Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Sleepless by Victor Manibo

7 reviews

talonsontypewriters's review

mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Drug use

Moderate: Death, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Gun violence, Murder, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicide

Minor: Medical content, Alcohol, and Sexual content

Memory loss. Discrimination against and supremacist attitudes within an in-universe faction.

hal00alex's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

The ending is a bit dense and too convenient, so I couldn’t give it my normal 4 stars. Everything else is great.  Especially love how they talked about grief and imagined the world without sleep - non stop hustle. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide and Drug use

Moderate: Hate crime, Violence, Cancer, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Confinement, Blood, Alcoholism, Dementia, Grief, Kidnapping, and Murder

siriface's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Murder, Death, and Suicide

city_girl_writer's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

This was a really good thought experiment set in our near future. Loved the concept and liked the execution. I am still not quite sure if sci-fi thrillers are for me, but this book lets me gauge my expectations. I got kinda bored halfway through, but it didn't deter me from dnf-ing. It was very interesting to follow a somewhat unreliable narrator without knowing the MC was unreliable for half of the story. It ends quite realistically but left room for more thought. Definitely an underrated gem!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide and Death

Moderate: Alcohol, Drug use, Mental illness, Murder, and Violence

looseleafellie's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

In a world where a quarter of the world’s population has lost the ability to sleep, journalist Jamie Vega finds his boss dead in his office. Suspecting foul play, Jamie must investigate the true cause of death — and in the process, he discovers the sinister truth behind how he himself became Sleepless.

I loved the premise of this story, and I’m also a sucker for science fiction mysteries, so this was right up my alley! The hints of how the epidemic of Sleeplessness has changed the way the world works made me feel immersed in the story. It gives the sense of a world slipping toward dystopia, especially with some of the reveals toward the end.

This book was quite slow paced, but I also don’t know if it could have been any other way. I loved that the reader experiences the events on the night of the murder the same way Jamie did, so there’s a sense of solving the mystery along with him when he realizes his perception of what happened might not match with reality. Still, this book took me ages to read — partly because I was busy with college, and then hit a reading slump, but the pacing definitely didn’t help.

The big mystery was of course solved by the end, but a lot was left open about the future of Sleeplessness and Jamie’s health. However, I’m learning that I quite like books that don’t tie everything up neatly — it makes the world feel more expansive and realistic if not everything can be tied up in a neat little bow.

CWs: Suicide, Murder, violence, blood, grief, depression, amnesia, self-harm, drug use, incarceration, mental torture.

Spice level: Non-graphic, brief.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Grief, and Drug use

Moderate: Death, Murder, Violence, and Self harm

Minor: Medical content and Blood

caidyn's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

It started with a bang, but slowly tapered off and got a bit dull. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Gaslighting and Murder

toopunkrockforshul's review

dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Interesting premise but the writing was a bit clunky for me and the story dragged. Didn't feel like there was much point to the story. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Grief, Forced institutionalization, Drug use, Blood, Alcohol, Addiction, Confinement, and Suicide

Moderate: Death and Murder

Minor: Sexual content