A review by ericarobyn
Sleep Tight by J.H. Markert

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

4.0

Sleep Tight by J.H. Markert is a chilling narrative filled with unexpected twists and harrowing turns. At its core lies the abduction of innocent children, beginning a desperate race against time to locate them before the unthinkable occurs.

Content Warnings:
Blood, violence, death, infidelity, addiction, drugs, alcohol, miscarriage, child abuse, kidnapping, child death, mental illness, suicide, animal death, physical abuse, and more!

When a famous serial killer is put to death, many people think that the nightmare has ended… but it’s only just begun.

The next morning, the detective who had arrested the killer years ago is found dead. Reeling from the news, the victim’s daughter, Tess Claibourne, doesn’t have time to mourn her father before she’s set on a path of even more terror; her daughter has been kidnapped by the man that they believe did the killing.

Throughout the investigation, the killer/kidnapper toys with Tess, forcing her to face her past and uncover her long-buried memories.

My gosh, could Tess have anything more to deal with all at the same time?! She had her husband’s infidelity, the death of her parents, the kidnapping of her only child, and so much lingering trauma from her past both recent and decades old. As the story centers mainly around her, we’re really able to get into her head to see how she is processing everything. My heart broke for her the more we learned about her and saw her go through.

Mixed in between the chapters from Tess, we also get the perspective of the kidnapper himself as well as the little girl that he kidnapped. As each storyline was so perfectly placed, readers won’t want to put this one down! I was so anxious to see what would happen at each twist and turn that we came to!

One last note, I would definitely caution readers with this one as it covered a lot of elements that could be triggering. I think the author handled each one perfectly, but please be aware that the darkness is there.

My Favorite Passages from Sleep Tight –

In hindsight, a lot of people should have known a lot of things. But unfortunately, the world doesn’t ever run in reverse. And one thing I’ve learned to be a hard truth is that hindsight never proves useful.

He squeezed the sides of his head to keep his thoughts in order. Sometimes they got muddled.

At least he sounded less drunk now, Tess thought, like Danny had somehow punched the alcohol right out of his bloodstream. Or at least, some sense into him.

Julia might be alive, but they both knew that sometimes for victims, it was better off if they weren’t.

Her grandfather’s voice, when he’d taken a break at the kitchen table, grandmother fixing a pot of coffee as the sun began to rise, a sliver of orange glow amid the trees out there, like the horizon was on fire.

Wind pushed the tall grass like ocean waves, and Tess smelled rain, Dark clouds had gathered suddenly from the west. The news had forecast storms, and they’d arrived. As if on cue, distant thunder rumbled. The approaching clouds looked ominous.

My Final Thoughts on Sleep Tight –

I had a blast immersing myself in this gripping dark mystery, which intertwines real-world horrors with inexplicable supernatural phenomena.

If you enjoy exploring the human psyche’s complex and sometimes dark framework, set in a fast-paced race for answers, this read is for you!
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