3.75 stars. I like this author but have to say this was not my favorite book of his. It was a slow moving mystery with an interesting ending.

Thanks so much to the publisher and to NetGalley for giving me access to this book.I picked this book to review because I really enjoy Bohjalian's writing. I had high hopes for this book but it kind of wandered through the story. I will read more of his writing but this one missed the boat for me.

Lianna Ahlberg is twenty-one and in college, her little sister Paige twelve when their mother disappeared. Annalee Ahlberg is an accomplished architect with a satisfying life except for one thing. She is a sleepwalker. Her husband is out of town at a conference and Annalee goes out in the middle of the night and doesn't return. Despite searches, nothing is found to give a clue to her whereabouts.
Lianna leaves college and comes home to wait for the resolution. She suspects the worst. One other time she had rescued her mother in the middle of the night. Annalee had been perched on a bridge about to jump or fall when Lianna finds her and gets her home. This time no one was there to find her.

Months later the family is still in limbo. Lianna is running the house, taking Paige to her swimming and skiing practices and overseeing her homework. She has started seeing a detective on the case, Gavin Rikert. She is drawn to Gavin but put off by the fact that Gavin knew Annalee, in fact was a friend of hers. Gavin is also a sleepwalker and he and Annalee met and formed a support group or at least that's what Gavin says. Was there more there? Did Annalee fall into the river or did she meet a murderer while out wandering?

This book is a slow moving story that quietly builds tension and ends with a surprising climax. The reader will learn much about the phenomenon of sleepwalking and its various forms. The love story is interesting and gives more clues about the unwinding of the mystery of Annalee's disappearance. This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.

This book was SO SO GOOD, I have no idea how I waited so long to get around to it! I'm so glad I finally picked it up. The mystery was on point, family drama and interactions well done, and I never saw the ending coming. Love love loved it.

Thank you to Net Galley and Doubleday for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This was definitely not one of my favorite books of Chris Bohjalian. It moved a little slowly and while suspenseful throughout, didn't really pick up until the end of the book. This book tells the story of Annalee, a mother of two daughters, who goes missing one night, assumed to have been sleepwalking. She's done strange things before while sleepwalking, but has never disappeared for an extended period of time. The disappearance affects those in her family in different ways, but none of them can seem to come to terms with what has happened. Lianna, the oldest starts getting close to one of the detectives on the case, while her sister Paige tries to solve the mystery on her own and then starts acting out, while their father retreats into himself, leaving Lianna to pick up the pieces.
The mystery was completely compelling to me and the book tends to drag as the story moves along. The ending was probably the best part of the book.

Another winner from Chris Bohjalian!! Hang on for a fantastic twist you don't see coming!

This psychological mystery pulls you to the twist at the revealing conclusion.

Lianna is a young college student home during summer break when her mother disappears one night. Her beautiful mother, Annalee, is a sleepwalker who has had dangerous walks in her sleep before. Neither the search party nor the police have found a body and Lianna and her younger sister, Paige, don’t want to believe their mother is dead. But time keeps passing.

A day or two into the investigation Lianna meets Gavin, a 30ish detective who happened to know Annalee through a sleepwalker treatment program. He admits that he met Annalee outside the program for coffee and to compare notes. Lianna is drawn to Gavin but not sure if she can trust his attention and their attraction. Could his connection with her mother have been more than casual?

Lianna stays home from college while she runs the household trying to make things as normal as possible for her father and sister. She begins to secretly date Gavin. She doesn’t want her father to know and Gavin agrees to secrecy because of his connections to the case. Lianna continues to probe into her mother’s past and presses Gavin for details. Along the way she looks with suspicion upon her father, her neighbors, husbands and wives, as well as Gavin.

The story is written from Lianna’s first person voice which is done well. The reader is drawn into her turmoil, loss, puzzlement and confusion. The author weaves in details about parasomnia and the phenomenon of sleepwalking by means of discussions and journal entries from a sleepwalker.

I liked the writing style although, since I tend to like stories with action, this one was a bit different as it moves more slowly in a social, emotional drama mode. Still, the author does a good job at hooking the reader as I was invested in wanting to know what happened. There are some tense moments and a (possibly foreseeable as there are clues) twist at the point of reveal.

Readers who find family dynamics interesting should like this. I also recommend it to readers who enjoy a more psychological mystery.

I received this from the Publisher through NetGalley.

Three and a half stars: A quiet thriller that will sneak up on you.

Lianna feels like she is stuck in limbo. The hot, dry summer is winding down with still no sign of her mother. Lianna won't be returning to college in the Fall to finish her senior year until she finds closure. Lianna's whole world came apart when her mother, Annalee, disappeared in the night, leaving only a scrap of her nightshirt tangled in a bush. Everyone fears the worst since Annalee had a dangerous habit of sleepwalking, and once, Lianna pulled her naked and asleep from the top of the bridge. As time drags on, Lianna begins to uncover her mother's secrets. What happened to her mother that night?
What I Liked:
*The Sleepwalker is a quiet thriller that draws you in and soothes you with a quiet, coming of age type story, and then it bites you with a stunning finale. Even though this wasn't a jaw dropping story with crazy twists and turns, it is one that kept me in suspense and entertained until the end. If you want a simpler thriller without outlandish and unrealistic reveals, this is one to try.
*I thought of this one as a coming of age type story as it follows twenty one year old Lianna who ends up back home after her mother disappears. After Lianna's mother disappearance, Lianna bears a big burden of responsibility as she assumes the role of caretaker for her younger sister and her dad.
*Lianna is a typical young adult, one who is caught up in her own life, and then she isn't when she is forced to examine her mother's life and her parent's marriage. I appreciated that she was a realistic character, one who made mistakes. She tells little lies, smokes weed and all of that, but then she grows up. I liked seeing her mature and change.
*The overall mystery is compelling. It becomes even more so because of the interesting tidbits sprinkled in between the chapters that are narrated by Annalee. These snippets include some frightening and intriguing facts on sleepwalking. Some of the sleepwalking stories are terrifying. After reading this, I had a whole new take on sleepwalking. I am glad that I outgrew sleepwalking as I used to do it when I was a young child.
*This is what I consider a slow burn type mystery. It moves along at a nice, pedantic pace, throwing some interesting breadcrumb clues and red herrings along the way. Then the truth came out, shocking me. I have to admit, I didn't figure out the twist. It was startling, but realistic.
*I listened to the audiobook version. I liked the main narration and I thought the narrator did a good job with the voices.
And The Not So Much:
*Even though I liked that this was a slower type thriller, I have to admit, it got boring. Not much happens for most of the book after Annalee disappears. Yes, there are some interesting tidbits on sleepwalking, but other than that, it reads more like a coming of age story as Lianna tries to find her way after her mom disappears. This one required some patience.
*I wasn't a fan of the romance. Lianna starts dating one of the detectives who is twelve years her senior. There just wasn't much chemistry between them, and I was never convinced of the relationship. I also didn't like that the fact that Lianna sneaked around with him and didn't come clean with her family when it came to her relationship.
*I appreciated that this one wasn't gory or disturbing. However, for those of you who don't like gristly details, there is a lengthy discussion on a decaying corpse, which was a little gross.
*I liked the audiobook, but I was not a fan of the narration done for Annalee's portion. It sounded like a different narrator. I found her voice jarring, and I didn't like her parts at all.

The Sleepwalker was an interesting and compelling story that kept me entertained. This is what I would consider a quiet thriller, it isn't one that is filled with shocking twists and surprises. Instead it snags you in with the terrifying truths of sleepwalking, and keeps your attention until the final stunning reveal. If you want a simpler thriller this is one to try.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own, and I was not compensated for this review.
Posted@Rainy Day Ramblings.

Chris Bohjalian is a master at picking a hot-button or intriguing topic, and creating an entire novel to explore the issue (in much the same way as Jodi Picoult). While I've thoroughly enjoyed several of his earlier books, this one seemed merely average.

In this novel, Bohjalian navigates parasomnias -- sleep disorders that include abnormal behaviors, emotions, perceptions, and what one might refer to as "sleepwalking" to the extreme. Bohjalian includes real-life data, which I found to be the most interesting part of the book (i.e. people charged with sexual assualt have been found "not guilty" because it was determined that while a non-consensual act took place, the offender was asleep at the time, etc.)

The novel centers around mother and known parasomniac, Annalee Ahlberg, who goes missing one night, and the aftermath as her family grapples with what might have happened to her. Interspersed with the narrative are first-person accounts from unknown parasomniac characters, which felt more like red herrings to me as the reader never knows exactly who is speaking and the partial confessions are never fully revealed.

3 stars

Thank you to Doubleday and NetGalley for a galley of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book...it kept me on the edge of my seat. I just didn't get around to writing about in an appropriate time frame for the release date

The Sleepwalker is the third novel I've read by Chris Bohjalian and by far my favorite. Before I dive into my review I must credit this author with hooking his readers from page one. The Sleepwalker manages to dominate that interest and never relinquishes its grip. Suffice it to say, I did not have to sleepwalk through this novel. (That's all I got for word play... I promise).

Lianna Ahlberg's life comes to a sort of standstill when her mother disappears into the night. Early on, her narrative discloses that yes her mother's lifeless body is eventually found. What is the true mystery of this novel is how she died or who killed her. With her sleepwalking being a strong factor, we struggle through the clues Lianna provides in helping crack the case of the sleepwalker and her last whereabouts.

Bohjalian explores the world of sleepwalking in ways I never knew existed. Little did I know there were so many levels to this sleep disorder. Its during these moments of sleep and wakefulness people have been found to do the oddest of things. Some take a stroll, others may make themselves a sandwich, while a few might go looking to pleasure themselves. The ID takes over and we're left with someone who is there, but not quite there.

As Lianna's story unfolds, the tawdry side of this phenome come to light. We readers are forced to dissect and read between the lines in an effort to help uncover the mystery of Annalee. Why does she only sleep walk when her husband is away? Could she have possibly passed this onto one of her children? Did someone randomly murder her or was this death brought on by someone a lot closer?

I can't say I was entirely impressed with Lianna as a character and that's possibly because of her age. She's a few months shy of twenty-one and it's this makes her seem naive to me at times. Bohjalian does manage to dial back the annoyingness that can be the average twenty-something by giving her a voice and vocabulary a lot wiser than her years, even when her actions aren't. I credit the often poetic vibe I get from her narrative to her English professor father. If it had not been that, I feel the stoner persona she seemed to have would have drawn thin on my nerves.

I understand that this persona was necessary to give Lianna depth since most of us move around in a state of neither awake of asleep (sleepwalking so to speak) when dealing with a death, but you can't be a super sleuth and wade in fog forever. At some point, someone's gotta pull you back from the bridge.

Overall, The Sleepwalker was a worthwhile read. I didn't see the ending coming at all. Sure this novel is primarily a mystery but all the information on sleepwalking just takes the cake. I think it's safe to say that at this point I am definitely a fan of Bohjalian's work. This is my third review of his work so... I urge all his fans to read The Sleepwalker. There is no danger of meandering or sleepwalking through this one.

Copy provided by Doubleday Books via Netgalley

I remember reading Mr. Bohjalian's The Midwives and enjoying it all these years later. I haven't ready any of his books in between that and this one so was anxious to try it. The topic sounded intriguing and I remember that Mr. Bohjalian always does lots of research so you always learn something too.

The Sleepwalker is told from the daughter's perspective, and in my opinion she learns more about her mother than any young woman should. However it helps move the story along.

I found this book enjoyable, believable and unbelievable in spots and entertaining. If you are a fan of Mr. Bohjalian, you won't be disappointed.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy.

I love Bohjalian's storytelling and this book was no different. It tells the story of family struggling to keep themselves together after the unexpected disappearance of the mother, who was a sleepwalker and who left their house one night and never returned. While the police attempt to locate her, the eldest daughter takes over her role as caretaker of the family, cooking, cleaning, and trying to keep her father and younger sister from feeling the loss quite as much. While the father turns to alcohol the sisters each investigate the disappearance of their mother on their own, leading to some startling discoveries.

Bohjalian's writing is gorgeous and the voices of the girls are both very authentic and believable, especially that of Lianna. This book is billed as a thriller but in reality it's a slow burn. The book was believable and the insight into life as and with a parasomniac was fascinating. I liked that the characters were written as real people who had a sleeping disorder rather than their entire existence being about their disorder. I didn't at all see the ending coming which was also a nice change of pace - nothing felt forced and all the details leading up to the end were dropped into the story with such subtly that you don't even notice them until the story comes together at the end.

If you like Bohjalian I'd recommend this book.

I have a love/hate relationship with Chris Bohjalian. I either love his novels or I just don't get them. This one was a bit in the middle for me. I liked it but I didn't love it. I loved the concept of the novel - the description sounded fascinating. My primary issues with the novel are two-fold. One thing is the pacing of the novel overall. It felt like a slow burn ... it unfolded very quietly. Which isn't always a bad thing but it didn't work for me in this novel. In some ways, it almost felt like I was sleepwalking through the book. It felt sleepy and hazy in some way. Secondly, the big mystery wasn't such a mystery to me. I suspected 'who done it' long before it was revealed. And it wasn't a far jump to identify the perpetrator. It didn't feel as intricate as it could have been to make the reader feel something about what happened. If you have any interest in sleep disorders, this might be an interesting read for you. I think the exploration of sleep issues was one of the bright spots in this novel. If you're a big Bohjalian fan, I also think this one is worth picking up. However, if you need a ton of action and fast pacing, this might not work as well for you.

This is the first book I have read by Chris Bohjalian and unfortunately it isn't really enticing me to read others by him. I found the entire thing to be so boring. I found myself briefly scanning pages of dialogue and description that didn't matter to me and just turning the page and turning the page until I got to something that seemed to be important to the story. I probably would not have finished, but I wanted to know (even though I had an idea) what had happened to Annalee.

**Thank you to Doubleday Books via Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Very good at sustaining suspense about the demise of Annalee Ahlberg. I liked the interspresing of the journal entries, of course assuming they were the mother's journal.. enough red herrings to satisfy me, veteran mystery reader.

Chris Bohjalian is one of those authors I purchase immediately. I’ve yet to read anything formulaic or contrived that he’s written. From parasomnia and human trafficking to World War II and midwives, Bohjalian’s breadth of topics and genres are wide and far-reaching.

In his latest, The Sleepwalker, Annalee Ahlberg disappears while her husband is out of town. Annalee is home alone with her two daughters, Lianna, a senior in college and Paige, a sophmore in high school. Because Annalee suffers from parasomnia, the worst is feared.

Four years prior, Lianna found her mother on the precipice of a bridge and had to guide her home. Since that incident, Warren has not traveled overnight for work. Annalee has taken medication to help reduce the symptoms. While Lianna has remained her mother’s vigilant watcher.

The Sleepwalker is horrifying in a real-world aspect. My youngest daughter had a habit of sleepwalking until middle school. My mom says I was the same way when I was growing up. We both continue to have long detailed conversations in our sleep. But parasomnia? It is an entirely different level of sleep disturbance.

The first few chapters of The Sleepwalker focuses on the search for Annalee and the family’s response to her disappearance. The middle tended to drag in places, and I found myself skimming paragraphs. Though I wonder if that wasn’t deliberate? I imagine during a tragic disappearance the days drag, life moves slowly and nothing seems to happen. The ending was completely unexpected.

I finished The Sleepwalker a couple of weeks ago and still find myself haunted by the story. The Ahlberg family fractures as a result of Annalee’s disappearance. And isn’t that true-to-life? Families are either made stronger in tragedy or torn apart. What makes or breaks the unit? And that is the underlying question – could your family survive a tragedy? Recommended.

Meet the Author: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

For further reading, try the short story prequel The Premonition

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy.

What secrets do we keep from those closest to us? When Annalee Ahlberg, a known sleepwalker, disappears one night and a piece of her nightgown is found next to the river, everyone assumes the worst. But her family cannot accept this story, especially her daughter, Lianna. She feels like there is something more, something they are all missing, something she is not being told. So she starts trying to find out more about her mother from her friends, people in her town and even her mother's doctor. What she finds out changes her perception of incidents in her childhood and young adult life and how she views her family. One of the state police that is investigating her mother's disappearance tells her he was close friends with her mother due to them having similar sleepwalking issues. Lianna is drawn to this man but at the same time senses he is not telling her the whole truth. What was their real relationship? What did her mother confide in him about? And can all these secrets people are keeping hold the secret to what really happened the night of her disappearance?

This book took me a long time to read but the writing was so good that is was worth it. The descriptions of the town and deep feelings of loss and helplessness that the family feels as well as Lianna's search for the truth kept me going through the book. Not just a psychological thriller to me but a deep look into the workings of a family that has a lot of love and secrets.

I gave this 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads.

I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley for review consideration.

I have to say that I was immediately drawn to THE SLEEPWALKER, and I think I read it in a 24 hour period. I love Mr. Bohjalian's writing (always have), and I thought the mystery in this novel was very interesting. However, what I found most intriguing about this novel was the sleepwalking angle of the story. I knew almost nothing about this condition (and certainly nothing about the type that Annalee and Gavin suffered from) outside of hearing about kids who walk in their sleep when they are young. All I can say is, "Wow!"

Annalee (and Gavin) both had a sleepwalking condition that made them aggressively pursue sexual encounters in their sleep. I had absolutely no idea that some sleepwalkers are "sleepsexers;" and I have to say that I was amazed by how much this disorder could affect their lives. I thought the author did a great job of explaining this sleepwalking condition for the readers, and he also realistically portrayed just how major the affects of sleepwalking are for those who suffer from it as well as their families.

Mr. Bohjalian is a terrific storyteller and I truly appreciated one of the techniques that he used in this novel. Besides the chapters that told of Lianna's desire to find her mother, there were chapters thrown in that read like a sleepwalker's diary. The interesting thing was that I had no idea whose "diary" it was. It added to the mysterious nature of the story, and I think it made me appreciate even more how the ending came to be revealed.

And last but not least, I actually was surprised by the resolution of the mystery surrounding Annalee's disappearance. I had quite a few guesses throughout the story, but I don't think I realized what was happening until I actually read the pages. I love that Mr. Bohjalian wrote such a fantastic story and that I was surprised by the ending! That isn't always the case with thrillers for me.

I do thing THE SLEEPWALKER would make a terrific book club selection. It will appeal to both fans of literary fiction and mysteries. There is a reading guide available with fifteen questions. Some of the themes you might want to discuss include parent/child relationships, sibling relationships, trust, science/medicine, nature vs. nurture, and guilt. Of course, I'm sure most groups will want to talk about sleepwalking and especially sleepsexers.

I really enjoyed THE SLEEPWALKER. I swear Mr. Bohjalian never disappoints! Highly recommended!

Who knew sleep sex was a thing? Actually, it's part of the sleep disorder that afflicts wife and mother Annalee Ahlberg in Chris Bohjalian's The Sleepwalker (Knopf Doubleday, digital galley), which will keep you up all night flipping pages. When Annalee vanishes into the Vermont night while husband Warren is away on a business trip, her elder daughter Lianna fears Annalee's parasomnia has again led her to the nearby river. But it's not just the river hiding the secrets to Annalee's disappearance, as Lianna discovers when she begins questioning her father, her teenage sister Paige, her mom's closest friends, her therapist, and one detective who knows all too much about Annalee's history. Bohjalians' plotting is so clever that I didn't see the ending coming.
from On a Clear Day I Can Read Forever