The premise of this book was so intriguing and hooked me right away. People around the world are dying in their sleep, except for a handful of those who struggle to stay awake. The first half of the book was good, then it started getting weird, and the ending was totally crazy. Maybe the authors plan on a sequel to finish this bizarre story, but right now it just doesn’t make any sense at all. I didn’t get it and I don’t care.

This one sounded so interesting and I really wanted to love it but at about 50 pages, I gave up as I really wasn’t enjoying it and the dialogue was driving me a bit crazy 🤷🏼‍♀️

Thank you to the publisher for a gifted copy on exchange for an honest review

This one starts out strong, with a compelling cast, jumping pretty quickly into the story. I though the premise was unique and actually quite terrifying. A strange kind of death is taking over. If you fall asleep, you die, but David is strange even among this situation. He has had a bad relationship with sleep for his entire life. When his dreams start to give him messages that take on meaning in his waking life, he and a small group of people left head on a journey of sorts…

While this started off strong, the middle just dragged on and on, making me lose interest almost completely… the very end of the book was a great twist that I had been waiting for but had given up hope on… until the moment the book hits you with it.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

4 out of 5 stars
Dave has somnipathy. When he sleeps, he dreams, and when he dreams, it is about an evil elephant or a sentient whale.
Stay with me.
As someone obsessed with sleep, dreams, and the disorders that come with it all, this book lured me like the pied piper.

On July 4th, Dave and his friend-slash-coworker, Matteo, ditch work to go to a party. It's already past its prime when they get there, and people are passed out. But when they try to wake up one of the partiers, they find that he is quite dead, so they throw him in the back of Matteo's car and rush him to the hospital, where they find deserted emergency lanes and deserted hallways.

Linda, a nurse, has just been abandoned by whatever doctors remained after most of their patients died when they fell asleep. She is already tired, and she is trying to save what she can. A daughter and her father, who were also in the emergency waiting room, have fallen asleep and do not wake up.

Eli, an accident survivor (although his parents did not survive) who is in a wheelchair, broadcasts his own podcast about his insomnia. After accidentally knocking his pills down the sink, he airs a plea for help because the pharmacies are not answering, the doctors are not answering, the emergency line is busy. Millie, who works from home with her own sleep issues, hears him, and decides since no one else is doing their job at the moment, neither will she.

She drives the hour or so it takes to get to Eli and together they break into a drug store and find the meds they need.

Meanwhile, once they realize that sleep is when people are dying, Linda and Matteo go to a local radio station and broadcast their own warning: do not go to sleep.

Dave, however, who can't reach his girlfriend, Katie, runs to her apartment where she is trying to sleep and none too happy that he won't let her.

Together, Dave, Matteo, Linda, and Katie try to figure out what to do or where to go, popping pills that will keep them awake and therefore alive, while Millie and Eli drive and drive and try to figure out the same.

Along the way, we get microstories of people mid-life as their days wind down and they go to sleep, never to wake up again.

The book was genius. The whole of it should have been utterly stunning. But the end was a mess. It felt like the three authors had three different ideas of what was actually going on, and since they could not agree on just one, they decided to put all of the ideas in.

Still, the first 80% of the book was captivating and brilliant. I have not listened to the podcast behind this, but I imagine it is addicting—hopefully the ending is patched up with the final release.

Thank you St Martin's and Macmillan audio for review copies of this as ebook and audiobook. The Edge of Sleep is a book that has such a fascinating premise, I do love themes related to sleep and dreams and an edgy mood/vibe but this is a case of liked a book more for the idea than the execution. For me the limitation is not the idea or creativity of the idea or the characters/plot but what happens when different writers come together without perhaps a cohesive focus and cohesive writing style. The book works as a fun read but I think worked a little better for me as a multi actor audiobook, the audiobook was a fun one to listen to over a few days of commuting (though the issues of coherence were still present, the acting made the audio fun).

This one was a tough one for me. The story rambles and gets a little to “out there” for me. I honestly do not know what else to say about this one. I could not connect with this story.

Part apocalyptic, part Nightmare on Elm Street, part sci-fi, with hints of Stranger Things and Resident Evil. I feel like I just went on a wild trip lol. We start off like any good apocalyptic origin tale, with normal people doing normal things, but they slowly realize that anyone who falls asleep never wakes up. Thus starts a race against the clock (there's just only so long one can stay awake) to figure out what in the world is going. I don't want to say too much to spoil anything but let me just say, I'm still not really sure exactly what is happening lol. The end is clearly setting us up for more to the story. And I am def interested to see where the story is going. However, things were a bit slow for me for a good chunk of this book. The last half went by so much faster as the action picks up. I will say listening to the audio while doing other things I did have to go back and physically read the last couple of sections just to wrap my head around the end. Which isn't a bad thing!

I’ll be honest, I don’t know how to rate this book. Some parts were so mind bending and interesting that I was thinking, THIS is a 5 star read. Then other parts I was thinking more along the lines of, “this takes away from the book. Now it’s a 3 star read.” The ending had me feeling like I wanted to go down to a two star based on how almost cheesy? it became. Then I honestly thought the epilogue was too drawn out. Personally, when I read an epilogue I want it to be one chapter summing up the story or adding that extra post note that further opens your eyes (an ohhhhh moment) to what you just read. I definitely did not expect 5 sub chapters within the epilogue. Sadly, this was my least favorite part of the book.

All in all, the story was very interesting! I found the storyline unique and fun to follow along with. I’m settling on 4 stars which was more of a 3.5 rounded up.

Thanks so much NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC.

"What if the whole world fell asleep...and didn't wake up again?

Dave Torres, a night watchman in a placid coastal town, knows all about sleep troubles. Since childhood, he's battled terrors and nightmares. Sometimes those battles leak into his waking life, with disastrous consequences for those he loves. Now Dave lives alone and self-medicates to neutralize his dreams. It's not much of a life, he knows.

The morning after Independence Day, Santa Mira, California, is so quiet Dave can hear the ocean from miles away. Traffic signals blink from red to green over empty intersections. Storefronts remain locked up tight. Every radio station whispers static.

And all over town, there are bodies, lying right where their owners left them. Dead right where they slept.

Dave - along with his ex-girlfriend, Katie, his best friend, Matteo, and Linda, a nurse he's just met - struggle to unravel the mystery before sleep overtakes them all.

Except the answer to the mystery might lie in the one place that frightens Dave most: His twisted, unnerving dreams. Now Dave and his friends must straddle the liminal boundary between life and death as they fight to save everyone they've ever loved - and to keep their eyes open.

Because if any of them falls asleep now, it will be the last thing they ever do."

Wait, why are the bodies "all over town" wouldn't they be "all over town in their beds?" I mean, the bodies are wherever they fell asleep and that makes it sound like there's bodies in the middle of the roads...

I'm only going this low in my ranking because there was so much going on that I was confused for a large portion of the book. Still, I feel like if a random pandemic sparked up where people died in their sleep or rather in their dreams, there would be a lot of stress, chaos, and confusion- so perhaps it's well-assigned.

Dave has been having some weird dreams lately, especially where he has a seemingly deep conversation with a whale, but everything gets incredibly weird when people start dying in their sleep and dropping like flies. Unable to make sense of these tragedies and struggling to stay awake, Dave binds with his ex-girlfriend Katie, his friend Matteo and Linda, a nurse they just met, to get to the bottom of these random deaths.

I listened to this one on audio, but I would encourage you follow along with a physical or digital copy, because like I said, there is a lot going on.

I am so thankful to NetGalley, Jake Emanuel, St. Martin's Press, and Macmillan Audio for granting me a physical and digital copy, along with audiobook access. The Edge of Sleep is set to publish on June 20, 2023.

I was completely enthralled by this horror novel. It’s suspenseful and well written and I had no idea it was based on a very popular podcast which I just had to also check out. The ending seemed like a bit open ended or perhaps a cliff hanger and I’m hoping there will be more.

The Edge of Sleep is a horror science fiction with a very interesting premise. Everyone in the world falls asleep one night and just never wakes back up except for a handful of insomniacs. We follow this crew as they try to figure out what is going on.

This book seemed like the perfect kind of weird for me. The main story was fascinating and seeing the way the different characters came to conclusions about what was going on was fascinating. Throughout this story, there are little vignettes outside of the main story following other people’s day before they fall asleep. Which was interesting albeit distracting. I found myself confused more than once as we slip into different perspectives.

The writing also felt a little disjointed. I saw that this book has a few authors attached to it and I think it feels like it. Like everyone is trying to insert their own style instead of making a cohesive story. The good thing about that choice is that this book very much feels like a dream. It captures that feeling of right before you fall asleep really well when you aren’t sure if you are awake or asleep.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes books that feel like fever dreams and can deal with strange prose and a somewhat disconnected story.

3.5 stars!

I liked it, then I hated it, then I loved it and did not put it down until I had finished it.

Everyone who falls asleep, dies. Insomniac Dave and friends' figure this out not long into the story. After that, it is an adrenaline laced rush to either find a cure or ride out the apocalypse before succumbing to the lack of sleep that's keeping them alive.

I was a bit irritated by the many short vignettes that go off at a tangent every few chapters or so. I'm humming along, engrossed in the story of Dave and company when all of sudden, sometimes in the middle of a chapter, we are dropped into a different part of the country, with a whole new set of characters. Same with taking us from present day to the past. One could get whiplash from the back and forth between then and now, it happened so fast and so often. I stuck with it though, and it finally all comes to together to make sense later. But it was a jarring way to tell a story, for sure. I think this is due to having not only two authors, but a third 'contributing' author as well. Too many cooks stirring the pot.

That being said, the plot was original and pretty fascinating, the gore not any worse than you would find in a Stephen King or Dean Koontz novel, character development was decent enough to ensure we rooted for their survival, action moved along briskly, no over-long stretches of descriptive prose telling us what the curtains looked like. I thought this was a fine effort and the ending tied up all the loose ends while leaving a bit of ambiguity, maybe for a sequel? If so, I'd read it.

The premise was interesting, but the execution fell flat. It felt unstructured overall, like a jumble of short stories thrown together. The POV switches were confusing. The use of slang dialogue was overdone. There are some very gruesome scenes, that I wasn't expecting. The number of characters and side characters made it hard to follow and connect to anyone. The ending felt very incomplete. Perhaps a sequel is in the works.

The Edge of Sleep is a gripping novel following a group of strangers who find themselves racing against the clock after almost everyone around them suddenly dies in their sleep. The premise is an interesting one—I was expecting at least a passing reference or nod to everyone's favorite Christmas sweater clad killer, a bit disappointed that I didn't get one!—and while I didn't exactly feel like I got enough answers about what the hell was happening here, this is one of those books that sets you up for a series (or at least a sequel).

I'm not really a fan of that, personally—when books are just introductions to future books—but as someone who read the bulk of this novel while exhausted, sitting on the ground outside at 6AM waiting on line for record store day, I am glad to say it was interesting and fast paced enough to keep me awake and alive. Definitely worth the read.

Rating this 3.5, giving it the extra star for the awesome cover. Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for allowing me to read this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I was really intrigued by the concept here, but found myself lost in the use of language and dialogue early in this one and unfortunately was never able to grab the threads enough to fully engage with the story... This one wasn't a good fit for me.

*Thank you @StMartinsPress and @netgalley for the copy of this book"

After clocking out of his overnight shift, Dave (who suffers from crippling insomnia) and his friend Matteo notice something odd is going on - all the commotion of every day life has halted and every one appears to have died in their sleep. The duo teams up with a nurse and Dave's ex-girlfriend to figure out what has caused this phenomenon - all while fighting the fatal desire to sleep.

This book caught my attention because of the unique dystopian storyline and the fact that Youtuber Markiplier was attached to this project. Additionally, Goodreads was full of stellar reviews - although I did notice that a majority of them seem to be reviewing the podcast/show this book is based off of.

While I haven't listened to the podcast, I feel like that is probably a better medium for this story. Overall this book just fell flat for me. I
loved the dystopian environment but ending was so disappointing. The bulk of the story is the main character group traveling to a remote location to find out what is causing everyone to die in their sleep. Their journey dragged on but then suddenly the ending felt rushed and was just downright bizarre. I am all for weird and abstract stories but this one did not hit the mark.

There were so many side characters introduced throughout the story. My main issue with this is that many are dead end characters - we recieve minor backstory on them then they die. I understand the use of those characters to reinforce the troubles and similarities these survivors shared but ultimately they felt pointless.

The main character has an interesting and mysterious backstory that kept me intrigued in figuring out all his issues revolving around his insomnia. However, when the full backstory was revealed it was severly lacking in details.

I really enjoyed the gruesome and gory details that made this a truly creepy dystopian but I felt there was a missed opportunity to have a tangible explanation for the cause of the mass death - it went to a weird supernatural route - and the ending was left open ended. Not sure if there is Meant to be a sequel but the book definitely does not feel complete.

This book was bizarre in its own unique way; I loved the premise, the suspense, and the characters. This felt like a 4 star read UNTIL the “magical creatures” and “the veil” appeared near the end in a nightmare mirage. I feel like the conclusion of this book left more questions than answers and I’m racking my brain thinking that I missed something. Did I miss a chunk of the storyline that’s supposed to sum everything up? No I didn’t, because I reread the last few chapters and I’m still stumped. 🤷🏼‍♀️

The concept is intriguing: one night the majority of the world goes to sleep and doesn’t wake up. This book follows a group of survivors trying to make sense of what has happened.

Unfortunately, execution and writing just aren’t there. There are two groups that the book follows, one from LA and one from Boston.
There are lots of small introductions written about individuals and how he or she falls asleep and, therefore, dies. There were so many of these, it was distracting. The addition of these introductions took away from the pair from Boston so much that I forgot about their backstory a few of the times when they came up in the story.

The wrong word choices by Matteo was too much and felt too cheesy, especially at the beginning of the book, as did the dialogue in many places. Several of the scenes felt like descriptions in a screenplay more than passages in a novel, which I did not like.

I was really invested in learning about what had caused everyone to die in their sleep, especially after the intense autopsy scene. However, there was no answer. The book was left more than open ended — it just stopped. I even considered that maybe my ARC was an incomplete copy.

I gave this book 2 stars, only for the fact that I read it quickly and I liked the idea of the book.

What a concept…the whole world falling asleep and not waking up again. This description automatically piqued my interest. The originality of this idea blew me away.
Dave, Matteo, Linda and Katie…Millie and Eli and all the other insomniacs who were “lucky” enough to stay awake on this night of apocalypse, reel us in with their stories of trying to survive without falling asleep. In spite of the rudimentary writing style and dialog that didn’t ring true for some of the characters personalities, I was totally engrossed with finding out the fate of each one of these people as well as finding the root of this horrific event. There was never a dull moment in the quest for answers and for survival.
Thank you NetGalley for sending me this arc to read and review.