I received a complimentary copy of this book for review. All opinions are my own.

This book was a disappoint for me. While the atmosphere was there, I felt the story dragged and wasn't nearly as creepy or scary as I wanted it to be. It was also fairly long for not much happening. There were scenes that I really enjoyed but they were tucked in among long stretches that I just didn't find very interesting.

Ten Sleep has everything I want in a weird west novel and some things I didn’t even know I wanted - part folklore, part body horror, part personal and interpersonal demons, and part Watership Down.
There is a mechanic in some tabletop games I play called a clock, which is more like a pie chart, but as the game is played, a segment will be filled in, and the players know they are approaching a decision point or climax of some kind, and the structure and premise of Ten Sleep serves to create that same kind of tension.
As each night of what we know is meant to be a 10-day drive passes, the suspense escalates, and, as I listened to the audiobook, it was all I could do not to increase the play speed so I could release that tension that much faster.
The only thing stopping me from speeding to the end was Belardes’ storytelling, which served to create a deliciously visceral sense of dread so that the plot almost seemed secondary.
Contributing to that sense of dread and thanks to the prologue, we knew that the three young cattle drivers have no understanding of the supernatural threat they will be walking (or, rather, riding their ATVs) into, and we get more peeks into what awaits them through the eyes of the wildlife that inhabits the canyon.

This book wasn’t for me.

It initially caught my attention with the horror aspect. However, I quickly realized this wasn’t in my wheelhouse in the very beginning when it was discussing the canyon and the guy that was resurrected to protect it.

If the book was about half the length, that would have sufficed. It felt like it droned on. I also did not enjoy the perspective of the animals. It just seemed odd to me.

The narrator was good, but I listened at 2x for it to not drag. I did enjoy her voice and how she changed her voice when someone else was speaking.

All in all, not for me but I can see how some can enjoy this book.

Thank you NetGalley and RBmedia for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook.

I could not finish....... I tried to like it..... I listened to 38% and I kept it playing until 42%- was not paying attention because I frankly didn't care too. I did like the writing of the animals thoughts. That was semi interesting... BUT not enough to keep me going. Sorry this was a miss for me.


Jordan Peele's Nope meets True Grit in Nicholas Belardes’s Ten Sleep, a supernatural modern-day western about a trio of young people on a 10-day cattle drive that leads them through a canyon haunted by ancient mysteries and savage beasts who existed long before humankind.

A young Mexican American woman detects uncanny creatures stalking her on a cattle drive toward a canyon soaked in blood in an unforgettable novel, brilliantly infusing the modern Western with spine-chilling horror . . .

When Greta Molina’s old friend Tiller offered her the job, a ten-day cattle drive across the Wyoming prairie from the ranching town of Ten Sleep, it sounded like a well-paid break. Three hundred and twenty cows and calves, two guys her age she’s known since college, and a few long days on an ATV will give her time to sort out the mess in her head. The canyon along the trail has a history, sure, but nature has a tendency toward violence. Greta can accept that, even if it makes her insides squirm.

What Greta doesn’t know is the legacy of murder and rot that runs deep into the rocks of this land. As each night passes on the prairie, the trio faces mounting supernatural dangers: a ghost train of the damned, wild animals walking alongside dead ones—and evidence of a gigantic creature in the skies, one that’s supposedly been extinct for eons. And Tiller may be hiding even darker secrets the further they go. Safety is only ten sleeps away, but Greta soon realizes that may be too long for all of them to survive.

Nicholas Belardes’s Ten Sleep is a fresh portrayal of the American West for fans of Catriona Ward, Victor LaValle and Jordan Peele’s Nope, by a rising star in horror.

I like the multiple pov and the pov between Greta and the various animals.
I felt the book did kind of dragged on at the end. I did appreciate the historical, animal, and paleontology facts scattered throughout. It was nice to learn something while I read.

"Ten Sleep" is what happens when you mash up "Nope" and "True Grit," give it a gallon of black coffee, and drop it into the weirdest corner of Wyoming. This is not your dad’s cattle drive. This is haunted-canyon, prehistoric-monsters, taxidermy-horror energy from page one.

Greta Molina, our late-20s, emotionally discombobulated narrator, signs up for what’s supposed to be a simple ten-day cattle drive. Ride some ATVs, make some quick cash, try not to think about her recent breakup or her entire quarter-life crisis. Instead, she finds herself in a canyon full of ancient horrors, ghost trains, extinct creatures that apparently did not get the extinction memo, and an unsettling sense that this place wants to eat her soul. And maybe her cows too.

The structure is simple: ten nights, one for each day on the drive. The tension starts high and only escalates, with short chapters slipping into the perspectives of the creatures and spirits stalking the canyon. These animal POVs range from haunting to oddly sad to occasionally overwhelming. At some point, it started to feel like the canyon itself was trying to narrate the book, and I wasn’t always sure we needed that many extra voices competing with Greta’s.

The first half of this book had me locked in. Giant birds swooping out of nowhere, unsettling hints of long-buried violence, and a creepy slow-build atmosphere that works its way under your skin. This is very much a horror story where the land itself feels cursed, where personal trauma and ancient evil blur together until you can’t tell which is more dangerous. And when the horror hits, it hits hard. Seriously, do not snack during certain scenes unless you want taxidermy-induced nausea.

Kim Ramirez absolutely crushes the audiobook narration. Her delivery keeps that steady hum of dread running through every chapter. She plays Greta’s anxiety and spiraling thoughts so well that I caught myself pausing just to breathe. I would absolutely listen to her narrate more weird Westerns in a heartbeat.

Now here’s where my love turns into light roasting. This book desperately needed to be tighter. The middle third loses focus and starts to meander like a confused cow. Some plot threads just vanish, and right when it should be barreling toward that terrifying final showdown, the pacing sort of wanders. If someone had chopped about 150 pages out of this, it could have gone from “interesting weird horror” to “instant classic weird horror.”

That said, I still finished it both mildly traumatized and weirdly impressed. The setting is incredible, the atmosphere is unsettling in all the right ways, and Greta’s emotional arc lands even if the plot occasionally fumbles. This isn’t a book that’s easy to describe. It’s a vibe. You’re either here for haunted canyons, ancient creatures, grief, and taxidermy horror... or you’re not.

For me, this landed at a solid 3.5 stars. It’s a weird Western fever dream, and while it’s not flawless, it’s absolutely memorable. If you’re in the mood for something deeply strange, a little sad, and fully unsettling, "Ten Sleep" is worth the risk.

Huge thanks to RBmedia and NetGalley for the advanced audiobook and for letting me climb aboard this cursed cattle drive early. And extra love to Kim Ramirez for slaying the narration and making this fever dream even creepier.

I received an arc for the audio version and the narrator Kim Ramirez absolutely kills it. She has a rhythm that will draw you in and a way of magnifying the horror by saying it so calmly that the juxtaposition makes you even more unsettled.

Heres the thing, like otheres have mentioned there are animal povs in this book. I hate an animal pov but thought these were well written enough fir me not to mind EXCEPT there are do fucking many of them.

The parts of the book from Greta’s perspective are pretty enjoyable. She interesting, relatable and tragic but has so much potential. The problem is the interrupting povs make it hard to keep up with her story.

I think this would have been a much stronger book is it had been 1/3 shorter.

If you like a bit of a rambling yarn (think stephen king insomnia) love animals or westerns this might be more effective for you then it was for me.

I would pick up another book by this author if it was shorter and absolutely would pick up another audio book by the narrator