Unfortunately I made it to 70% and got bored. I feel like this story had such potential but the short clipped chapters threw me off and didn’t help me stay connected to the story. I really wanted to like it since epidemic apocalyptic books are amazing but this fell short.

Honestly, I liked "The Edge of Sleep" way more than I expected.

Here's what I loved:
-The plot or the idea of people dying in their sleep is very very creepy to me. "The Edge of Sleep" is definitely very plot driven, and even when the book flashes to other characters, I still felt like it had a good flow to it. There wasn't any moments where I got bored and wanted to put the book down. Plus the entire idea of trying to make yourself stay awake was actually painful for me to even process.

Here's what I didn't love:
-I LIKED the characters, but truthfully I wish they would have been fleshed out a little more. Like I said, with the pacing of the book, this wasn't a particular issue to me but I think others could see it being a problem.
-I really have no idea what the ending was. Not a clue. I'm not sure if I was too sleepy when I was reading so I wasn't processing things well (which is frightening if you know the plot of the book), but it felt like it just ENDED and I was left scratching my head. I couldn't tell if it was on purpose to maybe lead into a sequel, which I'd probably read if it existed, but was kind of a let down.

Because of the ending, I'd rate this book a 3.5 stars. It's a really fun read, and I think it'd be a great movie. Thank you Netgalley and to the publisher for giving me a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review! The "Edge of Sleep" has a release date set for June 20th!

I received a digital ARC from St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

This has to be the strangest novel I have read. Yet, I connected with the main characters and could nor put this book down. Set in the not too distant future - I believe the year 2025 is mentioned in passing at one point - everyone who goes to sleep does not wake up. If I say more than that, I will spoil the rest.

Thanks to NetGalley for sharing this ARC!

DNF’d. I desperately wanted to but was not able to get into this book past 25%. I wouldn’t say that is a true representation of how the book is written, but more so that I just could not find any interest in continuing.

Couldn't get into this one. The characters were extremely annoying. It might have gotten better, but I just wasn't in the mood to try it.

Thank you @stmartinspress and @netgalley for an early copy of this one!

➡️THOUGHTS:
This book is unlike any book I have ever read. It is out there, a little weird, but held my attention! One night whoever has gone to sleep do not wake up again. They die. We have 4 main characters who manage to stay awake over 80 hours and try to solve the mystery of what is happening, and how to fix it. I definitely wanted to keep reading to see how it ends. Does everyone in the whole world die? What caused it to happen?

I think this one is marketed as a high concept horror novel. While It would be horrific if something like this happened in real life for sure, it wasn’t overall scary. I enjoyed how the novel was narrated in segments by a human on Earth. There were chapters that told mini stories of individuals and what was happening before they fell asleep forever. It was interesting for sure!

Eh - couldn’t get into this one, sorry.

I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

Dave Torres is a night watchman with a lifelong history of night terrors and sleepwalking. After ditching work to head to a party, Dave and his friend Matteo start finding dead bodies everywhere they go. Something has gone terribly wrong and all they know is they can’t fall asleep or they might never wake up. Will they be able to figure out what’s going on before sleep comes for them, too? I couldn’t put this dystopian thriller down! This is definitely a plot-driven story that pulled me in with an interesting mystery at its center, and I found the ending satisfying despite it feeling like the story could (and perhaps will?) go on. Fans of Stephen King will enjoy this one!

This is a dystopian story that reflects every person’s nightmare. It is a cross between The Walking Dead and Get Out. It is interesting and funny. Mateo makes a bad situation hilarious as he is always using the wrong words. Dave is a strong character who leads when needed but is also able to follow directions. The author has done a really great job of plotting a story that readers will love. You will not want to put it down once you start reading as you try to figure out where they end up.

I read the synopsis of this one and immediately requested this book. I was really interested in what it would be about. I started the book and was so confused about what was going on. It was a really hard book for me to follow unfortunately.

DNF @ 25%

I went into this knowing there was a podcast before this, but really not much else.
I love weird books, but this was just kept being confusing and not a fun time. It took me so long to get at least this far in because I would dread picking it back up.

This is probably a great book, but it was not for me at all.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this nightmare-fuel thriller!

I had a looot of questions while reading this, and unfortunately none of them were answered 🫥 Like, what is going on? And why? And how?

The concept was so interesting, but I felt like we lot a lost of plot to random side characters, when the author (authors?) could have been exploring the core storyline more! Every time I was getting really into it, I got torn away into another side character story. I wish more time was spent answering some of the driving questions instead.

I also am not a fan of books ending the way this one did — there wasn’t an ending!! 🙅🏼‍♀️ The “it’s not over yet” ending left a lot to be desired, and I’m not particularly interested in a sequel.

Still, it was exciting to get through, even if it did feel like an excerpt from a larger story.

*Audiobook

I was really excited for this book based on the book title and premise.

Unfortunately, it seemed a bit all over the place for me. Too much going on and didn’t really hold my interest. There were a lot of characters in this one too which made it more difficult to keep track of what was happening.

Maybe reading a physical copy is better than listening to an audiobook for this particular novel. Sometimes the format really matters.

I absolutely recommend giving this one a chance but don’t recommend the audiobook.

Thank you to the St Martin Publishing Group Influencer Program and St Martin Press for the free/gifted book, and NetGalley, for my digital. Publishes June 20, 2023.


A quick reading sci-fi novel, dystopic in nature. The world is ending. Out of nowhere a sleeping illness overtakes the world. If you go to sleep - you die!

We follow four people struggling to both stay awake, keep their friends awake, and eventually find the dream city that will be their salvation.

I was pretty happy with this story. It moved quickly, the characters were well fluxed out and there was just enough twists and turns to keep me turning pages. Then we got to the last 30 pages or so. There were other groups of people, besides the four main characters, that I felt were never really brought to a close. And the whole island thing was bizarre. It just did not jell well with me. The final ending left me with questions - maybe it was supposed to - but I am not a fan of that type ending - it just feels to incomplete. The ending does not have to be tied up in a ribbon for me, but definitely more concrete than this was. Just my opinion. Read this one for yourself and determine how you will rate it.

That was a weird book. Beyond Matteo, the beginning lacked character development, focusing mostly on plot and getting characters from point a to point b. There were snippets of other people as they fell asleep (and thus died) that added nothing to character development and not a whole lot to the plot either.

About half way through, the character of David started to take some shape. Matteo still remained the hilarious side-kick, but none of the other characters became real enough to root for.

And the ending. Hum...

Based on a podcast of the same name the novel covers a night where those who fell asleep never wake. Dave Torres is a security guard working the night shift on Independence Day, after work he and his friend Matteo swing by a dwindling party only to discover the host and girlfriend dead in their bed. On the way to the hospital they begin to notice no one is around. What should be a busy morning commute and a city waking up is oddly silent. At the hospital ER there are no staff or patients to be found anywhere. The only people still awake are those who either worked the third shift or those who suffer from some form of insomnia. Dave has suffered from dream terrors his whole life, but now his dreams take on more significance, could they be related to what's going on? What are they trying to tell him? And how can they come to a resolution before they fall asleep.

I received a complimentary egalley of THE EDGE OF SLEEP by Jake Emanuel and Willie Block thanks to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley. I also received the advance listener copy thanks to Macmillan Audio!

THE EDGE OF SLEEP begins with a strange occurrence. Those awake throughout the night for work or sleep disturbance or other reasons begin to notice that the world seems deadly quiet. Everyone who has gone to sleep the night after Independence Day has died shortly thereafter and the phenomenon is ongoing. Those who want to stay alive must stay awake.

Dave is a night watchman and one of the first to notice the empty world around him. He’s had lifelong sleep issues with night terrors and nightmares which impact his waking world. Now it seems this issue has saved his life and it may give clues as to what is going on.

This book was weird. And I’m still not entirely sure what I think about it. There were a lot of really interesting concepts here and the tension of not being able to go to sleep and not let the people you love sleep was well done. It overall kept me wanting answers.

The problem I had with the book is that it didn’t deliver on the answers I wanted. We get a lot of fever dream type sequences and that tends to raise a lot more questions. The end of the book brings about a little resolution, and then it takes a really unexpected twist in the final pages that left me wondering what I just read. If it was setting up for a sequel, then maybe that would have worked for me but this isn’t listed as the first in a series.

This did have some interesting elements, but if you don’t like intentionally ambiguous endings, this isn’t a book I can recommend.

THE EDGE OF SLEEP
Jake Emanuel, Willie Block, and Jason Gurley

This book reads like a nightmare.

THE EDGE OF SLEEP stars Dave. Dave is a night watchman with sleeping issues who often goes days without sleeping. He has night terrors and nightmares and that’s just the beginning of where his trouble with sleep starts.

He has recurrent dreams of monsters who star in them like actors. He is well aquatinted with fear.

This book might not be for you. At times it is difficult to understand and the chapters move in and out of vignettes without a pattern or real direction. It’s disorienting.

A little like a bad dream.

I lost count of the characters. I lost track of names. The storyline is somewhat easy to follow once you let go of any structure you had in mind prior to reading.

The delight in the reading experience was living in that liminal space between the nightmares of our reality and the reality of our nightmares. It felt like experiencing a stream of unconsciousness. Are you ready?

Thanks to Netgalley, St. Martin's Press, and Macmillan Audio for the advanced copies!

THE EDGE OF SLEEP…⭐️⭐️⭐️

Read/Listen if you like:
💤 Trying to Not Fall Sleep
🌎 Dystopian Plots
🪐 Sci-Fi
💨 Fast Paced Story Telling

This book sounded so interesting and while I don’t usually read a lot of sci-fi I just had to give this one a shot!

This one follows for people trying to stay awake and find safety and to ensure they don’t fall asleep and die and with that there were lots of twists and turns to keep the plot moving and my interest.

This one leaves you with an ending that will leave you questioning so if you love buttoned up endings this one may not be for you.

Thank you so much to St. Martin’s Press for my ARC!

Thank you @stmartinspress, @netgalley and @macmillanaudio, for the complimentary ARC and ALC.

I was so excited by the premise of this book. The Edge of Sleep had a strong start and reeled me in straight away. However, by about 50% I was only still reading it because it was a buddy read, and the audiobook narrator Franz Drameh was excellent, so I didn’t mind continuing to listen. The dream scenes, or flashbacks I’m not even sure, were so weird and I kept trying to make sense of them but couldn’t. There were also some chapters detailing what was happening to various unknown characters as they fell asleep. While it was helpful, it also became too much… I just didn’t need that many scenarios and I felt like it took away from what was happening with our MC's. As for the ending… I had a feeling it would go in that direction, I hoped and crossed fingers that it wouldn’t…. but it did. It was just totally bizarre to me, and I can’t even say I fully understood it.

If you’re interested in this one, I highly recommend the audio.