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A review by amym84
The Insomniacs by Marit Weisenberg
4.0
3.5
After a serious diving injury leads to a concussion, Ingrid struggles with remembering piecing together what went wrong with that last dive that resulting in her injury. Her mind is a blank to everything surrounding it. But with a mandatory month away from the diving board hopefully, that will provide her with plenty of time to heal. Consequently, Ingrid can't seem to fall asleep. As her insomnia gets worse so does the stress and anxiety revolving around diving.
Ingrid finds an ally in her neighbor Van. Former childhood best friend and current crush, even though he's dating a girl on Ingrid's diving team. Van too is suffering from insomnia but his stems from a party where he blacked out and can't remember what happened, only that his friends are now treating him differently. So Van and Ingrid ban together to help one another and their focus turns to the abandoned house next to Ingrid's. There have been strange happenings in the house ever since the family mysteriously left if, and it's where the party took place that Van attended but can't remember.
But as the pieces start coming back for both of them and connects are formed, will they be able to rely on the truth?
The Insomniacs is the first book I've read by Merit Weisenberg. I think I was expecting the story to be a bit lighter, and was a bit surprised by the heavy topics that it tackles.
At the forefront for me was the idea of the pressure young people face to have a plan, to know their future, to excel. Ingrid was a natural diver and somewhere along the way it turned from something she did to feel closer to her father (who was also a diver and who later would leave Ingrid and her mother) to something she was the best at, something that would carry her through college and maybe into the Olympics. When she's injured and the possibility of losing all of that is in sight, it both stresses her out - what else has can she do - but also is a sense of relief - she has an excuse to slow down a bit and take time for herself for once. There's a real possibility that she may never be able to dive at the level she was before her injury, not because she can't remember events, but because there's this fear in her that wasn't present previously. I think that Merit Weisenberg does a great job of tying this into the underlining issues that Ingrid still faces from the abandonment of her father. Although they are issues she hasn't spoken about to anyone and not really even acknowledged within herself.
I liked the idea of how our mind and memories can shape our interpretations of certain situations. The subconscious picking up signs and cues. We see this develop with both Ingrid and Van as they begin to piece together the missing parts of their memories and as those pictures become whole again.
I'll say that here is where the story gets a bit too crowded with everything it's trying to do. As I think back on the story I'm trying myself to do a play-by-play and when you combine the issue of insomnia for both Van and Ingrid, add in the mysterious happenings at the house next door, plus the issues Ingrid is dealing with in going back to diving, the way things progress and connect (or disconnect) is a bit jumbled and I think Van's side of things comes out a bit weaker. To be fair, the story is told completely from Ingrid's perspective, but I feel that if focus had been mainly on her issues those could have been even stronger. There was plenty to focus and dig through for sure.
I liked the tentative romance, the childhood crush finally seeing you, former friends reconnecting, but I feel like this book is being pegged as a more romance heavy story than it is. It's sweet and does fit within the overarching story line, but for me wasn't as prevalent as I had thought it was going to be based on the blurb.
Along with everything going on, there are quite a few twists and turns in the story. Not wanting to give anything away, I could feel certain twists and turns in my gut as I read. I don't know if this was intentional tying in with the idea of subconscious feeling, or if I've read too many books where things progress in a similar way (again maybe my own subconscious hmmm), but I wasn't surprised by many of the twists.
I was mostly invested in seeing Ingrid finally open herself up. To the past with her father, to her new fears of diving, to love, to her future whatever it holds. I think seeing Ingrid hold on so tight to the control of her life, not wanting anything to slip, was the hardest part of the story to read, but it should be. Young people should not feel like they are isolated, that they need to keep the stiff upper lip. They should be able to share their hurts and dreams, fears and desires. That is what The Insomniacs was to me.
*ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
After a serious diving injury leads to a concussion, Ingrid struggles with remembering piecing together what went wrong with that last dive that resulting in her injury. Her mind is a blank to everything surrounding it. But with a mandatory month away from the diving board hopefully, that will provide her with plenty of time to heal. Consequently, Ingrid can't seem to fall asleep. As her insomnia gets worse so does the stress and anxiety revolving around diving.
Ingrid finds an ally in her neighbor Van. Former childhood best friend and current crush, even though he's dating a girl on Ingrid's diving team. Van too is suffering from insomnia but his stems from a party where he blacked out and can't remember what happened, only that his friends are now treating him differently. So Van and Ingrid ban together to help one another and their focus turns to the abandoned house next to Ingrid's. There have been strange happenings in the house ever since the family mysteriously left if, and it's where the party took place that Van attended but can't remember.
But as the pieces start coming back for both of them and connects are formed, will they be able to rely on the truth?
The Insomniacs is the first book I've read by Merit Weisenberg. I think I was expecting the story to be a bit lighter, and was a bit surprised by the heavy topics that it tackles.
At the forefront for me was the idea of the pressure young people face to have a plan, to know their future, to excel. Ingrid was a natural diver and somewhere along the way it turned from something she did to feel closer to her father (who was also a diver and who later would leave Ingrid and her mother) to something she was the best at, something that would carry her through college and maybe into the Olympics. When she's injured and the possibility of losing all of that is in sight, it both stresses her out - what else has can she do - but also is a sense of relief - she has an excuse to slow down a bit and take time for herself for once. There's a real possibility that she may never be able to dive at the level she was before her injury, not because she can't remember events, but because there's this fear in her that wasn't present previously. I think that Merit Weisenberg does a great job of tying this into the underlining issues that Ingrid still faces from the abandonment of her father. Although they are issues she hasn't spoken about to anyone and not really even acknowledged within herself.
I liked the idea of how our mind and memories can shape our interpretations of certain situations. The subconscious picking up signs and cues. We see this develop with both Ingrid and Van as they begin to piece together the missing parts of their memories and as those pictures become whole again.
I'll say that here is where the story gets a bit too crowded with everything it's trying to do. As I think back on the story I'm trying myself to do a play-by-play and when you combine the issue of insomnia for both Van and Ingrid, add in the mysterious happenings at the house next door, plus the issues Ingrid is dealing with in going back to diving, the way things progress and connect (or disconnect) is a bit jumbled and I think Van's side of things comes out a bit weaker. To be fair, the story is told completely from Ingrid's perspective, but I feel that if focus had been mainly on her issues those could have been even stronger. There was plenty to focus and dig through for sure.
I liked the tentative romance, the childhood crush finally seeing you, former friends reconnecting, but I feel like this book is being pegged as a more romance heavy story than it is. It's sweet and does fit within the overarching story line, but for me wasn't as prevalent as I had thought it was going to be based on the blurb.
Along with everything going on, there are quite a few twists and turns in the story. Not wanting to give anything away, I could feel certain twists and turns in my gut as I read. I don't know if this was intentional tying in with the idea of subconscious feeling, or if I've read too many books where things progress in a similar way (again maybe my own subconscious hmmm), but I wasn't surprised by many of the twists.
I was mostly invested in seeing Ingrid finally open herself up. To the past with her father, to her new fears of diving, to love, to her future whatever it holds. I think seeing Ingrid hold on so tight to the control of her life, not wanting anything to slip, was the hardest part of the story to read, but it should be. Young people should not feel like they are isolated, that they need to keep the stiff upper lip. They should be able to share their hurts and dreams, fears and desires. That is what The Insomniacs was to me.
*ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.