Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.56 AVERAGE
3.56 AVERAGE
A lot slower and less horror than I was expecting
* NetGalley ARC *
* NetGalley ARC *
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Near perfect blend of the Gothic and science fiction
—
Science doesn’t know exactly why we sleep and why we dream, but research overwhelmingly signals that we need both. In a near future London, Thea and her colleagues are holed up in the Tower of London, trying to understand the global epidemic of violence that they started with a brain chip. Those with the chip who are still alive are the Sleepless, literally unsleeping and animalistic. Thea is conflicted, having been part of the team that created the chip and trying to find a cure; when an intelligent, cogent member of the Sleepless enters the Tower, her understanding of the world pre-Sleepless and after will be undone. Will Thea have the strength to face her deepest fears and perhaps save her world?
With illness as the narrative driver and the metaphor for horror, this is a near perfect blend of the Gothic and science fiction, timeless yet set in a near future. Elliott is a new Mary Shelley, using the Tower of London as a palimpsest of time past, with all of its history, reality and above all its ghosts, and more crucially as a landscape character in an almost Peakian sense. What might the next room bring to the narrative? What horrors? What dashed hopes? Certainly Frankensteinian, but rather than creating a new Prometheus, this is about taking apart the new hellish creation. And in the end, who, really, are the monsters?
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This book has so many layers of horror and terrifying possibilities. The way it makes you think about humanity and the greater good can be challenging in the best way. The way the author brings in Henrietta Lachs life and contributions was so well done. The way the characters are written is very realistic and make you self reflect. We as human beings are the most horrific monsters to ourselves. This book has multiple layers of messaging that can be uncomfortable but necessary to reflect on. The way the science is necessary and yet can sometimes remove the humanity from the human it’s willing to sacrifice for the greater good is terrifying. I think the author did a great job of asking the reader to think about what they would actually do when faced with the situations in this story and the answers wouldn’t be so simple.. Absolutely a mind horror and so well done.
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
I received an ALC from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
This wasn't for me. It had a lot of philosophical meandering and not much in the way of plot or momentum. The characters weren't particularly engaging, the setting felt vague to me, and the ending totally lost me.
The aspect that felt most real to me was the engagement with chronic fatigue and how it gets dismissed culturally and medically. That felt like it came from a very genuine and thoughtful place. I also find sleep fascinating, and there was some interesting science/sci-fi in here about that. The audiobook performance was generally good too.
Despite my interest in the themes, my overall experience of this was of being bored.
This wasn't for me. It had a lot of philosophical meandering and not much in the way of plot or momentum. The characters weren't particularly engaging, the setting felt vague to me, and the ending totally lost me.
The aspect that felt most real to me was the engagement with chronic fatigue and how it gets dismissed culturally and medically. That felt like it came from a very genuine and thoughtful place. I also find sleep fascinating, and there was some interesting science/sci-fi in here about that. The audiobook performance was generally good too.
Despite my interest in the themes, my overall experience of this was of being bored.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma
Moderate: Animal death, Pregnancy
Minor: Rape
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The premise had such potential to either be a really good horror or sci-fi book. Unfortunately, it was so slow and the characters were pretty unlikeable. I couldn't even bring myself to cheer for Thea (the main character). The book didn't really have an ending and I honestly had a difficult time focusing on the story. There were some bits of "romance" that were so random that it was jarring and took me even more out of the story.
Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for a free copy in return for an honest review.
Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for a free copy in return for an honest review.
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Whew this fever dream where a billionaire funds a group of scientists to “cure” sleeplessness that has taken over the world and caused people to become “awakened” -never sleeping and becoming more monstrous.. was WOW. One of the scientists is Thea and she starts to have some guilt over their experiments on what they call the awakened aka people who cannot sleep. Yes this is such a horrific example of what white people have always done to Black people/marginalized groups in general. And it is graphic, so please take care of yourself. She starts to question why she is even doing what she is doing whenever two Awakened people show up to the Tower.
This book is not fast, but not slow. It covers many different topics, but esp medical practices that are extremely harmful and how people will “justify” it in their minds. There was a scene where one character looks at another character and essentially says that wouldn’t your life be better if you could walk? Whew yall, I wanted to FIGHT THEM. But how many have/continue to he these thoughts/beliefs?
Thea was such a morally grey character and I never found myself cheering for her. She has caused so much harm and once she realizes that.. is she changing to make herself feel less guilty or because she knows it’s the right/moral thing to do?
Thank you NetGalley and dreamscape media for the ALC!
This book is not fast, but not slow. It covers many different topics, but esp medical practices that are extremely harmful and how people will “justify” it in their minds. There was a scene where one character looks at another character and essentially says that wouldn’t your life be better if you could walk? Whew yall, I wanted to FIGHT THEM. But how many have/continue to he these thoughts/beliefs?
Thea was such a morally grey character and I never found myself cheering for her. She has caused so much harm and once she realizes that.. is she changing to make herself feel less guilty or because she knows it’s the right/moral thing to do?
Thank you NetGalley and dreamscape media for the ALC!
dark
tense
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
When I first read the premise of this book, it sounded amazing. I mean, the aftermath of induced global sleeplessness, lost sanity, guilt from a scientist’s perspective over the initial experiments on the ‘Sleepless’, all doused in a sauce of horror? Sounds like a good ol’ dystopian time to me!
And those elements were indeed very interesting in the book. I liked reading about the main character Thea, just because she was such a sane scientist in the beginning of the book, but then as the story progressed, you could see how plagued and unreliable a narrator she really was.
However, I would have liked to have seen these themes much more worked out and developed into the plot line. I feel like it was more of a philosophical discussion about life and control than it was about creating a well-thought out plot. Which is fine if that’s your thing, but it wasn’t really it for me.
I did really enjoy the narration of the audiobook. The narrator was excellent and told the story in a very engaging manner. This definitely enhanced the reading experience in my opinion!
Overall, an interesting read but I would’ve liked to have gone deeper into it and seen more.
Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the ARC in return for my honest opinion.
And those elements were indeed very interesting in the book. I liked reading about the main character Thea, just because she was such a sane scientist in the beginning of the book, but then as the story progressed, you could see how plagued and unreliable a narrator she really was.
However, I would have liked to have seen these themes much more worked out and developed into the plot line. I feel like it was more of a philosophical discussion about life and control than it was about creating a well-thought out plot. Which is fine if that’s your thing, but it wasn’t really it for me.
I did really enjoy the narration of the audiobook. The narrator was excellent and told the story in a very engaging manner. This definitely enhanced the reading experience in my opinion!
Overall, an interesting read but I would’ve liked to have gone deeper into it and seen more.
Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the ARC in return for my honest opinion.