quite where Mr Gates obtains the moral or legal right to have things this way round.

This was a DNF for me unfortunately. I must say I did try a couple of times to get into it, I just couldn't.

A gothic and dystopian thriller centred around Thea and her participation in a trial to cure her insomnia.
Each chapter is a cliff-hanger and the very plot-driven novel has a ludicrous amount of twists and turns!
It can be a little difficult to distinguish between the three male characters but this isn’t really one for readers who like depth or characterisation.
It’s perfect if you like something a bit more fun and sci-Fi than reality, and are happy to roll with the punches as the plot gets more and more horror-story.
Recommended for those who like a dystopian roller-coaster read with lots of dead bodies!

‘Sleepless’ is a book of two halves that don’t quite complement each other.

Upon starting this book I was thoroughly engrossed. The style of writing is very easy and slightly comical which I enjoyed as it gave a light relief to the trauma of how it is to live your life as an insomniac.

I totally ‘bought into’ the sci-fi esq way in which the plot developed and enjoyed learning about sleep theory.

But then weirdly, once the trials began, the book just seemed to change and become a dystopian horror story. During which some of the scenes and plot twists became, for me, a little unbelievable and far fetched.

The relationships between the characters on the island were described, in retrospect, as far more intense than they were developed. I struggled to believe the connections in the friendships and romance.

I liked Vivian, her character was funny, intelligent and very strong willed. Her character held great promise at the beginning and I feel her own development was cast aside too easily and fast for the role that she ended up having at the end.

The ending could’ve been much more explosive and held a much faster pace. I genuinely feel that the author lost her way with this book once she brought in the tech.

The tech involved is such a prominent feature and for me it felt like all these new technologies were just being flung in my face and then swept aside as an imaginary box was ticked to say ‘yep, that’s included’.

It’s a shame that the book changed as it did. Because I think if the tech had been paired back and more focus driven into thoughts and feelings like the first half it could’ve been a really tense, dark psychological thriller.

Thank you to NetGalley for my advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

I should start to judge books by their covers, because the cover of ‘Sleepless’ is the cover of a book I wouldn’t like. I did, indeed, not like it, but I had to find that out by reading it which I now regret. Lesson: be more judgey, Olly. Everything about this book speaks to things that annoy me about modern publishing. It has an intriguing concept that’s poorly used, it lazily compares itself to other things, it has lots of short chapters that end with cliffhangers or revelations but no real plot. In other words, it’s another mediocre thriller that the publishers are hyping way beyond what it deserves. Indeed, the full title of the book on Amazon is ‘Sleepless: An unputdownable psychological thriller for fans of The One and Black Mirror‘. It is not unputdownable and it is nothing like ‘Black Mirror’. It is not a psychological thriller, more like a half-baked medical thriller that wants to be sci fi. I haven’t read ‘The One’, so I can’t comment on similarities to ‘The One’. Although, I did read another book by the same author which I found to be a mediocre, over-hyped thriller, so maybe it is a valid comparison.
I think the story goes something like this, but it was hard to take in or retain. There’s a woman called Thea who has trouble sleeping. She gets involved with an obviously shady organisation (they’re called Morpheus, FFS) who are doing sleep studies on some remote island. It all gets scary and there’s some weird science I didn’t really understand. Her mum is in it too and provides “comic relief” by being overbearing and having a scarf with pictures of vaginas on it.
So in summary: I found the plot boring and confusing. The characters all blended into one. Cliches are liberally used (storms, faces at windows, etc). The concepts are poorly developed. I was glad to finish it.
On the plus side, it might be the perfect antidote for insomnia.

A car accident spurs "sleepless" Thea into action. She is more than tired. She had only slept 4 hours that week.
The reader follows Thea's adventures through a sleep therapy live-in course - a 6 week long course, at that. Although Thea is being paid, she must leave her job and all else behind.

Not exactly mainstream, the Institute promises it can help you to sleep as well as break bad habits. Yet, as Thea's venture progresses, she becomes increasingly scared and suspicious of the entire situation.

What did Thea get herself into?

A very enjoyable and interesting read! Crosses over a number of genres.

RECOMMEND!

Many thanks to HQ Digital and NetGalley for the pleasure to read and review!

More Sci-fi than physiological thriller.
Loved the cover and the beginning was starting to interest me with a great description of people suffering from insomnia.
With Theo suffering from insomnia she is offered a place on a programme trying to develop an app to help sufferers., she arrives on a small deserted island with only the people from the programme, then the fun begins.

I found the plot and characters weak and unbelievable and very slow, just could not keep me interested to find out what was going to happen to Theo.
Thanks to Netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest opinion.

I enjoyed this overall, but there was something about the writing style that didn't quite work for me, it felt quite disjointed and clunky. The plot was an interesting one though - Thea joins a sleep study after years of insomnia, but once she's on the island where it's taking place, all is not as it seems and things start to get weird.

I think it would make a great movie, or a limited series on something like Netflix and I hope the story gets picked up.

<i>Thanks to Netgalley, the publishers and Louise Mumford for an advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review.</i>