EXCERPT: He realised he had to notify the police. This was serious, this was real; someone had snatched Vivi away from him and every second counted. With child abductions the first forty-eight hours were crucial. Gero felt his insides wrench. He didn't want to think of his daughter as a victim; she couldn't be one. As he took his hand from his brow, his gaze fell on another door: the metal one that led to the roof terrace. He went over to it as if on automatic pilot, pressed the handle and climbed the first few steps of the metal staircase. And then he suddenly sensed it: Vivi's presence. He sensed it even before he saw her in the arms of the woman who was standing perilously close to the edge of the roof. Only the panel railing - a thin sheet of perforated metal - lay between her and the ground below, between Vivi and a good fifteen metres of free-fall.

'Nadja,' he said, stretching out a hand. 'Please don't do anything silly.'

ABOUT 'SLEEPLESS': It's been years since Nadja Kulka was convicted of a cruel crime. After being released from prison, she's wanted nothing more than to live a normal life: nice flat, steady job, even a few friends. But when one of those friends, Laura von Hoven - free-spirited beauty and wife of Nadja's boss - kills her lover and begs Nadja for her help, Nadja can't seem to be able to refuse.

The two women make for a remote house in the woods, the perfect place to bury a body. But their plan quickly falls apart and Nadja finds herself outplayed, a pawn in a bizarre game in which she is both the perfect victim and the perfect murderer . . .

MY THOUGHTS: I wanted to love Sleepless, but it was just too disjointed. Imagine if you will, ripping all the chapters out of a book except the first and last, shuffling them into random order, and rebinding the book. That was how it felt. There was no rhyme or reason for order of the chapters. The timeline jumped about erratically. It drove me insane!

There are two separate storylines - the common factor being Nadja. Plus there are letters written from one unknown person to another, but which are never sent. The author and intended recipient are revealed at the end.

About halfway through the book, things started to come together and I got excited, but it didn't last. What should have been a suspenseful, thrilling and chilling section of the book disappointed, because the timeline jumps continued, interrupting the flow.

My honest opinion? This could have been an absolute amazing and brilliant read. But the author has tried to be too clever to the detriment of the read.

And the epilogue? NO. IDEA.

There is some beautiful writing in here. It just gets lost in the chaos, as does the rather wonderful plot.

Please note: no books were harmed in the writing of this review.

⭐⭐.8

#Sleepless #NetGalley

I: @romyhausmann @quercusbooks

#contemporaryfiction #crime #familydrama #murdermystery

THE AUTHOR: Romy Hausmann was born in the former GDR in 1981. At the age of twenty-four she became chief editor at a film production company in Munich. Since the birth of her son, Romy has been working as a freelancer in TV. She lives with her family in a remote house in the woods near Stuttgart.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Quercus Books via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of Sleepless by Romy Hausmann for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review and others are also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage

What a book this is!… At first I was completely baffled. I felt like I had no idea what was going on and couldn’t keep on top of the characters, Sleepless also goes between the past and the present and at times I found it hard to keep track of everything but somehow still wanted to keep reading.

About halfway through everything started to make sense and gradually fall into place. The way everything comes together is so cleverly done. I found myself really feeling sorry for Nadja at times and really hoping everything worked out okay for her.

Despite feeling frustrated at my initial confusion I really liked this book. It’s a great read and I’m even more excited to pick up Dear Child in the near future!

I really did struggle with this and kept stopping and starting. It really should have ticked all the boxes for me. After about half way it got better, it just wasnt for me. But very well written and researched.

I was given an advance copy by netgalley and the publishers but the review is entirely my own

The synopsis sounded so good but I got to 75% of the story and realised that I had no idea what was going on.

I was very excited when the team at Quercus got in touch to do a review for Sleepless, the new release from Romy Hausmann. Dear Child (her English-translation debut) was easily one of my favourite books of 2020.

Sleepless is a dark, twisty, multi-layered, complex thriller which revolves around Nadja Kulka, a young Polish woman living in Berlin. At the beginning we see many different threads which appear to have nothing to do with each other meander through the pages. There came a point where I almost put the book down thinking 'huh, what's going on here'. Once I got past that part it was easy to see these seemingly disparate threads be slowly woven together to form a very clever and intricate plot.

The book is set in Berlin for the most part and that was always going to be a winner for me. Berlin is easily one of my favourite cities so I loved the descriptions of the areas within the city that perfectly built the atmosphere and allowed me to feel like I was almost back there.

I think Romy is an absolute genius when it comes to creating characters that we actually don't like but still feel the need to root for. This book is full of them. It takes a very gifted writer to be able to make those characters maintain a reader's interest and Hausmann kept me hooked right until the very last word.

Unreliable narrators, a multifaceted plot and whiplash-inducing twists made this a thriller I could not put down.

Germaine Romy Hausmann’s second published book Sleepless, follows her critically acclaimed debut Dear Child. Beginning with three different narratives – diary entries, Nadja’s story and 2014 setting, these multiple points of view and different flashbacks reveal the story. This approach is mostly confusing and causes difficultly in drawing in the reader. Overall, the format never really works and the characters were not enticing. Whilst a promising premise and expectant complicated crime thriller, it did not live up to its promise so unfortunately only a two-star rating.

Thank you to #Netgalley & #Quercus for an e-arc of Sleepless by Romy Hausmann.
Life has not been kind to Nadja Kulka, a convicted criminal who just wants a normal life with a job, a place to live and maybe a few friends. When we meet Nadja she has achieved some of her aims but when her friend Laura contacts her in a panic after killing her lover, Nadja's life is about to go downhill pretty fast. Laura is the wife of Nadja's boss and a complex plan is devised to get rid of the body. Little does Nadja know she is being set up to take the fall for a crime she did not commit. I will admit to wanting to shout at Nadja not to be taken in but my efforts went unheard.
The story is told in a then and now format with letters to Nadja's brother who she hasn't seen since she was sent to prison.
Nadja's early life was one of poverty and deprivation but her sense of regret at the loss of her brother is a recurring theme.
Romy Hausmann addresses the limits that people will tolerate before they break apart and how circumstances dictate our ability to thrive.
The tension in Sleepless permeates the writing and it is a book that is difficult to put down. Nadja is not a conventional heroine but I did find myself wanting her to achieve her dream of a better life.
Sleepless contains a lot of the themes I like in a book and I would rate it as a 4 +star read

I’ll admit, I found Hausmann’s latest offering a bit confusing to begin with - the timeline is all over the place and the multiple viewpoints lead you to question everything. Some seemingly inconsequential events appear out of nowhere and I often felt like scratching my head, trying to work it all out.

There were some elements of this that felt a little far fetched and if it hadn’t been so confusing, this would’ve been an easy 5 star read. Hausmann was masterful in bringing all those apparently unimportant strands together and as all he pieces fall into place - then you see the full picture. I didn’t find Sleepless as creepy as her debut, but there were elements of this offering that make you questions the validity and reliability of our main lead and this just adds to the confusion (but in a good way!)

Reading this book was a little like trying to get a knot out of a necklace chain, it seems impossible to unravel, until suddenly it loosens and unknots very quickly. Nadja Kulka was convicted for a terrible crime in her native Poland, many years ago. Now she’s out of prison she’s looking for the simple everyday things that others have: a job, a nice flat to live in and eventually a few friends. She just wants a ‘normal’ life. She does make a friend. Laura Von Hoven is her boss’s wife and a beautiful woman, whose very free spirited. When she asks for Nadja’s help, she wants to give her friend a hand. However, Laura has killed her lover and wants Nadja’s help to conceal the body. Nadja doesn’t feel like she can refuse. This is how her earlier trauma, from the original crime and punishment, leaves her full of anxiety, awkward with people and easily talked into difficulty. Nadja isn’t a likeable character at first, there’s a stand-offish, prickly sort of manner she has that keeps people at a distance. Yet underneath she’s vulnerable and naive. When they find the perfect place, an abandoned cabin in the woods, it’s seems easy. Yet, their seemingly simple plan falls apart and Nadja finds herself in a game of cat and mouse. It’s a deadly game and one that’s stacked against Nadja, because she’s the perfect murderer as well as a perfect victim.

I was very disorientated at first by the disparate strands of this complex thriller. We have three separate narratives, two different narrators and a set of letters that don’t sound like they belong. I thought there were three different people here, because the author of the letters feels different. Unlike her novel Dear Child these separate threads feel a long way apart and it’s impossible to make them diverge into one clear narrative. I found the chopping and changing too ‘bitty’ and I would pick the novel up after a break and found I couldn’t pick up the thread without going and re-reading previous pages. It was only when I read a good third of the book that I really started to make sense of the story and where these narrative voices were connected. However, after sitting back and thinking once I’d finished, I wondered if this confusion wasn’t deliberate? Haussmann doesn’t strike me as a writer who makes mistakes, I think her plotting and structure are very deliberate, so what is she trying to telling the reader with this complicated beginning?

In retrospect, I feel that the author likes to manipulate and control her readers. She was giving the reader the same experience as her characters, and even though I was exasperated with them here and there, I found myself willing Nadja to come out of this okay, despite her past and her faults. My advice is to keep reading, things become clearer and after that set aside a whole evening to finish the story in one go. The pace quickens, increasing the tension and then rushing us towards a conclusion. By this point I was intensely invested in the characters and how this would play out. I wasn’t disappointed and Haussmann kept a few final twists in reserve, that I didn’t expect. This isn’t an easy read at first, but it’s clever and psychologically astute. I loved trying to work out who had the upper hand in the web of lies. This book firmly places Haussmann as a must read author for me.

I have read this authors first book dear child and really enjoyed that. I did enjoy this book but it did take me longer to get into this story and at times I couldn't work out what was going on but the last 3 quarters it definetley all came together and I did realise the clues were there all along for you too see.

A great read.

Nadja is begged to help bury a body and Nadja just can't say no.

This book is gripping and dark.

Well written and easy to read.

Sleepless is a dark and sinister psychological thriller thats complex and multi-layered plot will take you on a fast-paced and intense journey.

Told through flashbacks and a number of points of view, it’s a little difficult to wrap your head around at the start as there’s a lot going on. But it eventually comes together when you recognise the two different stories being told, as the story draws you in with intriguing characters and a creepy setting.

However, I realised at the end that I got very muddled in the plot. I think what confused me was that the words “Herr und Frau” (German for “Mr and Mrs”) are used in the investigation room and that some of the surnames are similar, so I combined two of the characters in my head. After flicking through the book again, I realised my error. But I still didn’t really see how the two stories worked together.

It does take a lot of focus to fit the many pieces of this jigsaw together. Some readers won’t have an issue with that, but I personally think that it’s too over complicated and that it doesn’t quite fit together properly, which left me frustrated.

It’s such a hard book for me to rate as there’s a lot about it that I would rate five-star. I love the darkness, the sinister game at the centre of the story, the twists and misdirections, and how the unnamed narrative fits into the main story. But it just wasn’t an easy book for me to get my head around which got in the way of my enjoyment.

I may have had a few niggles with the structure, but I still come away from this book knowing that Hausmann is a talented writer who I want to experience more of. I will definitely be going to buy myself a copy of Dear Child now, which I have heard brilliant things about.

(I am on the tour for this on 27th so my reviews will be live then)

I’m taking part in the book tour and reviewing on its publication day Sleepless by Romy Hausmann.

Well, 3 stars from me. This was a difficult and complicated read, I loved Romy’s book Dear Child, which was excellent, however Sleepless was really confusing. Too many different threads, which do come together at the end, however it’s getting there that’s the problem.

It got interesting 40% the way through then dived into a boring section and I haven’t got a clue what the Epilogue was all about?

Maybe it is just me.

We all have to consider the consequences of our actions, especially when narcissistic characters are involved. And there are so many!

Nadja, the main character, and her brother had a troubled childhood, which ended in the brutal murder of her mother. Nadja was with her mother when she died, so inevitably she was convicted of the crime. But did she do it? As she said, there was a man, but no one would believe her.

When she comes out after 7 years in a youth detention centre she is mentored by a family friend and set up as the assistant to this guy’s partner in his law firm. However, it’s not that easy to stay out of trouble. Laura, a friend who married her boss, Gero van Hoven, who is a nasty piece of work, turns up unexpectedly and asks her for her help as she has committed a crime.

Nadja isn’t stable and still carries a lot of baggage and when she decides to help Laura, things get very convoluted.

There’s also letters from Nadja to her brother Jan, which are never sent at the time, she is encouraged to write down her feelings by her therapist. Towards the end there’s a great twist which is endearing.

Are you keeping up?

Then there’s another side story which I couldn’t quite get to grips with which was I suppose pertinent, again, towards the end. Paul was defended by Laura’s husband for murdering his mistress which he didn’t commit. Gero van Hoven lost the case as a result of his incompetence and inhumanity so Paul was convicted. He just didn’t like the guy. The knock on effect of this was a suicide.

It’s a multilayered thriller and mystery with different timelines and points of view, sorry Romy, this was a bit of a muddle for me.

However this does not detract from Hausmann being an excellent writer, as I mentioned earlier, I absolutely loved Dear Child. This one was just too much of a tangled web for me.

Thank you so very much Quercus Books, Romy Hausmann and NetGalley for this ARC provided in exchange for my unbiased review.

1. Patience Is A Virtue
I wouldn’t describe this book as a slow burner but it does require a substantial amount of patience, especially at the beginning when nothing seems to connect, making it a tad hard to follow the different storylines. Fortunately, the intricate plot gets clearer along the way as the author keeps feeding us, slowly but surely, bits and pieces of her cleverly-done-puzzle.

2. Let’s Talk About The Characters
It takes talent to make the reader care about unlikeable characters and the author manages to do just that.

3. Gives Me the Creeps
This is a very dark and twisted psychological thriller with a bunch of vicious characters so needless to say, it’s not for the faint-hearted.

4. Those Twisty-Twists
There is an avalanche of twists and turns in this book, to the point where, on multiple occasions throughout this chilling reading journey, I had to stop and think about what I had just read; it was fun!

5. The Final Verdict
This is a very well-written thriller, creepy and intricate and full of twists and turns that will leave your head spinning, only if you have the patience to get through the first chapters; so read at your own risk 😉

I would like to thank the Publishers, NetGalley, and the Author for sending me a copy of this book.

Having read and enjoyed Dear Child, I was looking forward to this second novel, which didn’t disappoint. Concentration is needed for the first part of the book as there are three different story lines, with different characters to follow, but I like a mystery which keeps me on my toes.

The three story lines involve Nadja and Laura, as Laura asks for her old friend’s help after she has killed her lover! The story of Nelly Schutt, a young woman who was murdered five years before, plus interspersed between these stories are anonymous letters from yet another different time line.

I was unclear how these three strands would ever connect, but that same feeling of not quiet knowing what was going on, intentional I’m sure, was just what I wanted, reminding me of Dear Child and with a similar dark, sinister feel and cleverly written twists and turns, but this time with a slower moving pace, made for an interesting and enjoyable read.

The book covers some deeper questions and topics which were well written, and the group of often dark and unlikable characters works perfectly within the story. The end sees all that’s happened come together, as the pace and suspense builds wonderfully with a great finish.

I found this a compelling and multi layered read, which was well written and translated, and thought it another clever novel from this author.

Sadly I didn't connect with this book. Too slow going and I found my attention wandering. Confusing too with the different POV and characters. The ending was a bit predictable. Not a bad read, just not a great one

The novel was quite confusing to start with due to 3 narrative strands in different timelines which didn’t connect for a good third. They did come together in the end though in what turned into quite a pacy read.

Thanks to Net Galley and Quercus Books for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I loved Dear Child so, I was really happy when I got this ARC. Unfortunately, this book wasn't for me. I love plots with multiple POVs and timelines but I was confused throughout this one. It was a struggle. The connection between the different threads became clear only towards the end. It might have been a good reveal had the execution been better. I had lost interest by the time the storylines came together. I wasn't a fan of the characters either. Even the main protagonist was hard to root for. This one just wasn't for me, but if the summary intrigues you do check it out.

Someone might be getting away with murder in Romy Hausmann’s novel, Sleepless, an ambitious cat-and-mouse thriller, about guilt, coercive control, social inequality, retribution and justice.

I’m going to begin this review by saying that I was in a perpetual state of befuddlement for the first 100 or so pages of Sleepless. I’m also pretty sure that was Romy Hausmann’s intention. It mirrors the gaps in a character’s recollection of events or confusion felt as to what’s happening to them, while also feeding into the unsettling and pervasive sense of instability and imbalance felt throughout the novel.

There are three strands to the story in Sleepless that we switch between: there’s the present-day involvement of Nadja Kulka with her former colleague and friend, Laura, who’s married to Nadja’s boss, Herr von Hoven. (It’s probably worth mentioning here that Nadja is attempting to make a fresh start after being released from prison and that she suffers from panic attacks and is on medication.) Then there’s the case of Nelly Schütt, a young woman who was murdered five years earlier. And, interspersed between these two stories, there are anonymous letters from an unspecified time and author which pre-date both.

Romy Hausmann plays mind games with her characters and reader alike, wrong-footing us all and making us feel as if we’re on that precipice of hers, about to fall, or that everything we’ve carefully constructed so far – be they friendships, relationships, family, career, home life, our personal history/mythology – is about to come toppling down around us. You’re going to have to go with this until things start to come into focus and you begin to see the connections between the three strands of the novel and the characters involved. And if you don’t want to do that, this might not be the book for you. (Although, personally, I think it’s well worth sticking around while Romy Hausmann brings the various threads together, as well as being there for the end payoff.)

I knew that I was in a safe pair of hands with this translation from the German original, Marta schläft (trs. Marta sleeps), because Jamie Bulloch was also responsible for translating Dear Child, Romy Hausmann’s first book to appear in English last year, which I reviewed here.

Having read and enjoyed Dear Child, I was happy to go along with not knowing what the heck was going on initially, constantly feeling as if I’d missed something and flipping back to find that I hadn’t. Every time I read a phrase or noticed an action that echoed or referenced something a character had said or done, felt like a personal triumph and, slowly but surely, I could begin to get a grip on who everyone was and piece together (or at least speculate on!) how their lives might intersect.

Needless to say, Romy Hausmann still managed to keep some surprises up her authorial sleeve that I did not see coming and it was exciting, and also sometimes exasperating (in terms of the characters’ actions), to see how these played out, and whether it would end as the characters calculated or as I imagined or hoped it would. Sleepless was an intensely involving read, one which had me on tenterhooks for Nadja, and at times for Laura. It made me cry out at the injustice and abuse of power exercised, but also gave me a satisfying ending (including a nice nod to the book’s original title) which made me feel as if we had closure and ended up where we were meant to be. I can only recommend you read it.

It's been years since Nadja Kulka was convicted of a cruel crime. After being released from prison, she's wanted nothing more than to live a normal life: nice flat, steady job, even a few friends. But when one of those friends, Laura von Hoven - free-spirited beauty and wife of Nadja's boss - kills her lover and begs Nadja for her help, Nadja can't seem to be able to refuse. The two women make for a remote house in the woods, the perfect place to bury a body. But their plan quickly falls apart and Nadja finds herself outplayed, a pawn in a bizarre game in which she is both the perfect victim and the perfect murderer . . .

Admittedly, this book took me a while to get into, partly due to the complicated structure of the book. The book really does need to be read when you are concentrating with no distractions. Once I was able to fully piece together the book and the different storylines and timelines, I was hooked. There is so much atmosphere in the book and the book leaves you with questions about yourself.

It is packed with suspense, chill and overall a great psychological thriller.