I jumped in delight when my request for Insomnia was approved. That's how happy I was!

The story follows Emma Averell, a lawyer, approaching her 40th birthday. It should be like any other birthday. Except, it isn't. Her mother went mad on her 40th birthday and Emma is now experiencing the same sleeplessness her mother suffered from before her madness. Will this insomnia lead to insanity?

Sarah Pinborough has done it again! The creepy atmosphere and the well-written characters simply grow upon you. You can't sleep too, just like Emma.

As a fellow insomniac, I am all too familiar with the wired energy followed by tremendous bouts of tiredness Emma experiences. All the trippiness and the helplessness are so well-written that even a non-insomniac (a normal sleeper?) would "experience" the feelings.

I HATED Robert and Chloe, to an extent. Phoebe too. But the end was unexpected. So unexpected that I had to sit down and take a few deep breaths. Though not as dramatic as Behind Her Eyes (WTF was that ending!!), this one is quite good too.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Sarah Durham and she has done an excellent job in bringing the characters before my eyes.

4 stars.

Thanks to Netgalley, HarperCollinsUK Audio, and Sarah Pinborough for the audio ARC.

I really enjoyed this and the narration just kept in on edge throughout the story so I was really engaged. Not going to go into the plot as there are enough twists and turns to make it potentially spoilers.

Just listen to it, it is worth it.

i was given an advance copy by netgalley and the publishers but the review is entirely my own.

Narrator 5 stars
This narrator had a great voice

Story 2 stars
This was such a let down. I love Sarah Pinborough and have devoured her books in the past but this one was a slog. The biggest reason being every single character was absolutely horrible! There was nothing likeable about any of them which made it painfully part to get absorbed by this.

Description 🔖

Emma Averell didn’t have the easiest of starts to life. She and her sister were placed in foster care when they were young on the back of a horrific incident with their mother. As the youngest of the siblings, Emma doesn’t remember a time when she had a loving and caring mother, she only remembers her as a monster. As Emma approaches forty (the same age her mother was at the time of the incident) is there a risk that she may suffer from the same condition?

Emma is in a slightly different position as she has a very successful career, two beautiful children and a stay at home husband. She has always kept them in the dark about her past, but as the big 4-0 looms, Emma starts to lose sleep and chunks of time out of her day when she has no idea what’s happened. Could her mother have been right and is the madness in her blood?

General Thoughts 🤔

This book had me hooked. From the very first couple of chapters, I was engrossed in the story and wanted to know what was happening, why it was happening and how it was going to end. This was definitely fast paced and there’s a lot that goes on but it was exactly that which kept it exciting for me.

Throughout the book the tension was building for some kind of huge twist/revelation at the end (which I love in a book) and I was frustrating myself trying to guess what it might be. I didn’t guess right, I’ll admit it. I’ll give myself half a point. I did not see it coming and I think as long as you just lean into this story and go with it, you won’t see it coming either.

Characters 👫👭👬

Some of the characters did annoy me a touch, but I couldn’t tell if that was intentional or not. Robert (the husband) grated on me the worst I think. He seemed very wishy washy to me and I wanted him to step up and protect his family. Everything that he did seemed like too little too late in my opinion.

Emma was a really likeable character and I felt like her frustration was my frustration. Losing my mind is probably up there as one of my biggest fears and I would bet against myself being able to cope like Emma did. Despite everything she was going through, she was still soldiering on, trying to hold her crumbling family together. I felt quite proud of her for juggling everything but I also felt an overwhelming sadness for her.

Writing Style ✍️

I haven’t read a Sarah Pinborough book before but having looked at Goodreads I now realise I have been living under a rock and should probably read Behind Her Eyes. I really enjoyed her writing style. She was able to tell a riveting story without leaving me feeling like I had missed any important detail. At no point was I dragged along with this story, I was on the journey along with the characters.

The narrator for Insomnia did such a good job. She was Emma through and through and I will forevermore refuse to hear another voice and associate it with this character. The narration matched the pace of the writing perfectly, making for a fantastic audio book.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖

I started this book knowing nothing about the book or the author and so my expectations were middle of the road. My expectations were exceeded with a riveting story told via great writing. Will definitely be reading more from Sarah Pinborough.

I love Sarah Pinborough - but I do find her books a bit hit and miss. Some are phenomenal and some just don't do it for me. Unfortunately this book was the latter for me.
There was just not enough plot here for me to drive the book forward.
It wasn't 'thrilling' and just felt quite dull at times.

I also listened to the audio book, and it had a decent narrator, but I just couldn't get past the slow pace of the book.

I will continue to read Sarah Pinborough's books - I just hope that her next one i a bit more pacey!

Successful divorce lawyer Emma Averall is fast approaching her big 4-0, but instead of looking forward to a big party and celebration, she is worried. Her views on turning this age are coloured by an incident in her childhood that happened when her Mum turned 40. She is suffering from insomnia and some small similarities are making her think that she may be experiencing the same and she can't get it out of her mind. Add in the fact that her estranged sister chooses this time to show her face again, can it be a coincidence?

This was a slow burn of a story which unravelled well and had some good twists and turns.

I loved Behind her Eyes by this author in book format and on Netflix.

I anticipated this new release with eager anticipation and I enjoyed it.
It’s not a full 5* for two reasons from me.
The reveal.
And the repetition. It’s been said that the pace is a little slow, I didn’t notice that as I read this mostly (or should I say, listened to it mostly) on audio. I play the speed a bit faster as I like listening to my books like this so maybe that’s why I can’t comment on the slowness.

Emma Averell Is zooming up to her big 4…0 and this brings worried events to the forefront of her mind. Her Mother went mad when she was 40. Is this what’s happening to her?
She’s suffering from insomnia and slowly feels like she’s loosing time and the plot!

I can relate to something that can cause this type of anxiety.

My dad died at 53 of a heart attack.
His dad died at 50 from the same thing and his dad before him….again in his 50’s.

I had at the back of my mind that if I survive past my 50’s it won’t happen to me and hopefully I’ll get a few more years left. It’s real folks. The mind can really enforce you to stay in that mode of anxiety and sleepless nights fearing to sleep just in case…….

I could totally connect with this characters concept.

I did enjoy this much for more reasons than I deducted 1*.

This book I Will remember for quite a while even-though the reveal wasn’t as jaw dropping as I’d hope.

As someone who works day and night shifts I often suffer from poor sleep patterns, not quite insomnia but at times sleep is difficult to achieve, sadly (or not) I have found a cure, this book!

Insomnia is a genuine keep you awake, edge of your seat thriller. I listened to it in almost a single sitting and was totally gripped by the excellent narration and a plot that leads the listener ( reader) round in circles. Wow! What a story.

In a nutshell, Emma and Phoebe are sisters. Their mother suffered a breakdown on her 40th birthday when they were children and the effects resonate through the decades. Emma is a successful solicitor whose husband stays at home with the children. Emma and her sister are estranged, but Phoebe turns up days before Emma’s 40th birthday; just when strange things start to affect Emma and her family. She becomes obsessed with routine, she’s worried about suffering a breakdown herself on her 40th. Her behaviour starts to move off kilter and then the story really ratchets up. It’s incredibly well plotted, full of pace and the range of characters are plausible. I bought in to Emma’s anguish and as an increasingly unreliable narrator, had no idea how it would all pan out. Genuinely gripping and the real cracker comes as a mind bending conundrum at the end when, with allusion to TS Eliot and the Four Quartets, the nature of time is considered. It’s a story that’s actually much deeper than it first appears and really makes you think. I absolutely loved it. I need more like this from Sarah Pinsborough; my best psych thriller this year.

My thanks to the publisher for a review copy via Netgalley.

Emma Averell is a success story – a rags to riches, high powered divorce attorney with two beautiful children and a stay at home husband, all living together in a large and beautiful house – a seemingly perfect life.

Emma and her sister Phoebe didn’t have the best childhood; with an unstable mother who couldn’t sleep and muttered to herself constantly, culminating with the unthinkable happening on their mothers’ fortieth birthday – a day that ended with two traumatised children and a mother secured in a psychiatric hospital.

Poor Emma has been terrified of turning forty. With family rumours of a madness plaguing the second child, it’s always been stuck at the back of her mind. Twelve days before the big 4-0, Emma wakes in the middle of the night and from then on is hit with crippling insomnia. She finds, as the sleep-deprived nights pile up, that she is losing time, compulsively checking the windows, checking the door is still locked, looking in on the children and hovering over their beds – praying for sleep while constantly wandering around the darkness of her large house and entering further into the darkness of her own mind. Please, please let me sleep… As time goes on, Emma finds she is adopting more and more of her mothers’ behaviours and life as she knew it is beginning to unravel. Caught between terror, paranoia and denial – everyone is beginning to wonder if madness truly does run in the family!

With the ultimate unreliable narrator, this book kept me guessing all the way to the end. This is a twisty, dark and creepy psychological thriller that at times does appear to be slightly repetitive, but with each repetition, you learn more clues and it definitely adds to the feeling of a mind cracking and beginning to splinter. I really liked Emma (although I may be slightly biased) but you find yourself rooting for her even as you are secretly doubting her sanity at times.

I never got around to reading Behind Her Eyes and I was surprised to realise this is my first Sarah Pinborough book – after reading Insomnia, I’ll be checking out her other work for sure.

I was lucky enough to be gifted the audiobook and Sarah Durham did an amazing job at narrating.

My thanks to the author and Harper Collins UK Audio for my advance copy to review via NetGalley.


🌀Four twisty crazy stars 🌀

Wow! This book is amazing. I got it this morning, and I have finished it already, as it was so good that I couldn't stop listening to it.

Emma is a lawyer who is approaching 40 years old. She has everything she has ever wanted - a husband, two children, a beautiful home, a successful career, a sister she loves, and her health. But she starts having insomnia, and then she feels like she is going crazy. All sorts of things start happening to her, and her world falls apart around her. She had a difficult childhood, with her mother having mental health problems which really affected her, and this ended up with her and her sister being put into care, as her mother was taken to a mental health hospital. Is Emma suffering from mental health problems like her mother? Or is there someone out there who has something against Emma?

This book is fantastic, and it is full of suspense, mystery, twists, creepiness and suspicion, in so many layers. The ending was so creepy and shocking as everything was uncovered, and I was holding my breath anxiously while waiting to see if the family would be ok.

The audiobook narrator was really good, and she kept the tension high throughout, keeping me hooked into the story.

This is one of the best books I have read this year. Highly recommended!

Many thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really didn’t know what to expect from this book. It looked like it could be an a typical psychological thriller, but it was so much more.
The back story which unravelled was so interesting, it was well thought out and quite believable.
There were some good twists and turns which I didn’t see coming.
Overall an interesting read- it sort of deals with insomnia, but mostly covers the issue of early childhood trauma. The affects of this is life changing.