The Insomniacs, by Allison Winn Scotch (REVIEW) — The Things That Keep Us Up at Night Cut Deep

 insomnia: inability to obtain sufficient sleep, especially when chronic; difficulty in falling or staying asleep; sleeplessness.

 

There are all sorts of reasons for insomnia.

For most people, it’s just an occasional problem. Not fun to go through—feeling cranky, tired, and muzzy-headed—but once it’s over, things tend to go back to normal.

Imagine if sleeplessness was your “normal”, though. Something that went on night after night after night... leaving you in a permanent state of absolute exhaustion, with your body—and brain—never getting the chance to rest and heal.

That’s where four strangers find themselves, in New York Times bestselling author Allison Will Scotch’s new thriller, The Insomniacs.

 

Sybil—a midlife stay-at-home mom, anxious and sleepless since her kids went off to college—listens to all the true-crime podcasts she can find, to cope.

Julian—a secretive widower whose health forced him into an early retirement—laments all the hours he worked, never getting to know his now-adult daughter.

 

Zeke—all-star pitcher for the Mets—replays in his mind the freak mid-game accident that shattered his elbow, leaving him sidelined from his team.

 

The three meet in a chat room on a site for insomniacs and hit it off... returning night after night to while away some of those endless sleepless hours together.

When they discover that they all live in the NYC metro area, Julian suggests they meet up for coffee and pancakes at an all-night diner.

That’s where they meet Betty—their prickly young waitress—who reveals that she, too, is an insomniac... and just like that, their little club—The Insomniacs—is born.

And, in just a couple months, each of them realizes the same thing—they’re no longer mere acquaintances... they’ve become family.

So when one of them vanishes one night, without a trace, it seems only natural that the rest of The Insomniacs will do whatever it takes to find them. (They didn’t listen to Sybil going on and on about her beloved true crime podcasts for nothing..!)

Turns out that playing detective is a lot harder than it looks or sounds, though, and even finding clues—let alone following them—proves frustrating.

But gradually, some of the pieces begin falling into place, and what they discover is... troubling. 

Did their friend do something terrible in the past? Or, is nothing actually what it appears..?

Friends... and family. In the end, it really all comes down to deciding what you’ll do for them... and living with the consequences of that choice.

And these friends-cum-family? They’ll do a lot.

 

I absolutely loved The Insomniacs. 

Scotch has created an absolutely fascinating group of characters to throw together, and made them come to vivid life on the page. 

They’re imperfect (like the rest of us). They go into these new friendships with preconceived ideas... which, of course—as so often happens in real life—quickly prove wrong. But they’re also willing to learn from each other, and listen, and just... be human. (There’s a lot of dialogue that feels incredibly real, in service of that.)

The backstories are done really well, too—which is crucial, because the histories makes everyone’s actions in the present understandable and believable. 

What happens—and how, and why—is a real gut-punch... but gives the entire story its momentum... and its heart.

I raced through The Insomniacs as fast as time allowed. (It’s almost sad that I wasn’t experiencing a bout of insomnia, myself, or I’d have finished it sooner. Irony, huh?)

And I loved every single page. I hope you will, too.

~Not-Sleepless-in L.A. GlamKitty 😉

 

[Thanks to Penguin Random House and Berkley Publishing Group for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are, as always, entirely my own.]