‘Sleepless’ by Louise Mumford is a Debut novel that is a psychological thriller mixed with a bit of dystopian fiction and sci-fi too. Again, another debut that is raising the bar. You would never realise this was a first novel it IS that good!
Thea is an insomniac; she hasn’t slept more than three hours a night for years. So when an ad for a sleep trial that promises to change her life pops up on her phone, Thea knows this is her last chance at finding any kind of normal life. She enters the trial and soon enough she finds she is sleeping really well and for longer than she has for ten years at least. The weird thing is that they won’t allow her to leave her bedroom without permission, she has no phone signal and her shoes and everything she owns are all locked away. The fact that there are armed guards at her door isn’t exactly normal.
This Big Brother-style of this sleep trial shows as they not only monitor their test subjects but changing the sleep patterns of them too without anyone knowing at first. Thea’s initial thoughts of the trial starts to change as she begins to realise things aren’t quite as they should be. She begins to feel paranoid and scared, she attempts to get to the bottom of it all even though she does not know who to trust and why this is happening.
Thea is torn in two, does she escape or try to get to the bottom of this scary thing that is taking place?
This is a unique plot and I enjoyed myself delving into a bit of sci-fi and dystopia that ran alongside the thrilling story. I was swept along in Thea’s search for the truth.
A very good, entertaining read. Thanks to Rachel’s Random Resources and Louise Mumford for the copy of the book for my review today.
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