While I liked this book, it did not measure up to her first book The Measure (see what I did there). The Measure was very metaphysical and thought provoking. This could have been but did not quite make it. The premise of this book is that one could slumber his or her way out of a depression by sleeping for a month or two. This seems like a cross between John Marrs and some author who escapes me now. John Marrs gave us a fair number of details about the science fiction aspect of his futuristic books. Here I felt like I wanted to know more about that. The other author gave us more of the philosophical dilemmas involved (so did Marrs as well). Here it was touched upon but I also wanted more. In The Measure, we did not know how the circumstances came to be but that was on purpose and it was discussed in the text. That was enough for me there. That was because it was largely focused on the philosophical dilemmas posed.
I think there could have been more but it just didn't satisfy.
I listened to parts of the audio and read the rest. The narrator was good.
Thanks to NetGalley, William Morrow and Harper Adult Audio for advance copies of the text and audio in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for allowing me to read an ARC of The Poppy Fields by Nikki Erlick, in exchange for my honest review.

Masterfully mesmerizing! I would love to get a glimpse of Ms. Erlick's brilliant imagination.

Thought-provoking, realistic and relatable characters, emotionally charged with love and loss, heartbreak and healing, self-discovery and human interdependence.

A story of getting through, of healing, and self-discovery.

I loved every bit of this book and highly recommend it to everyone. It's an authentic portrayal of grief and healing.

This book is a thought provoking take on grief. While the overall question posed by the author is whether sleeping through the worst pain of grief is worth the risks of losing connection to the one you loved, it's really a fascinating look at how we, as people, walk through grief. How each individual experience of the grief journey is unique and personal. The societal expectations of the grieiving, how individuals heal and their timeline. The tactless and toxic words offered amidst the heartbreak. How ultimately we can or cannot be there for one another, from close family to strangers.

This is also just a fascinating story about a group of people, human connection and the human condition. I thoroughly enjoyed the characters, their stories, all the unexpected twists, and even the ending of the book. What I most appreciated was the feeling of being seen and the comfort within the pages.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to experience this book. All thoughts and feelings are my own

3.5 stars, rounded up. This must be the year of the road-trip novel, as I feel like I've read at least ten already and it's only mid-June. Erlick's sophomore effort is speculative fiction about a new procedure that has been developed to help people process grief which puts them to sleep for 4-8 weeks. Unfortunately, 25% of sleepers develop the side effect of losing all emotional attachment to the person they were grieving instead of just having their grief muted. The story follows a ragtag cast of characters, including the scientist who invented the procedure, and another group, all strangers to each other, who end up on a road trip to the sleep clinic for various convoluted reasons. They each have their own purpose in trying to get inside the clinic, and I did enjoy the relationships that developed with the characters and their personal growth journeys. Like The Measure, this is speculative fiction that is very light on any science fiction elements and is more about exploring human reactions and emotions to something speculative. Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for a digital review copy.

Loved the character growth of most of the characters and seeing how their stories tied together. It's hard to follow up The Measure but I still enjoyed this book.

The concept of The Poppy Fields is so intriguing. What people will do to try and help their grief. Can prolonged sleep help you overcome the intense grief that one can experience.

When three strangers meet in an airport after a tornado and decide to drive across country to the Poppy Fields together we learn about the grief each of them is experiencing and their reasons for wanting to go to the Poppy Fields. I was sucked right into this book. I enjoyed the applications that were throughout the book of others that had applied to sleep at the Poppy Fields. I enjoyed the stories of the four people traveling and how close their friendship became. Will traveling to the Poppy Fields answer all of the questions that they started with?

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for an ARC of The Poppy Fields by Nikki Erlick for an honest review.

Thank you William Morrow & Harper Audio for the gifted copies

The Poppy Fields
Nikki Erlick
Publishing Date: June 17, 2025
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🎧 Narrator: Marin Ireland, Dan Bittner, Stacey Glemboski, Graham Halstead, Mia Barron, Callie Dalton, Janina Edwards, Shawn K. Jain, Christian Barillas, & Jason Culp 🎧

I absolutely loved The Measure so when I found out Nikki Erlick had another book on the way I knew it was a must read.

The Poppy Fields is very similar in vibe to The Measure. We get Nikki’s stunning writing navigating us as we examine deep topics that make us question what we would do if given certain opportunities.

“𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕒𝕓𝕠𝕦𝕥 𝕘𝕣𝕚𝕖𝕗 𝕚𝕤 𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕚𝕥’𝕤 𝕟𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕣 𝕛𝕦𝕤𝕥 𝕘𝕣𝕚𝕖𝕗.”

In this case, if you could sleep away your grief, would you? Would you risk the side effects? Does the process of grief serve a purpose that we would miss out on? Would who we are be different if we didn’t grieve? How does each individual process grief?

We go on a road trip with four strangers thrust together out of a common need. Through their multiple POVs we learn of their unique reasons for wanting to get to The Poppy Fields and what they inevitably do in the end.

I really enjoyed this book. It is character driven and therefore a bit slower in pace. I love a good character driven story though. I did leave feeling like I wanted a little bit more, I’m just honestly not sure what I feel was missing. Regardless I’m here for anything Nikki Erlick writes and the depth of her stories and beauty of her writing makes this one well worth reading.

🎧 With a full cast of narrators, this story is really brought to life. Marin Ireland is the primary narrator and she is absolutely fantastic.

The concept of The Poppy Fields was really intriguing...who hasn't wanted to sleep through feelings of sadness and grief? What if you could, but you had a 1 in 4 chance of having a significant (and life-altering) side-effect?

I loved so many things about this book.

As someone who's experienced a lot of grief in her life, I felt the author really understood the complexities of grief and portrayed it accurately through the multiple perspectives. I enjoyed getting to know the characters through their unexpected journey together and seeing their growth as they got closer to The Poppy Fields.

Erlick tapped into the universal experience of grief while also illustrating how unique and individual every grief experience is.

Even though it wasn't a quick-moving plot, and was more character driven, I didn't want to put it down. For a book about grief, this story was filled with hope and examples of our ability to keep living in the face of tremendous loss... even if we might wish we could sleep off our pain.

5⭐️ and easily one of my top 5 reads of the year so far. I've already recommended it to several people.

Thank you to Netgalley and William Morrow Publishing for the free e-ARC of this book.

A gentle journey exploring grief and the way it molds us.

In this story, a buzzy new sleep therapy has claimed to heal people's grief. Someone completely heartbroken over a loss, uncoupling, or PTSD, can travel to The Poppy Fields and be put under a therapeutic sleep for a month or two and wake up without the stabbing sense of loss. There is a 1 in 4 chance you wake with the potentially damaging side effect, but is it worth it if you can get back to living your life?

The premise hooked me. I love speculative tech, but I will say this was more of a character driven story rather than sci-fi or dystopia. The characters are so fleshed out and real, I absolutely loved being on this trip with them. This book holds a beautiful exploration of grief; what it does to us, how it effects how we see and react to the world, what it means to go through it, and how we can be there for each other.

The style of this was kind of cozy mystery to me even though it feels weird to label a book about grief as "cozy". It's not action packed but key revelations are expertly dropped throughout the story to keep you wanting more. Additionally, the audiobook is masterfully narrated by Marin Ireland, along with a bigger cast sprinkled in. This book is written in third-person omniscient and Marin floated between the characters flawlessly even though, I imagine, it's incredibly difficult. Audiobook narration is an ART, people!

Thank you to Netgalley, Harper Audio, and William Marrow for the ARC in exchange for my honest review :)

I thought this was a good follow-up book to The Measure. Erlick takes on another idea in society that is a little out there and provides varying perspectives on it. I did not appreciate all of the road trip moments. There were heartfelt touches throughout regarding grief. You can tell Erlick has been through it before.

Grateful to William Morrow who provided ARCs to attendees at the #bookhuddle Victoria Retreat.

The Poppy Fields are a new and controversial treatment center for people suffering from grief, where people can choose to sleep for a month or longer, to get through the worst of their mourning. Ava, Sasha, and Ray find themselves traveling there together, each hoping for answers.

I really enjoyed this novel. The prose is beautiful and the premise was incredibly thought-provoking. It will make a fantastic book club pick!

4.5/5 stars

Really really enjoyed this one! So many thought-provoking topics, characters with depth, and an enjoyable story to thread it all together. Very good follow up to The Measure! I know the caliber of story and writing to expect from Erlick :-)

I want to start with the good stuff! Towards the end I did come around to this. I like this question it presents of what role grief has in our emotional spectrum, our resilience, and a way of honoring those we lose. The concept of "the side effect" where you lose all the love you had for that person, presents such a profound risk and comes at a high percentage, (the book references it as a low risk which makes me question the general medical knowledge here, but?). It also supports the general idea that everyone has their own path for processing grief.

Now the frustration points...

The characters felt too much like characters, and not real, authentic people. ie- good guy firefighter, shy children's book illustrator. Maybe to compensate for this, it felt like the author spent SO much time trying to convince us of their backstories. Constant quips about their history in parentheses that add nothing to the story.

I was interested in this primarily for the concept of these sleeping fields, but our characters don't even arrive at them until 85% in, (other than the Ellis chapters). The concept itself doesn't really get expanded on in any great detail. It felt a little over simplified and ridiculous at times.

The story ends up being more about their journey there, and seemed to take ages to progress.

There is a Q&A section that seemed completely unrealistic. The space pod question, skipping over/not giving an actual answer to the question of bodily functions... was that just laziness of not wanting to research what would be needed? If not, why wouldn't the answer to that be in the question AND ANSWER section...

All in all- it was a mixed bag for me! I came in too excited about the premise of this sci-fi sounding concept of the Poppy Fields themselves, but that's not the true focus of the book, so I may have accidentally set myself up for failure here.

This book would be great for a book club. I can just imagine the discussion with everyone's opinion on how to deal with grief. That is what this book is about. What if you lost someone who meant the world to you and you were beyond yourself with grief? Would you elect to go to The Poppy Fields and sleep away your grief? But what if one of the side affects is that you could lose all your memories of the person you lost? Now what choice would you make? Nikki Erlick has a certain style of writing. She has the subject that she presents and then she has her characters who in this case are on their way to the Poppy Fields. Some want answers, some want to sleep away their grief and guilt and one wants to get back the sister that disappeared from her life. There is always something to think about in her books. I am so glad I read it and will definitely put it in for my choice at my book club.
Thanks to #netgalley, #williammorrow and @nikkierlick for an ARC of this great read. All opinions are my own.

What a beautiful story about love, grief, and hope. Ava, Ray, Sasha and Sky meet unexpectedly at the airport after a tornado rips through the area and delays every flight. These strangers manage to grab the last available rental car and decide to drive west to the Poppy Fields, a controversial treatment center where sad people can go to sleep away their grief. Each of them have different reasons for heading west and over the course of their drive, which ends up not being the 'drive straight through' trip they initially agreed on, they share stories and laughter and end up friends. I love Nikki Erlick's easy to read, flowing writing style. I wanted to be in the car with these people, who were all unique yet also relatable. There were so many wonderful quotes on love and grief that I stopped highlighting them. When the book ended I felt understood and I also felt a positivity, remembering that grief shows up different for everyone, and yet we all have grief as an experience in common.

Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for providing the opportunity to review the E-ARC copy in exchange for my honest thoughts. I enjoyed this title and have yet to read a book by this author. It obviously revolves around themes of grief, which can be a bit heavy at times, but I knew that going in and assume most readers will too. Nothing too traumatic, but it does bring up emotions as it re-hashes the incidents that drove the "patients" to seek their sleeping treatment. I thought the book brought up interesting insights into the grieving process and how to navigate it, and would recommend this title to those experiencing grief, or looking for insights on the process. I appreciated the road trip aspect of the story, which I wasn't expecting and found that to be my favorite part of the novel. A lot of interesting characters, sometimes a bit flat but overall, I enjoyed the read and was intrigued enough to finish, for sure. 3.5 stars!

This was my first book by Nikki Erlick. I thoroughly enjoyed The Poppy Fields and will be discussing this in our book club for July. The fantasy setting was well done and thought provoking.

Beautifully written, will reread!!! So strong and beautiful!!! This novel opens up your mind and makes you self reflect.

Another thought-provoking and beautiful book from Nikki Erlick! The Measure was one of my top books last year and this one was another home run. Excellent writing and endearing characters! I very much enjoyed reading each character’s journey and their growth throughout the story.

Three travelers are stranded at an airport and decide to travel by car together on a road trip to The Poppy Fields—a facility in California where you can sleep for a month (or two) after a significant loss and wake up feeling better and renewed. But at what cost—a percentage of those that wake will be completely indifferent to the memories and feelings of those they lost? Over time each traveler reveals their reasons for going there and the ties they have to the facility.

This is a story about grief and how everyone’s journey is different. It was a beautiful message of how we aren’t alone in our struggles and grief, and how much we need each other. How human connection, love, and time can heal.

And just like The Measure, I recommend this book as a great selection for any book club!

*Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow for the advanced ebook copy!!*

I loved The Measure by Nikki Erlick so I was so thrilled to see a new story written by her!
This was such a beautiful and thought-provoking read.
The concept of this story was absolutely outstanding.