The Night of the Sleepover by Kerry Wilkinson
Bookouture
23 October 2023- Available Now!
4⭐️

I throughly enjoyed this book! I loved how it dealt with before, during, and after the "infamous" sleepover as well as present time. My favorite thing(s) were the clues in the book. At first, I didn't realize they were clues, just pieces of character information, but when I read the ending, it all just came together! Loved the twist ending btw!!
Thank you, Netgalley, Bookouture, and Kerry Wilkinson, for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Another great read from Kerry Wilkinson that will keep you guessing until the very end, and then some. I highly recommend this book and author.
Thanks NetGalley and Bookouture for this ARC

Thank you NetGalley and Bookoutire for the ARC of this book. It was slow reading and not very thrilling. I finished it because I wanted closure which there was with a nice twist at the end. There will be a sequel, but I didn't get enough to want to read more. It was just a so-so kind of story.

Kerry Wilkinson has once again delivered an enthralling read that was both gripping and difficult to set aside. I found this book to be a compelling page-turner, brimming with unexpected plot developments.

Sleepovers, a nostalgic hallmark of youth, serve as an enjoyable means of bonding, staying up late, watching films, and sharing spooky tales with friends.

However, for Leah, one particular sleepover turned her world upside down. The story, skillfully crafted and full of surprises, kept me engaged throughout with its numerous unforeseen twists.

I found this book very hard to get into, while Leah is a well written protagonist the narrative and the plot become very repetitive and the plot doesn't make up for it.

Leah and her friends are having a sleepover, the usual pizza and a movie, scary stories, (the’ve even found a bottle of vodka)clearly a fun night for teenagers. Four girls go to sleep, but when Leah wakes up the next morning, the others are nowhere to be found!

The girls are never found, and twenty years later, the rumours still follow Leah, the whispers of townsfolk she’s known all her life but who still doubt her version of events - how could three girls just disappear without her noticing or hearing something?

Now a documentary is being made about it. Will the truth finally be revealed? Leah isn’t happy about it, could she somehow be blamed for it all?

Out of the blue Leah receives an anonymous email with the chilling words ‘Stop Them’. How can she possibly stop the documentary being made, and more to the point, who is it, and exactly what do they know about that fateful night!

Well I for one couldn’t wait to find out exactly what had happened the night of the sleepover, but of course that wasn’t revealed until much later in the book. However, I really enjoyed the journey - it was certainly gripping, and the ending was a revelation! Yes really!

Just a teenage girl sleepover or something more sinister? Leah and her 3 friends have a typical teenage sleepover with pizza and movies. All 4 girls went to sleep but when Leah woke the next morning she was the only one still there.
Now the 25 year anniversary of the 3 teens disappearance a filmmaker is looking for answers and somebody is out to stop him.
Over all I enjoyed this read a lot and read it in just a couple of sittings.
A bit of the side story with Cody and Fiona added an unneeded lag to the story and didn’t offer much. I see where it is used to help sway the readers opinion in a certain direction but that was just as easily done in Leah’s backstory regarding her childhood and parents.
I really thought I had it all figured out long before the end and I even had supporting details for my “suspect” but I was pleasantly surprised that I hadn’t. Ends with quite a devious twist!
Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC of The Night of the Sleepover!

I am usually a huge fan of Kerry Wilkinson's books and I so excited to read this novel.

The blurb sounded great and very interesting and for the book started off really strong but for some reason I just did not fall in love with this novel as I have of Wilkinson's previous novels.

Leah was at a sleepover with three of her friends and after an evening of movies, pizza and alcohol, Leah wakes up to find her friends missing.

Fast forward 25 years and Leah and the town are still wanting answers as to where they went. One of the missing girl's brother is now making a documentary and wanting to find out what happened and Leah mysteriously starts to get emails from a person who indicates that she should try and get the documentary to stop.

I was really invested in the story to begin with but for me, the narrative seemed to be quite repetitive and I found it to be quite hard to carry on. I have to admit I didn't finish this novel as I was missing out chunks of texts and that is a sign that I need to move on.

Thanks to Netgalley, Kerry Wilkinson and the publishers for allowing me a ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Leah wakes up after a sleepover to find the other beds… empty. Where are her three friends? What happened to them, and why is Leah the only one still here? Nearly twenty-five years after THE sleepover, a new documentary is in the making and Leah is not sure what to think about that. Just to add to the anniversary coming, Leah is receiving blackmail from someone who seems to know the truth…

It’s the first book I’m reading from Wilkinson, and I have to say I am positively surprised! It was well written and, unlike with other thrillers, I didn’t hate the characters!! I mean, it’s a thriller like the others, and I mean by that that there’s the stereotypical things the protagonist is hiding, and someone else knowing while blackmailing them. But even if that part was predictable, it didn’t stopped it being enjoyable to read and I couldn’t wait to turn the page, to read the other line, the other paragraph, the other chapter.
I’m so happy to know that this book will have a sequel, I cannot wait!!!

<SPOILER>Now, I hated the end. The two last chapters to be exact. I will just gaslight me to think it never happened hihihi, I liked the protagonist way too much.

Really gripping thriller with a completely surprising twist at the end that I didn’t predict at any point.

Four girls are having a sleepover at one of their houses, eating pizza and drinking the parents vodka, while watching a film. There is some tension between the friendship group and some nasty comments have been made, vague fallouts and almost physical violence. In the morning one of them wakes and the rest of them have disappeared.

25 years later the remaining girl is still living in town, struggling to accept her mums suicide, her fathers violence and prison sentences but loving her son. When a director contacts her offering to interview her for a bio of the events of the fateful night she is both worried and sceptical.

Excellent writing and a great narrative style which is easy to read. The characters are interesting and complex and as the story unfolds we learn more of what happened on that fateful night and where the missing girls are.

Highly recommended.

Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley, Kerry Wilkinson, and Bookouture for this page turning thriller!! All I can really say is …. Wow … To sum it up! This book was a nice slow burn. Had me wondering what the heck happened and the twists were mind blowing!! A must read!

Leah has always been a heavy sleeper. The night that three of her best friends vanished from a slumber party, she didn't awaken or hear a thing. She has no idea where they went and the official investigation never came up with an explanation. Twenty-five years later, a true crime documentary about the missing girls is being filmed and all of the old theories and ideas are suddenly being stirred up again. This one is a slow burn with some intriguing twists. The ending surprised and satisfied me, but I haven't made up my mind whether I'm going to read the sequel when it comes out in December.

The pacing is a bit slow. I ended up skipping a few chapters here and there. I definitely didn't expect the way things played out. Overall it's a good story. I don't know if I will read the sequel. I wasn't invested in this one.

4.5 ⭐️

Leah and her 3 best friends have a typical girl’s night sleepover - complete with gossip, pizza, and vodka. But when Leah awakens the next morning, her friends are gone.

Fast forward 20 years and the girls’ disappearance still remains a mystery, which is why Owen, the brother of one of the missing girls, returns to town to film a documentary hoping to stir up some answers.

But someone doesn’t want the truth to be found out.

This one threw me for a LOOP!! I can’t imagine what content will be in the sequel, but I look forward to reading it! Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

It was in December 1999 that Leah, 15, woke up on her friend, Vicky’s floor. She, Vicky, Jasmine, and Harriet had gotten together for a sleepover. Now, a bit groggy for having indulged in a bit of vodka the night before, she realizes the other sleeping bags are empty. No one is there.

Today, as the 25th anniversary approaches of the disappearance of these 3 girls approaches, Jasmine’s brother, Owen, is doing a documentary on it. As Leah still lives in the town and works as a Community Support Worker, Owen has asked her to participate in the documentary to which she agrees. As they approach the house from which the girls vanished, she gets an email simply saying “Stop them.” What could this mean?

This book seemed to be a bit of a push to get through. It’s twisty and depressing. Of course, the final twist was a surprise. All in all, the book was just OK for me.

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this ARC.

This was a brilliant read. I genuinely did not see that ending! Kept me guessing all the way through. Can't wait to read more from this author.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of The Night of the Sleepover by Kerry Wilkinson in return for my honest review.
You know when you start one of Kerry Wilkinsons’ books you’re going to be in for a late night, and this one did not disappoint, lots of twist and turns a few red herrings and an ending I did not see coming!! I defiantly recommend reading this and any of Kerry Wilkinsons’ books.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC of The Night of the Sleepover by Kerry Wilkinson.

This was my first read by this author and it was a good storyline and the twist definitely got me! It seemed a little slow to me but overall it came together nicely.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for a copy of "The Night of the Sleepover" in exchange for my honest review.

Leah wakes up on 19 December 1999 to 3 empty sleeping bags next to her. The night before 4 friends went to sleep and this morning only one girl is there. Where are Jasmine, Vicky and Harriet? The story then switches to the present day - 25 years after the sleepover. Leah is 39 years old and a Community Support Worker. People are still questioning what happened to the other 3 girls and how did Leah sleep through whatever it was that happened to them. The story is then told from the perspective of days after the sleepover, days before the sleepover and the present day.

Jasmine's younger brother Owen is now a documentary film maker and is interviewing people for the 25th anniversary. Someone starts sending Leah emails telling her to "stop" Owen from making the documentary. This person seems to know a lot about what happened and a lot about Leah. This person thinks that Leah did something. Items from the sleepover start to reappear and Leah hasn't seen them since that night. Harriet's mother Deborah became a surrogate mother to Leah and her son Zac.

There was pizza and vodka at this sleepover - where did the glasses go? Who cleaned up? Were drinks swapped? So many questions that are partially answered with the shocking conclusion of this book. The most important question for the next book is - will anyone find out the real truth about what happened at the sleepover.

As always Mr. Wilkinson wrote a brilliant stories with interesting characters and amazing plot twists that you just don't see coming. Looking forward to the next book!!

The Night of the Sleepover is the first in a two part series by Wilkinson. I think we can all remember having a sleepover or two as a teen with movies, popcorn and a sneaky drink from the parents cupboard.

I found the book to quite a slow burner throughout, don't get me wrong I'm not complaining, it just gave me more of a chance to invest myself fully into the plot and the characters stories leading up to the sleepover.

Having read several of Wilkinson's books via Bookouture, he's now one of those authors I have on 'auto read' as I can guarantee a compelling read, full of suspense, twists and an explosive ending.

Anonymous emails, secrets and lies, The Night of the Sleepover has them all!

I really enjoyed the book and can't wait to start reading book two.