one of the easiest 5 stars i've given.

I already knew I was probably going to enjoy this because I adore Marney's Breathe series, which was more of a Sherlock Holmes retelling. However, I was really blown away by this book because it kept me HOOKED. It really only took me a while because I'm deep in a video game hole right now.

First and foremost, this book is about Emma. While there are POVs from Travis and other characters, this book mostly revolves around Emma and her character arc.

She's a teen who has come out the other side and survived a serial killer. She survived because she ran and she has been running ever since. She runs as a form of coping. She's recruited by the FBI to work on a small team with Travis Bell, who is headed into law enforcement, to interview teen killers and profile them. This quickly turns into meeting a teen serial killer and also finding themselves in the middle of an active case.

Emma and Travis are written so well and I can see their character journey throughout this book as Emma faces her fears and the trauma of what has happened to her in the past. She wants to help others so that they don't have to face the horrors that she did. Travis wants to avenge his father and keep his legacy alive, and in doing so, he must also face his own demons. They really go on a whole journey in this book as working on this case changes them.

This is one of my favourite bits from the book --

"He thought he knew all this; he thought he was educated, jaded. But Kristin Gutmunsson has torn the veil from his eyes. He wants it back, but he's a better investigator without it. There are no limits, he sees now. There are no monsters. Only people."


As someone who watched a whole lot of crime shows (i have in fact watched all of NCIS), I didn't know where this mystery was going to go. I didn't know what the motives are, and who the killer was going to be. I really thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and going through the journey with Emma and Travis as they solved the crime and figured out who it was.

Genuinely if you love criminal minds, you'll really enjoy this book. The Naturals who? This book blows it out of the water. The ending ties up the story, but there's a loose thread for a potential sequel. I would LOVE a sequel and get to read more of this and Marney's crime fiction.

Did you love Silence of the Lambs and waited impatiently for the new season of Mindhunter to drop? If you answered yes to either of those I have the perfect book for you to read. None Shall Sleep combines intense action with character development to create a highly engrossing read.

Ellie Marney's writing showcases that she put a lot of thought and time into the creation of her characters. She makes sure that all of them are interesting in their own way and also ensures they fit into the story being told. It, for me, was where her writing really shined.

Emma's a victim who would rather be seen as anything else. The survivor of a serial killer her trauma is woven into both the character and story subtly and with care. Ellie Marney could have laid out every horrible thing that Emma suffered via flashback scenes but instead chooses to provide just enough hints to allow the reader's imagination to fill in the rest. A prospect that will conjure up more horrors than the author ever could. I like that she is tough but not closed off. She is strong and resilient in ways that felt true to her character.

Travis is a victim as well but in an entirely different way. Violence has touched him in its own way and it makes these two two halves of a whole. Their connection and chemistry felt natural because they each could instantly understand the other in a lot of ways.

The Mindhunter aspect of the story should be evident from the synopsis. It shares interviewing serial killers and of course its backdrop of the FBI and profiling. This aspect is where a bit of disbelief has to be given to the story. It was hard to believe that they would have been allowed to assist the FBI at all never mind in such a large capacity. I get why the main characters needed to be younger but it does pull you out of the story a bit. It is not enough to distract from your enjoyment but something that the reader is aware of and tracks.

The most compelling part of the story is Simon and his interactions with Emma. A teenaged serial killer who has plenty of charm and intelligence. He is Hannibal Lecter to Emma's Clarice Starling. Their conversations will bring flashbacks to the movie in particular. I found those scenes to be the most eclectic part of the story and the parts that had me most on edge. I could have easily read an entire book of just those conversations. The author captures a sort of breathless dread that is felt in a well done scene like this.

If you, like me, are missing Mindhunter I highly recommend picking up this book. Ellie Marney has written a book that immediately made me want to reach for the sequel.

I think I would've enjoyed this a lot more if the tone, or writing style, had been a little different. Because the way this thriller unfolded, the chase, the crimes and the why, the whole set-up of using teens to hunt those who hunt and kill teens, is all fascinating. The fact that the backstories of these these junior investigators (not highschool age, this is a bit more realistic than that) were so traumatic, in very different ways, and how they battled those demons to do this work.. it was great.

Equally great was sidestepping much of what the female protagonist had gone through. We get hints, terrible hints, but nothing is explicitly explained and instead Marney lets us use our imagination -- the scariest thing she could've done. It also, in a way, feels protective. Conversely, though, the author also leans into that when it comes to another character and that tease, as opposed to hitting us with every terrible thing, carries so much more weight.. but for a different purpose.

However. I felt quite removed from.. a lot of this. Maybe that was purposeful because there are pretty gruesome, not to mention traumatic, moments but Marney didn't linger over them, didn't sensationalize them, as they were already impactful. And yet still.. there were maybe only two highly charged moments that I truly felt, was truly moved by, and that just wasn't quite enough.

I'm also left very curious as to how things wrapped. Is this the beginning of a series, maybe? Could there be more? I would absolutely read on. Maybe being familiar with the style would make a follow up book more enjoyable. I don't know. But these two characters have me so curious as to where they would go next. Plus I liked how effortless it was to be thrown into the eighties without a thousand blinking neon signs reminding us of that fact at every turn. It was nice to leave the current timeline and skate back to something different. Even if it wasn't sunshine and rainbows.

If you're looking for thrills and chills during this spooky season, I would totally give this a try!

I was SO excited to read this one, I can’t even tell you. And I LOVED it! What did I love? I’ll tell you:

CREDIBLE TEEN YA THRILLER CHARACTERS
YA thrillers, especially police procedurals, often have credibility issues. This book had none of the “my father happens to be the sheriff” or “a high school internship at Quantico is totally a thing” or “I’m a hacker who can peek at secret government records” stuff going on. The recruitment of Emma and Travis, while unusual, was completely credible to me. They had enough real responsibility and did enough sneaking around behind the scenes to make it all work for me.

ALL THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS VIBES.
I watched the movie and read the book (back when I was braver) and I think the heart of that story is the cat and mouse relationship between Clarice and Hannibal. This book had a very similar vibe in which Emma, so strong and yet so vulnerable, matches wits with a truly creepy killer behind bars.

ALL OF THE TWISTS AND TURNS
I love trying to guess where a thriller is going. I had my theories about this one and I was WRONG. Which I kind of love. But this book kept me on pins and needles the entire time. It was so good!

ALL OF THE 80S VIBES
Okay, well, I could have used even more. Maybe because I actually remember the 80s, it all felt normal to me: no cell phones. No social media. Every so often, the book would remind me that yeah, we are only in the 80s in this book by mentioning that a certain song was playing on the radio, and I’d go, oh yeah. But it was still great to be back in the 80s. Because 2020 is horrible.

My verdict? Grab None Shall Sleep ASAP!