Insomnia
Sarah Pinborough
💥 Pub Date: 4/12/2012

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

• psychological thriller & plenty of domestic drama
• unreliable narrator
• slow burn start which definitely pays off

The author has a fantastic way of weaving together a story. I was engrossed in it and wanted to know what the heck was going on. Although I saw part of the reveal coming, this was still an enjoyable read that had my heart pounding!

🗣️ Thank you to @netgalley and @williammorrowbooks for the opportunity to read and review this book via eARC! All opinions are honest and my own.

I keep going back and forth with this one. One one hand, the insomnia and paranoia was explained in a way that was terrifying but on the other hand, I feel like it got to be too much. Also, while I could feel sympathy for Emma, she wasn’t a character that I liked. I never truly connected to her and felt her husband was very one dimensional. However, I also has a hard time putting this down. I needed to know what was going to happen but then I was not satisfied with the conclusion.

What a great mysterious ride this book was. So many edge of your seat moments. I do have to confess, I fill on hated each character in different moments. It made me want to read more and more to find out what would happen next. Amazing thriller I will be suggesting to many patrons!

This book didn't hit the mark for me. I found it slow moving--the description of the character's descent into madness was boring and repetitive. I considered not finishing it but pushed through and very quickly read the last half. I will say the ending was very creative and I enjoyed it (and I don't usually enjoy supernatural elements).

Emma has it all. She has a successful career as a divorce lawyer and a loving husband who forgoes working outside the home in order to care for their two wonderful children.. But Emma has a secret. She's told her family her mother died when she was five, but the truth is she's been in a mental institution ever since a psychotic break that nearly left her sister dead. Her mother always told Emma she'd go mad one day, too. After several nights without sleep, Emma begins to think her mother may have ben right. Fans of psychological suspense will enjoy this.

I was so excited to get this book because I loved Behind Her Eyes! While this one wasn't quite as shocking, it still had all the twists and turns and was even a little bit creepy at times. I loved that the reader doesn't know whether Emma is being gaslighted or if she really is going insane. I had to keep reading because I needed to know what exactly was going on!

Thank you to Scene of the Crime, Netgalley and @williammorrowbooks for the gifted e-arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Nothing groundbreaking but I liked it. Pretty standard psychological thriller. We have a lot of thriller fans at my library so I'm sure we'll buy it.

If you like reading thrillers, then this is the book you should read! Insomnia was a 5 star read for me as it grabbed my attention right from the start and never let go. I’d never read anything by Sarah Pinborough before, but after reading this, I have full intention of reading all of her backlist. This story was so good! Everything about it seemed real. It centers around Emma Averell, a wife, mother and very successful lawyer. It seems she has the perfect life however she did have a tragic childhood. Her mother goes crazy on her 40th birthday and Emma is afraid the same will happen to her. It starts with insomnia and then there’s these little tics. It’s been said that this runs in the family, only the 2nd born child is affected. But perhaps her older sister Phoebe has something to do with this. Emma doesn’t know who to trust but she feels like her family is in danger. Is it a case of greed, jealousy or revenge? This is a book I read in record time and one I’ll be recommending to all thriller lovers. I’d like to thank Sam Glatt, Marketing Coordinator at William Morrow, HarperCollins Publishers, the Scene of the Crime Early Reads program and NetGalley for the arc to read, review and enjoy. It deserves a much higher rating but I guess I’ll have to settle with 5 stars!

Emma is nearing her 40th birthday and she's suffering from insomnia. Her mom went "crazy" just around her 40th birthday and Emma is fearing the same thing will happen to her. Every night, she has a routine that she does in the middle of the night but she also finds herself muttering a sequence of numbers or signing a song she learned from her mom. Emma's family - her husband and kids Chloe and Will and her sister Phoebe - are all afraid of her.

When a side character tells Emma what happened to her, I wondered if that was the same scenario that happened to Emma but I was way off. The twist at the end just turned me off.

Emma has worked hard her whole life to achieve the happiness she has now - a beautiful family and on the verge of a big job promotion. There seems to be just one thing standing in her way: her fortieth birthday. Unlike most people, it’s not getting older that bothers Emma but the fact that her mother had a nervous breakdown on her own fortieth birthday. As her big day approaches, she begins to suffer from horrible insomnia, just like her mother. Boy did this book start off with a bang! You really got that panicked feeling of insomnia setting in (as anyone who has experienced it knows how much it truly sucks). As the story unfolds, Emma’s behavior got more irrational and the people around her seem more sketchy. In true psychological thriller form, I was left thinking is it all in her head or is someone out to get her? And if so, who? Although I love when there’s a twist I didn’t see coming, I was left feeling a little underwhelmed at the ending of this book. But the writing was spectacular - I couldn’t put this down and finished it in 24 hours. Thank you to Netgalley, William Morris and Sarah Pinborough for the ARC! Insomnia releases April 12th. This review will be posted to my Instagram blog (books_by_the_bottle) shortly ☺️

Interesting read. Emma develops insomnia prior to her 40th birthday. Her mother had some type of psychotic breakdown when she turned 40 and Emma fears that this will happen to her. After Emma's mother is hospitalized, she and her older sister were brought up in foster homes. Emma was almost adopted but it fell through. Emma is a successful lawyer, mother of 2 with a supportive husband. But things start to change when she stops sleeping at night. It is a thriller with a touch of supernatural.

I love this author and her style of writing. I felt the first half of the book did move a bit slow and seemed a little repetitive. I still enjoyed it! The second half of the book moved a lot quicker and had the twists and turns that I expect of this author. I like the plot, I love the fact that we have to suspend belief in this novel, it was one of the best things about it. I love when I can't guess why the thing that is happening is happening. Overall, great book, very entertaining.

With an unreliable narrator and a story that most people can relate to, this book was mesmerizing as well as disturbing. Emma is about to turn forty, the age at which her mother went insane and was institutionalized. Dealing with the stigma and the belief that the same thing may happen to her, Emma is having real problems with insomnia. But that’s not all. She is also having disturbing hallucinations (or are they real) surrounding her husband, her children, her career. In fact, her life in general is a train wreck. The realism of her situation was what captured my attention since I wanted to know how she was going to come out in the end. The book was written in reverse order, counting down to her birthday. The explanation for what was happening to her was a real twist and a definite surprise that I did not see coming. Emma was a sympathetic character, but many of the supporting characters were not portrayed as such because they were painted with the brush of her unreliability. The characterization was spot on, with characters who contributed to her problems and those who also seemed to be helping as much as possible. I did not like her husband at all since Robert was sneaky and deceptive. Nor did I like her daughter Chloe because she was totally disrespectful and untrustworthy. But I do think the author did a good job of portraying even those I did not like since I don’t think I was supposed to like them. This is also a story that explores family relationships and how one event can change everything for everyone involved. The portrayal of Phoebe as the sister was sinister and mysterious and added those elements to the story. Fans of domestic suspense will enjoy the story’s fast pace and unexpected twists.
Disclosure
Disclaimer of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255, “Guides Concerning the Use of Testimonials and Endorsements in Advertising.”

I received this book as an advanced reader kindle book from NetGalley.

This is the story of Emma who thinks she may be having a mental breakdown and end up insane like her mother did. Emma is a successful lawyer and the main income comes from her job. She starts getting insomnia and memories come back from her childhood.

This was a book with some twists and kept you guessing. I enjoyed the story and the book.

Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough is one of my favorite books in this genre, and I've been waiting for the author to write another book as good as that one. Insomnia comes close. Emma Averell is a successful attorney with 2 kids and a stay at home husband. She seems to have it all, but she's haunted by her childhood. As her 40th birthday approaches, Emma stops sleeping and begins to lose time during the day. She's terrified that she's inherited the "madness" that caused her mother to have a breakdown when she turned 40. While parts of this book are repetitive, the rest of the story moves along in a way that keeps the many nights of insomnia interesting. Pinborough keeps us guessing for most of the book - is Emma losing it? Are the bad things happening her own doing? There are some twists in this book, but they aren't shocking in the same way that the Behind Her Eyes twist was. Some are interesting, but run of the mill for a thriller. Good, but not shocking. And some are so original and existentially horrifying that I'll be thinking about the resolution for a while. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review.

Good thriller book which moves along at a good pace and keeps you guessing as to the end. Like her previous book, the author uses supernatural explanations to wrap up the loose ends (because otherwise how would they possibly be explained) which I'm not a huge fan of because it's - pretty unbelievable, but still an enjoyable story with a good ending. Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy.

Insomnia has the trademark otherworldliness of Pinborough's books which I love. What it didn't have was sympathetic characters or a plot that was believable in such a short timespan.
As the title states, it's all about Insomnia. In this case after a couple of days of sleepless nights, the main character exhibits signs of what can only be caused by sustained Insomnia, such as hallucinations, paranoia, and major mental breakdown symptoms. Emma, is the breadwinner of the family and successful Lawyer. She also has a traumatic childhood and secrets tied to that time in her life. Two weeks prior to turning 40, insomnia kicks in as do the memories of her childhood. As Emma appears to descend into madness and her past, the story veers into areas just difficult to believe. At this point the reader has to determine whether or not to go along for the ride regardless of how outrageous it becomes.
In the end, it's entertaining but mostly a miss for me. I will, however, jump on the next Sarah Pinborough book because the next Behind Her Eyes magic might just show up.
Thank you to Scene of the Crime FB group and William Morrow & Company for my early access copy. All opinions are mine.

I loved Behind Her eyes, and this one is just as dark, twisty and unforgettable. The characters were crazy, which is what I LOVE. I highly recommend this book. I’d be surprised if it was t a BOTM pick!!

I feel like this plot has been written before. It kept me wanting to read but some of the twists seemed forced. I loved Behind Her Eyes and like the author.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Emma is not looking forward to her 40th birthday. She's been having strange dreams and is determined not to be like her mother. This book kept me interested from the start.