Reviews - The Edge of Sleep

177 reviews for:

The Edge of Sleep

Willie Block, Jake Emanuel

3.38 AVERAGE

hbobomb's review against another edition

3.5

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

nines_o's review

1.0

I actually don’t think men (these men specifically) can write books

kpeareads's review against another edition

3.25

dark mysterious medium-paced

lou_reads_stuff's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The Edge of Sleep was originally a podcast, and that is the format of this book that I read. All eight episodes were captivating, thanks in no small part to the narrator, Mark Fischbach, or Markiplier. His voice fits the darkness of the story along with the depth of the main character, Dave.

The synopsis for this book alone was enough to capture my attention. It was in my TBR for a lot less time than books usually are. On a random night, every person who is asleep or falls asleep suddenly dies. I began with so many questions. Why did they die? Why now? How long will Dave and his friends be able to stay alive? How do they even know it's sleep that's so deadly? All of these questions excited me.

That first question was the most mysterious.

As Dave and Linda go through houses and find all the dead people in their beds, what they don't find are symptoms. None of the bodies have any trace of what might have killed them, making this deadly pandemic even scarier. Eventually, Linda performs an autopsy on multiple bodies in the hospital, and all of them show the same thing. Thick smoke comes out of the brain cavities of the victims, and they all bear a black triangle burned straight onto their brains. This is the only symptom on any of the victims! And this is not the only time that the black triangle will leave me guessing.

Dave decides to fall asleep, risking his life on the possibility of finding a clue as to what to do. He ends up falling asleep twice before the end of the book, and the dreams he has shook me. The dreams are different, one taking place in the desert and the other in a dark pit, but both have the same theme, taking Dave to his breaking point. Dave feels extreme thirst in his first dream and loneliness as he forgets who he is in his second. In the real world, Dave is asleep for a few minutes, but he describes his time as almost infinite. He mentions centuries in the first dream and weeks to months in the second. The purpose of this dream is to reach the breaking point of the human mind and manipulate the dreamer at their lowest point to walk through the triangle door. An entity comes to Dave in the form of the people he loves the most, trying to convince him to cross over. The overwhelming pain Dave is in, along with the longing he feels for the people facing him, make it a miracle that he stayed alive. Thanks to the dream walkers taking on the forms of whales, Dave is able to literally and figuratively come up to the surface and wake up.

The impossibility of survival throughout the book proves the tenacious nature of people. In the beginning, it seems like they'll have to stay awake forever,

but the first day or two aren't that hard because of the pills they take. However, as sleeplessness catches up to them, they have a specific amount of time they need to stay awake: 15 hours for the plane ride, then just an hour and a half for the car ride. Although these time limits give hope, the exhaustion becomes too much for everyone, and each passing second becomes a living nightmare.

This book did an amazing job of describing just how difficult each instant was for those still alive. Stories like this that take away a vital part of human survival have so much range to show the extent of the tenacity and pain that survivors go through. These tales feel like an experiment, a huge "what if" question that is worth exploring. The Edge of Sleep was definitely worth my time and more.

mackreadssometimes's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Loved the podcast so decided to read the book and loved it just as much

patrisiabb13's review against another edition

3.0

So there is going to be a sequel, right? But I'm not sure if I want to read it.

The writers of this story are great at dialog and character development (except for Katie, who I hated, but wasn't supposed to), but not so great at writing. There are too many unnecessary, go-nowhere plot points and characters. Also, big gaps where you are at one place in the plot and suddenly at a different point with no explanation how we got there. And then there are the confusing descriptions.

I gave this an extra star because the narrator was fantastic.