Josie Buhrman's father was shot and killed 13 years ago, and Warren Cave - the goth teenage boy next door - was convicted of the crime. Afterwards, Josie's already troubled mother fell apart, and ran off to join a cult. To top things off, Josie's rebellious twin sister, Lanie, betrayed her in a very hurtful way. So at 18, Josie left a goodbye note for her beloved Aunt Amelia - with whom she'd been living - and left Elm Park, Illinois.

Josie backpacked and hitchhiked around the world, supported herself with low-paying food service jobs, and invented a fake history to tell new acquaintances. After years of roaming Josie met Caleb, a handsome international aid worker from New Zealand. They fell in love and eventually settled in New York, where Josie got a good job in a bookstore. Josie never told Caleb the truth about her past, which is about to come back and bite her in the butt.

A reporter named Poppy Parnell is making a podcast about the murder of Josie's dad, Chuck Buhrman. Furthermore, Parnell is questioning Warren Cave's guilt and looking at possible alternative suspects. The re-opening of the case generates a lot of interest among the general public, who proceed to talk and post comments about the case and everyone connected with it.

Josie is terribly anxious about Parnell's podcast, which reminds her of painful events. Additonally, the idea that Warren Cave might be innocent is anathema to her. After all, Josie's sister Lanie said she SAW Warren shoot her father. Who else could have committed the crime? Podcast groupies are ready with lots of suggestions, including Josie's mother, Warren's mother, Lanie, and others.

The podcast and the renewed publicity is apparently too much for Josie's mother, who commits suicide. As a result, Josie has to return to Elm Park, where she'll attend her mother's funeral, comfort her Aunt Amelia, and see her estranged sister Lanie. Caleb thinks Josie's mother is long dead, so she tells him it's her aunt's funeral, and convinces him to stay behind in New York.

Being back in Elm Park is very stressful for Josie. She's still furious with her sister; her cousin Ellen, a fashionista, is critical of her appearance; the viewing and funeral are difficult; and Caleb shows up and learns that Josie is big liar. Moreover, Poppy Parnell keeps trying to corner Josie, to get an interview for the podcast.

The story is told as a narrative interspersed with excerpts from the podcast, plus Tweets, Reddit threads, and comments from the public. This style works well for the book, and some of the 'messages' are very entertaining. (Sadly, it's a realistic portrayal of how insensitive people can be on social media.)

The basic plot - is Warren guilty? If not, who is? - is compelling. The main characters, though, are somewhat unsympathetic and/or unrealistic.

Josie, for one, is an irritating protagonist. She's whiny, overly emotional, and even after 10 years can't get past Lanie's 'betrayal' which - after all - wasn't that earth shattering. And Josie does some business with her hair - she has her luxuriant black tresses chopped into a bad pixie cut and dyed platinum.....then gets it fixed - which seems pointless. Also, in real life, men aren't as understanding or forgiving as Caleb.

As for Lanie, some of her obnoxious behavior as a teen - hanging with a bad crowd; using drugs; not showering; wearing dirty clothes; and so on - is understandable in the circumstances. However, one of Lanie's actions is a serious crime, and there are no appropriate consequences. I wondered what her family was thinking!

In a way Poppy Parnell is the most authentic character in the book. She's irritating but behaves like a real journalist - chasing people for comments; saying outrageous things for publicity; not caring about the harm she's doing to the families; and so on.

By the end of the book the truth about Chuck Buhrman's death emerges, which some readers may suss out long before the characters do.

Overall, this is an okay book that shows how 'true crime' stories can devastate the families involved.

Thanks to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for a copy of the book.

Years earlier a man is murdered and his family disintegrates. His wife abandons her twin daughters and joins a cult. The girls finish high school while living with their maternal aunt. One, our protagonist, is the "good twin"; the other not so much. When she finishes school Josie, the good twin, leaves and loses contact with her family. She is living in New York when she learns that her mother has died and that she needs to return to her childhood home town for the funeral. Meanwhile a blogger has taken it upon herself to investigate the murder and subsequent conviction of a neighbor boy for it. All of this comes together in the small town where it all took place. It is the well written study of the disintegration of a family coupled with all the guilt that results from such disintegration. The characters are believable and well developed. All in all this was a novel well worth reading. Thanks to Net Galley and Simon & Schuster for an ARC for an honest review.

I haven’t read this book yet but it’s the kind of novel that I love; dark and suspenseful, maybe a little scary. If a book is compared to Gone Girl, In A Dark, Dark Wood, or Girl on the Train, chances are I am going to want to read it.

Here’s what you need to know about Are You Sleeping:

Josie Buhrman has spent the last ten years trying to escape her family’s reputation and with good reason. After her father’s murder thirteen years prior, her mother ran away to join a cult and her twin sister Lanie, once Josie’s closest friend and confidant, betrayed her in an unimaginable way. Now, Josie has finally put down roots in New York, settling into domestic life with her partner Caleb, and that’s where she intends to stay.

The only problem is that she has lied to Caleb about every detail of her past—starting with her last name. When investigative reporter Poppy Parnell sets off a media firestorm with a mega-hit podcast that reopens the long-closed case of Josie’s father’s murder, Josie’s world begins to unravel. Meanwhile, the unexpected death of Josie’s long-absent mother forces her to return to her Midwestern hometown where she must confront the demons from her past—and the lies on which she has staked her future.

Due out in August.

Oh my, did I love this book. I wasn't sure what to expect, and sometimes the intro paragraph is more of a tease when the book does not deliver. Not the case here.

The story was great; a nice life built on a foundation of tragedy and lies. All quite understandable as the story is told. But someone comes along to unearth secrets and questions from years ago, despite who it might hurt. This character is venal, I could find no redeeming qualities, and had one of those personas where they are very sanctimonious and made of teflon, nothing sticks to them.

As the story is told we get to see the various recollections of Josie's family of the same event, which is quite different for each of them. As the layers are peeled back, pieces of a puzzle she didn't even realize she was putting together being to fall into place.

The characters are well- described, the back and forth absorbing. How things could be so different than she thought? How could so many others have little pieces of the story, but they don't get put together?

I really enjoyed reading this book, and waited for my opportunity to read each night. It was engaging, easy to read; a good pace. I often find myself skipping to the end of a book, just to see what ultimately happens- and then going back and reading the whole thing- but I had no desire to do that here.

Looking forward to her next book.

This was a great thriller that I really enjoyed! Josie and Lanie are twins, estranged for years after the murder of their father and Lanie's eyewitness testimony that put a neighborhood teen in prison. When their mother runs off to join a cult, their lives fall apart and each twin begins a life of her own. Josie, intending to put the past behind her, changes her last name and lies to her boyfriend so she can start over. But when a rabid journalist re-opens the case with a podcast that goes viral, the family must come to terms with the truth. What is it and who has secrets? Is the man in prison really guilty or was Lanie's testimony false? Very current in terms of the social media presence, this novel kept me up at night to finish!

This fast paced read would be the perfect fit for high school students. Students with siblings will relate to the constant conflicting feelings that go along with having a brother or sister.

The pull of Kathleen Barber's Are You Sleeping is that the premise revolves around a true crime podcast, which, as most of us know, is a highly popular format these days. I myself listen to many podcasts, as the one mentioned in Barber's novel, Reconsidered, reminds the reader of Serial, with the ruminations of My Favorite Murder and its gossip-like tellings of popular murders. What could've easily been a thrown together mess of weaving a story around the latest "it" thing in popular culture, Are You Sleeping takes a different route, one where the narrative and the podcast transcript work off one another, leading the reader along a thrilling and page-turning story. Highly reccomended.

Deliciously creepy and utterly addictive, Are You Sleeping had me staying up late, reading "just one more chapter," because I couldn't wait to see what happened next. I kept thinking I knew whodunnit, only to realize I'd been led down a false path. The story kept me guessing right until the very end, and little breadcrumbs were dropped throughout without actually giving the ending away. Also, I *loved* the way Tweets, Reddit threads, and podcast transcripts were interspersed throughout the text; it was a unique structure and it kept the story flowing smoothly. I can't wait to read more from Kathleen Barber!

Thank you to NetGalley and to Gallery Books for an ARC in exchange for this review.

Josie has spent 10 years escaping her past. Her father was murdered, her sister betrayed her, and her mother ran away. She has found new life in NYC with her boyfriend and has been able to move on and hide from it. An investigative reporter brings new life to the case and believes the convicted murderer is not the one who killed her father. Josie's life begins to unravel and she has to return to her past to confront what she has been hiding from.

So this book starts off promising. It had great promise. However, at some point, I lost interest. I can't exactly put my finger on it - I think maybe it was how annoying Poppy was (which I get was the point of her, to be the annoying reporter). I did finish it, but I was not wowed. It's not a bad read, and I almost feel bad for not liking it. I wanted to feel great empathy for Josie, but I never quite got there. I am sure other people will love this. Just not for me.

This was an amazing first book for Kathleen Barber. The story flowed at a steady pace, the characters were fleshed out nicely…I even know what they look like. I liked that it was current… a psychological thriller about a mega-hit podcast. I also liked the use the narrative of the actual podcast, tweets, and comments. It threw me off a little at the beginning trying to decide what it was…but I grew to LOVE it! I found only one typo (at location 554). I will be watching for more books from this author.

Loved this book. Kept my attention and made me want to keep reading. I really liked how it related to the podcasts that are so popular today. It's a great read!

If you prefer delayed gratification and subtle nuance over "in your face"pronouncements, Are You Sleeping is the book for you. Riding on the coattails of the public's fascination with "true crime" stories such as the podcast Serial and Netflix's Making of a Murderer, Are You Sleeping features "investigative journalist" Poppy Parnell trying to uncover the truth about who killed college professor Chuck Buhrman thirteen years ago. Based on eyewitness testimony from the victim's daughter Lanie, a seventeen year old neighbor is convicted of the crime and sentenced to life in prison. But there's no closure for the Buhrman family-his wife becomes a recluse who ultimately leaves her children to join a cult, while Lanie tumbles down a path of drugs, casual flings, petty crime, and is estranged from her twin sister Josie over an incident from high school. Upping the intrigue factor (and keeping the plot flowing at almost breakneck speed) is the format-alternating between transcripts of Reconsidered-Poppy's podcast, tweets from Poppy's listeners, and Josie's narration. Are You Sleeping has plenty of suspense-especially when Lanie starts questioning her memory of who she saw murder her father. When she uncovers evidence that may solve the crime Lanie rushes to the police station without thinking of the consequences (no explanation is given as to how Lanie knows where the murder weapon is or why she didn't say anything for over a decade), and she is interrogated by the police for hours without asking for a lawyer. While this is in keeping with Lanie's reckless nature it seems strange that Ms. Barber (a former attorney) would allow any of her clients (even fictional ones!) to speak to law enforcement without legal counsel. A minor detail to an otherwise compelling and timely read.

This book was PHENOMENAL!!!!!!!!!!!! As a fan of "Serial", I was instantly in the zone of the whole podcast-true crime story addiction that the characters are experiencing in this tale. I found the bits with the little sister waking up her twin with the "Are you Sleeping?" in the whisper voice to be so freaking creepy. I thought the multi-layered story aspects here worked so well and I was hooked. This was the type of book that when you had to put it down to go do real life stuff, I thought about it, waiting to get back to it, like an old friend. Fantastic!

The story itself isn't bad, it's only been done before...many times. It was easy to figure out the who, what and why of this mystery early in the book. The story does have some good supporting characters, such as Caleb, Ellen and Aunt A. They are the ones that make it worth the read.

This book was not awful but not great. I breezed through it over the course of three days, but could have finished it in one sitting had I had the time. It erred more toward the fluffy and light (despite the morbid subject matter) and much less toward the edge-of-the-seat, heart-racing tension I desired. The novel itself is well-written, and the plot easy to follow. I cannot say that I was disinterested, but I figured out how the story ended long before the plot came to its conclusion. There were no red herrings, no major plot twists, and no complexity to give me pause or cause me to doubt the conclusion I came to.

My biggest issue is that the characters, especially the women, are as shallow as a kiddie pool. I feel like Barber had a lot of space to work with her characters, but they all kind of stay the same and left me wanting to roll my eyes. This was the novel of many overdone female tropes. We have Ellen, the superficial, vain cousin who is obsessed with controlling not only with her own appearance, but with those of others in her life (such that they satisfy 'conventional' ideas of female beauty). We have Aunt A, who is just called 'A' instead of 'Amelia' and who is presented as an over-emotional mess for the larger portion of the novel. Perhaps Barber intended this to seem affectionate and endearing, but to me it seemed awkward and weird. Then there's 'bad twin' sister, Lanie, who is an addict who (shocker!) likes to dress in baggy clothes with black eyeliner and spurn authority. Erin, mother to the twins, is the flighty, free-spirited, mentally ill non-conformist who abandons her family for a cult in (again shocker!) California. There's Poppy, the investigative journalist who is (maybe?) the antagonist of the novel because she nosily and insensitively pokes and prods into the murder of Josie's father. Lastly, we have our protagonist, Josie, who came across as vaguely Mary Sue-ish: she's a pretty girl with 'inky' black hair and startlingly blue eyes, the 'good twin' with a dark and tormented past that she is still trying to run from, has a gorgeous supportive foreign boyfriend who is supportive of her even when it's revealed that she has been living a lie.

I had a hard time empathizing with any of the women in this novel because of these one dimensional tropes. Even conversations between the women are filled with stereotypically feminine conversation topics- men, manicures, town gossip. In the face of conflict or complex emotions or anything problematic, they drink wine or have some other sort of alcoholic beverage. I would have loved if the novel had gone deeper into the relationships among the female characters. Barber had a chance to write something powerful about the dynamic that exists between sisters, between mother and daughters, among women in a family, and instead she fell back on overused tropes and ended up barely scratching the surface.

Overall, I'm happy that I read this, but it just wasn't quite my cup of tea. I wish it had been heavier, darker, and more tense. I would happily take this along to read on a plane or while lounging on the beach in the sun.

I’ve just finished an ARC copy of “Are You Sleeping?” from Net Galley (in exchange for a fair and honest review). Easily done.
“Are You Sleeping” is an engaging psychological thriller that makes of use of social media in a thought-provoking way that truly resonates with what’s happening in society today.
The premise is that a blogger, calling herself an investigative journalist, tries to reopen a closed murder case. When the blog goes mega-viral it throws the lives of people connected to the original murder into a dangerous tailspin.
What makes this novel work is a main character that you REALLY care about (most of the time), and a blogger that makes you cringe with every appearance (almost all of the time). For me it was the ‘most of the time’ and the ‘almost all of the time’ that lifts this novel a step above many, and keeps you thinking about social media effects long after you’ve read THE END. Kudos on a terrific debut.

“Between my laptop and my phone, I'm nearly always connected, and it's rare that I go an hour without engaging in some form of social media,” Kathleen Barber blogged (booksbywomen.org , 2-March-2017). “Reasonable minds can differ whether this constant connectivity is enhancing or ruining our lives, but no one can deny that it's changing them … today we communicate by "liking" and commenting on each other's Facebook posts. The way that we interact with other humans--something that is at the core of almost every novel, no matter the genre--is being fundamentally altered.”

Barber’s debut novel, “Are You Sleeping,” shows the new face of 21st Century fiction, with podcast transcripts, twitter feeds, news articles, obituaries, and other social media seamlessly woven into the prose. Journalist Poppy Parnell has progressed from blogging about cold cases to podcasting about a "closed" case after learning a young man is serving time for a murder he probably didn't commit. Her podcast, “Reconsidered,” goes viral. The murder victim's daughters have their lives torn up all over again when the case is re-opened and publicly discussed, more ubiquitously than the latest Kardashian antics. The prose is laced with Tweets, reddit comments, texts, and emails, showing how novels have been transformed by the advent of social media.

Parnell’s mega-hit podcast alternates with the first-person narrative of Josie Buhrman, who’s spent the last ten years concealing her real identity, shunning her twin sister, and shedding her family's reputation. Her father, the victim in the podcast, was murdered when the girls were fifteen. Their mother, already a little bipolar or mentally unstable, ran away to join a cult, leaving Josie and twin sister Lanie to be raised by their aunt.

Lanie steals her sister’s high school boyfriend, and Josie is so incapable of getting over this betrayal, she slams the door shut forever on her only sibling, changes her last name to Borden, lies to everyone in her new life about her old life (orphaned, she says, and an only child), goes backpacking for years, drifting aimlessly until she meets Caleb and settles down with him as a domestic partner in New York, always meaning to tell him she’s lied about her whole life, but afraid she’ll lose him if she does.

Josie’s story opens with a mysterious phone call in the night. It might be from her estranged sister, or it might be a bad phone connection, or it might be she dreamed parts of it. Her confusion sets the tone for the rest of the novel.

Investigative reporter Poppy Parnell sets off a media firestorm with her podcast about the long-closed case of Charles Buhrman’s murder and 17-year-old neighbor Warren Cave serving a life sentence for the crime. The podcast is blamed for the subsequent death of the estranged mother and widow, she who’d abandoned her daughters to their Aunt A and retreated to a secret cult that cuts all ties to family. Josie has no intention of attending her mother’s funeral or risk facing her evil twin, until forced by Aunt A. Most of the story takes place in small-town Elm Park, Illinois, which has hardly changed since Josie shed its dust from her bootsoles years ago.

The story is well written, but it’s about people I just can’t like. I’m not sure how much of my reaction should be blamed on my upbringing. In November 1975, my sister disappeared. In March 1976, her body was found. The shock and horror may abate over time, but it’s like Rose Kennedy said: “The wounds remain. Time - the mind, protecting its sanity - covers them with some scar tissue and the pain lessens, but it is never gone.” Little did I know what a blessing it was that my Germanic Midwestern farm parents were so stoic. All of us were. Pragmatism dictates that life must go on, so nobody gets to go crazy, shut down, act up, act out, run away, or do any of the psycho stuff that Chuck Buhrman’s wife and daughters do. And I do include Josie. She may not go “bad” the way Lanie does, running with bad crowds in high school, committing petty crimes, acting like a brat with bruises, but Josie is so far from stoic or mature, or charitable, I had a hard time figuring out why Caleb would fall for her.

Most readers will think these are vivid, well-drawn characters, but I see weak, self-absorbed, petty, superficial women who have no idea how to cope with a man’s infidelity. It might be easier to like Aunt Amelia, except that all her family members reduce her name to A, even her husband. Why does that bother me? I’m not sure, but it diminishes her. At least Poppy Parnell names her: Amelia.

Poppy is the biggest disappointment in the novel. In real life, I know an investigative reporter who’s devoting thousands of hours (and years) of her life to Iowa Cold Cases. Social media aficionados, Google “Jody Ewing” and you’ll see a woman who cares passionately about uncovering the truth and providing closure for families of murder victims. No fame, no fortune, not even a way to break even on her own expenses running the site. Jody Ewing is the polar opposite of Poppy, who charges like a mad rhino into personal lives and gleefully airs other people’s dirty laundry, or tragedies, in the name of “entertainment.”

I should have skipped ahead, once I’d gotten a third of the way into the novel, seen how it ended, and saved myself a few hours of precious reading time. Josie remains annoying. Lanie does more stupid stuff. So many details seem contrived to me.

Maybe I’m just too irritable. Josie has her long, black hair bobbed and bleached platinum. Eyebrows too. Thinking she’ll not be recognized by the podcasting piranhas when she goes back home for a funeral. Aunt A and cousin Ellen, however, get her hair dyed black again. So why waste space in the novel on the bleaching, if Josie gets spotted anyway at the funeral, and Ellen complains about black dye under her nails, as if anyone is stupid enough to buy a box of hair dye and not use the disposable gloves that come inside. Scene after scene, people drop things, break things, deliberately throw and break things, and I just have no desire to hang out in their Point of View, miserable, bitter, out of control. Why did I stay? Stupidly, I believed they would do this character-arc thing, part of the famed three-act structure of the novel, part of the hero’s journey.

Poppy Parnell doesn’t change her ways. The truth shall set you free, a fortune cookie tells Josie, another plot contrivance that annoyed me (how overdone is the fortune teller, the fortune cookie, in fiction).

I could keep listing details and quote excerpts from the text, but I need to go think about something else now. Like how to find a ruthless, exploitative journalist like Poppy Parnell who’ll uncover the truth behind my sister’s murder. Unfortunately, real-life killers don’t operate like fictional killers. Murder weapons are destroyed, never to be found again. Diaries are burned. Evidence is bungled by the police, misdirected, used to frame the innocent. More than forty years later, the memories of any possible witness are now unreliable, inadmissible as evidence.

Thank you to Kathleen Barber, Simon & Schuster, and Netgalley for an advanced reader copy of Are You Sleeping in exchange for an unbiased review. Given my sister’s Cold Case, I’m pretty sure I’m biased. Given my own Midwestern farm upbringing, I’m never going to “like” people like Lanie, Josie, their mother, or the mother of the emo-boy convicted of murder, his only motive being the same stupid motive everyone else in the novel suffers: the notion that infidelity is a crime punishable by death.

On the bright side, millions of readers are sure to love this novel. It’s well written, well edited, and intriguing. I’ve just read too many things like this already, and lived the drama, already, to be enthralled.

I loved "Are you Sleeping" which again has two very different sisters at the heart of it and reminded me just a little of the brilliant "Six Stories" which I also loved recently - but I think that was just the podcast aspects which really do work well in telling the wider story.

In "Are you Sleeping" a new podcast re-examining an old murder opens up old wounds for an already fractured family. Taking in themes of memory, sibling relationships and traumatic past events, Kathleen Barber weaves a tense, atmospheric and genuinely fascinating tale of a family dynamic gone horribly wrong and the possible miscarriage of justice this has caused. The mystery elements are well woven and clever, the story twists its way to a rather heartbreaking ultimate solution and it is utterly gripping from first page to last.

I was completely engaged with the ebb and flow of the relationship between twins Laine and Jo -both of whom had very different reactions to events around them - estranged but trying to find a way to come back together under extraordinarily trying circumstances, I loved how the author managed the dynamic between them both in their similar and dissimilar qualities. Added to that the ever changing path to the final truth of the matter encompassing loss, parental influence and how our perceptions change with life experience, this was a completely wonderful read featuring some very memorable characters.

Highly Recommended.

((Review also on Goodreads - Amazon upon release))

4 Stars.

What happens when your past comes back to haunt you? In “Are You Sleeping” by Kathleen Barber, the main character, Josie Burhman finds out. And for her, it isn’t pretty.

Josie has spent ten years hiding from her past, going so far as to legally change her name and traveling abroad aimlessly for five years before setting down roots in New York. But as we all know, you can’t escape your past for long. Josie’s father was murdered, thirteen years prior. Her mother, unable to cope, takes off for California, joining a cult, leaving Josie and her twin sister Lanie, in the care of her Aunt. Lanie loses it and strikes out at everyone she loves. And Josie? She leaves right after her High School graduation. Ten years later she is living a new life in New York with her boyfriend Caleb. The problem? He knows nothing of her past and Josie doesn’t want him to find out. Unfortunately for Josie, an investigative reporter creates a series of podcasts reopening the investigation into her father’s death, which coincides with her mother’s suicide. And then? All hell breaks loose, forcing Josie to go back home for the first time in ten years in order to confront her family and her past.

In “Are You Sleeping” the author, Kathleen Barber, did a phenomenal job of keeping me on the edge of my seat. Every time I thought knew what was going to happen I was wrong. The pacing of the novel was quick, the storyline drew me in immediately and the characters were all consuming. The character of Josie gripped me and she wouldn’t let go. There were times when I was completely exasperated with her, yet I liked her a lot. And the character of Ellen, Josie’s cousin? Loved her. She made me laugh. A lot. I also liked the social media aspect of the story as it created a dynamic I am not familiar with. I found “Are You Sleeping” to be a suspenseful mystery that flowed fairly well and kept me interested throughout, thus if you are looking for a good mystery, this is it.

Thank you to NetGalley, Gallery Books and Kathleen Barber for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Published on NetGalley and Goodreads on 3/11/17.
*Will be published on Amazon on 8/1/17.

Sometimes being sick in bed has its perks....like being able to read Are You Sleeping in one day! I can't say enough good about this book! It is an amazing psychological thriller that kept me guessing. I love the characters in this book because they are so real and raw. Going through what Josie and Lanie went through is enough to send anyone over the edge, but then having it dragged up by some podcast gone viral years later....I am sure I would have gone off the deep end. You will become immersed in the story very quickly and you won't want to put it down! I highly recommend it!