I loved this book! How it looks at and acknowledges grief was beautiful and poignant. The characters had such great stories and personality, I adored them. Especially Sky!

Ellis is a scientist who created a revolutionary new health treatment for grief. Targeting people who are experiencing the grief of a loved one, she has created the Poppy Fields, a center where people are temporarily put to sleep to heal their grief. This technology is starting to take off and Ellis has to decide what the expansion of the Poppy Fields will look like.
Meanwhile, across the county three strangers who meet at a car rental facility, embark together on a road trip to California to visit the Poppy Fields. As they travel, they learn they each have different reasons for going, but are unified in their desire to get there.

A fun concept that was well written and interesting. Both narratives were intriguing and fully thought through, especially with how they wind together.
The narrator had great pace and intonation.

Thank you NetGalley and Harper Audio for this ARC!

Absolutely incredible. The way erlick captures the mindset of people grieving was so real and human. I thought the story was so intriguing and also something I've never seen done in a book or movie. Another emotional 5 star read so I will be reading from this author again. I switched between audio and ebook and both were great.

4.5- Nikki Erlick has become an auto read author for me. Her books, including this one, make me think so much, and they are always written so well. I loved this one! I listened to it, so did listen in bits and pieces, and wish I had access to a print copy so I could enjoy it faster. Other than that, I loved it!

Thank you for the advanced copy!

I am waffling between 3.5 stars and four stars for this book. There were not an overwhelming amount of characters, so I feel I got to really know the likeable main players and care about their stories and opinions. This book dealt with how people handle grief and I was honestly fascinated by many of the thoughts put forward. It dove into the various options and potential dilemmas in how people handle loss and grief, and whether or not there is a medical/interventional coping mechanism of sorts to help the process along.

Nikki Erlick writes in an incredibly relatable way, and I did catch and appreciate the “Easter egg” she popped into the book. I appreciated that the author never got preachy about grief, nor did she offer any one-size-fits-all solutions… the story just felt very honest and approachable and realistic.

The reason for only 3.5/4 stars is that there was never a real big peak point of drama in the storyline, and there were never any concrete outcomes offered. But maybe that was kind of the whole point of the book and this subject matter.

Much like Erlick’s previous book The Measure, I have a feeling I’ll be thinking about this one for many weeks to come.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Harper Audio for the advanced copy to read and review. All opinions are completely my own.

Thank you to NetGalley for the Audio ARC of The Poppy Fields!

Starting off with the narration - I was expecting this to be a full production with each character having a different narrator due to the amount of narrators listed, but Marin Ireland is the main narrator with the others narrator news stories, podcast snippets, etc in between chapters. Marin did a great job with all of the characters and with the addition of the other narrators, I think this is a book you’ll definitely want to listen to versus physically read.

The Poppy Fields is a place that conducts a controversial medical procedure to help grieving patients. Patients sleep for a month and when they wake up, their grief has seemingly lifted. The story follows 3 individuals as they attempt to travel to the poppy fields, all for different reasons. Their travel plans are ruined by a tornado and they are brought together to roadtrip from KC to California. This story explores many different types of grief and the ways that individual attempt to cope, move on from, or live with grief. I thought this was beautiful, heart wrenching, and thought provoking. There is no one size fits all method for experiencing grief and it is truly a journey for all of us to find our way through. This is my first Nikki Erlick book and I will definitely be picking up The Measure soon!

The Poppy Fields is a story of love, loss, and road trips. I really loved this one! Its short chapters made it easily bingeable. From the start, I didn’t know what to expect. You get to know the characters as they go along at the same time they’re getting to know each other. Sky was a favorite of mine. At first she seemed young and naive but is actually wise. I wish I had that wisdom when I was her age!

There’s a few little twists here and there-or maybe I would just call them realizations. Each of these characters is connected to the poppy fields in some way, and each has experienced loss in some way. The exploration of grief is poignant. If you could forget, just for a time, or sleep away the sadness, would you choose to do that? Or is the point of life and relationships that we can go through hard things and make of out the other side in a way honoring those we’ve lost? There’s no clear answer except that it looks different for everyone.

The audio book was done beautifully. I felt fully engaged the whole time and would definitely read more by this narrator.
I recommend this one!
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC

With a full cast of narrators, this is one that will leave you with chills.

Nikki Erlick has become one of my favorite authors with such thought-provoking books.

This one is about a new scientific treatment available where anyone experiencing deep grief from loss can be put to sleep for 1-2 months and wake up not feeling the pain anymore. There is a side effect that occurs in a small percentage of people where they wake up with zero feelings toward the love one they lost, and it is like thinking about a stranger who died. The treatment is wildly controversial across the nation, with some protesters who don't believe the treatment should be available anyone.

I loved how this tied into the today's political climate. You had all these people protesting a treatment that didn't necessarily affect them at all. No one was being forced into this treatment. The concept of "I don't like this, so I don't think it should be available to anyone" was prevalent throughout.

It was a book that will leave you with a lot of thoughts and feelings while you try to work through where you fall in your opinion of it all.

Nikki Erick’s The Poppy Fields offers a place for grieving individuals to heal through sleep. This captivating, emotionally evocative book, narrated by multiple voices, is a must-read. The audiobook’s cast of narrators did an amazing job.

I preordered this book and then was lucky enough to receive an ARC—and I’m so glad I did. This story was incredible and will likely be my favorite book of the year.

If you enjoyed The Measure or Fredrik Backman’s Anxious People, I think you’ll find similar emotional depth and a unique narrative voice here.

This book explores grief from beginning to end. If you're in the midst of grief, it may be triggering—but for me, it was deeply cathartic. I cried a lot while reading, in the best possible way.

We primarily follow four characters on a road trip to the poppy fields, each traveling for their own reasons. Alternating chapters introduce Ellis, who works at the poppy fields, and there are also a few chapters of audition tapes from poppy field contestants. Watching each character’s journey through their grief was moving and powerful.

I’m usually intimidated by books with multiple POVs, but that wasn’t the case here. Each character was distinct and memorable—I never felt confused or lost in the narrative.


Pros:
The writing is beautiful. The premise is unlike anything I’ve read before. It hooked me from the very first page, and the ending was absolutely perfect.

A very thought provoking book on grief and how each of us processes through it or unfortunately gets overwhelmed and incapacitated by it. Personally it lead to discussions with family and friends as to how they would view sleep as a treatment or an escape from a natural process that they everyone deals with at some point in their lives. Great book club recommendation.

As a person who thinks the word "journey" is overused, I keep mentally describing this novel as a journey, both metaphorically and literally. I read it via audio narrated by a full cast of people: Marin Ireland; Dan Bittner; Stacey Glemboski; Graham Halstead; Mia Barron; Callie Dalton; Janina Edwards; Shawn K. Jain; Christian Barillas; Jason Culp,

For several years, Ellis, a scientist working out of California has served as the director of The Poppy Fields, a treatment center for people who are experiencing grief in a way that has them stuck. Those who are accepted into the program will sleep for one to two months, with what sounds like some kind of prescription drug treatment as well. 75% of them will come out of this "journey" with a sense of peace, loving memories of the person who passed or of the incident that caused deep despair, an ordinary level of sorrow at the loss and the ability to move on. However, a side-effect that 25% of the patients experience is the complete loss of caring that their loved one died or they experienced deep grief over a devastating situation. They remember the person/incident and what happened to them, but attach no particular meaning or sensibilities to the loss or incident.

The Poppy Fields is controversial for a variety of reasons. One is the side-effect situation, but people also question whether it is appropriate not to experience grief, no matter how one's particular experience manifests itself, i.e., whether medicine is messing too much with a part of life everyone must learn to deal with.

Early in The Poppy Fields bad weather leads several people and a dog to rent a car in Kansas and drive together. Ray, a firefighter has a brother who was a patient at the Poppy Fields. Ava is heading there to see her sister who is at the Poppy Fields. Sasha's application was rejected when she sought to sleep in connection with her fiancé's death. The rental car is bright yellow and is promptly dubbed, "The Canary." Ava's dog, P.J. is along for the ride. At the airport and later in the trip, they also interact with Skye who is working her way to The Poppy Fields. As the characters interspersed stories are shared, including those of Elis, who move through each person's experiences of loss and reasons why they are drawn to The Poppy Fields. The Three who are driving together are in this intimate space and each is someone you care about, but they share little of their personal reasons for this "journey" as they take this unplanned extra time to think more about their choices, their own losses, relationships, friendships and family and romantic. In this case, one could potentially be extremely stressed out, heading to a place like The Poppy Fields with a couple of strangers and a dog. However, Ray, Ava, Sasha and eventually Skye instead become close friends.

It's frustrating to write about this novel because you have to do it by talking about feelings, but the road trip itself and the groups interactions with one another and those they meet along the way is also very entertaining. It is never boring. It is an adventure. It is not some long drawn out "journey" of the mind but yes, it is about grief, about processing grief, about family pain, about hope and about despair. I enjoyed it and the audio version was excellent.

Hearing the audio list so many narrators I was a bit intimidated right from the start. I realized early on that I might need a notepad to keep the characters straight. Unfortunately because there was so many different character POVs I didn't really have a strong attachment to any single one of them. I felt with the constant switch between characters, that I didn't really fall in love with any of them.
The concept of the poppy fields is absolutely amazing. I think the book addressed the subject of grief and heartache very well and delicately. With that said, it took a while for me to get into this book. I reread the first half a few times before finishing it. I think if there had been less character POV's it would've helped my rating.

The Poppy Fields by Nikki Erlick is a moving and thought provoking story of grief and love. I was immediately engrossed in the plot which features 4 strangers on a road trip to The Poppy Fields, an experimental and controversial treatment center where people are given the opportunity to sleep away their grief for a month. The novel slowly reveals the backstory of each of the characters and their individual reasons for wanting to go to the Poppy Fields. The founder of the treatment center is also central to the story. I enjoyed the aspects of found friendship as well as the characters individual journeys to forgiveness and healing.
I think Ms Erlick may be the M. Night Shyamalan of books - they are highly conceptualized, fascinating and profound. I really enjoyed her perspective on grief and how personal it is for everyone. I highly recommend this novel, and think it would make a fabulous book club selection.
I listened the audio version of this novel and enjoyed the multiple narrators and formats, including news articles and interviews. 4.5/5 ⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperAudio Adult for an advanced copy. All opinions are my own. Pub date: 6/17/25

A book about grief and the myriad of ways people process it. While it does drag at times, it still felt very emotional in how each person comes to terms with their situations. I appreciated the character development and how it differed for each, from accepting why a family member went to sleep, to another accepting they didn't need it after all to move on.

The Poppy Fields was such a cool concept, just like Nikki Erlick's first book. However it fell a little flat for me. It really focused on the character's stories and while I usually love character-driven novels, these characters didn't have a ton of depth to them and I wasn't really invested in their stories.

The Poppy Fields explores what lengths we would go to for the elimination of grief in our life. This is the story of four strangers all dealing with grief, loss and heartbreak, and their individual reasons for going to the. Poppy fields. The poppy fields, located in the remote Californian desert, is a magical place where patients are put to sleep for a month or two, and when they wake up, their grief is muted if not eliminated.

Nikki Erick has done it again! This book is beautifully paced, keeps the reader engaged, and explores a topic that has touched us all. The Poppy Fields will be a perfect book club selection guaranteed to spark conversation and debate.

The Poppy Fields
By Nikki Erlick
Release Date: 6/17/25

Thank you HarperAudio and William Morrow Books for an e-ARC and Audio ARC of Nikki Erlick's new novel, The Poppy Fields.

This is a speculative fiction novel, following multiple people as they travel to the infamous Poppy Fields and one that works inside of the Poppy Fields. Everyone has a different story and reasons as to what brought them there and why they decided to come to the fields to sleep their grief away. Similar to Erlick's other novel, the Measure, we have many opinions being shared throughout by journalists and such stating what they think of the fields. Along with that people don't hesitate to judge those that chose to sleep to better process their grief instead of facing it head on risking the potential side effects of erasing the memories all together. I applaud Erlick for challenging our thinking on fictitious topics while applying very realistic bias.

I don't feel as though I was drawn into this one as deeply as I was with the Measure, but still another great read by Nikki Erlick. I'm excited to meet her at an author event this summer and can't wait to see what unique storyline she comes up with next!

Really interesting concept + plot. Great pacing. The characters and their grief, emotions and motives felt so real and understandable. The steps in their journey and the way they related to each other felt so realistic and interesting. I was drawn into their stories and propelled forward to find out what would happen to them once they reached the poppy fields.

Advanced listener copy provided by harper Audio adult but all opinions are my own.

I couldn’t wait for the release of this book novel after recently finishing “The Measure.” It did not disappoint.—I could not stop listening and finished it in one day. The plot was very intriguing and had me hooked from the beginning. The imagery and character development was fluid and easy to follow despite the numerous perspectives. I was also very impressed with the narration, as I mostly “read” via audiobook and find it difficult to enjoy a book if the narration is flat or distracting. Overall a great read and can’t wait for her next one!