Emma has a pretty good life – she is a successful divorce attorney, she has a loving husband, and she has two wonderful children. Unfortunately, Emma’s sanity clock is running down. Her mother went completely bonkers when she turned forty – she couldn’t sleep, she had delusions, and she had wild mood swings sometimes accompanied by violent tendencies. Emma’s fortieth birthday is in a week and she has begun experiencing insomnia. It seems like forever since she slept. She feels and looks like a zombie. She is short tempered and everything her workmates, her husband, and her children do is driving her over the edge.
Then in walks her sister, Phoebe, to add to her already burgeoning stress load. Phoebe wants her to visit their mother in the home she has been living in since she was committed so long ago. There has been an accident and Phoebe is not sure how long their mother has to live. Well that is going to be a problem because Emma told her family her mother was dead. Besides she knows how much seeing the crazy old lady will bring back memories she’d rather leave in the past.
Finally, not able to take the stress anymore, Emma goes to see her mother. Phoebe has told her that mom is in a coma and not likely to wake. Believing this will be a quick in and out visit, Emma is startled and horrified when her mother’s boney fingers quickly grasp her wrist. Shaking her off, Emma runs down the hall practically shrieking with her terror. Poor Emma her life goes from bad to worse … is she losing her mind or are forces closer to home trying to make her think she is crazy. Read on … you’ll be sucked into to Emma’s delusions and you will go willingly. The ending is so wonderful!

I read Sarah Pinborough’s first book BEHIND HER EYES quite a while ago and remembered how much I liked it. I raced through this book quite quickly. Sarah did a superb job ratcheting up the tension and keeping the reader guessing. This book is for readers who find Sally Hepworth’s books thrilling.

Robyn Heil, Buyer for Brodart Co.

I am not exactly sure what to say about this book. It started off strong, with the story of Emma, a successful wife and mother on the cusp of her fortieth birthday. Emma is suddenly plagued with a very serious bout of insomnia at the very same time her somewhat estranged sister comes back into her life with the news that their mother--who apparently began suffering from insomnia and then "went mad" on HER fortieth birthday--is in the hospital after seriously harming herself at her care facility. Emma can't help but begin to worry if what happened to her mother all those years ago is now happening to her. Why can't she sleep? Why is she losing time? Why does she keep ending up in situations so like her mother? Is she really going mad? Or is someone causing her to believe she is losing her mind?
As I mentioned, the beginning of the book does a very good job of drawing the reader into Emma's life as it begins to move off track as a result of her losing sleep. The reader can really feel how Emma's sleep deprivation is affecting her daily life and causing problems to build and build. But after a few chapters, Emma's sleepless nights, exhausted days, and increasing paranoia about her mental health become extremely repetitive. It got a bit boring and I will admit I began to skim passages. That, combined with the fact that I am SOOOOOO TIRED of reading "suspense-thrillers" with unreliable narrators who seem to be bringing so many of their problems onto themselves with their ridiculously idiotic choices, made me almost decide to stop reading the book. (I am going to admit that I stopped, skipped ahead and peeked at the Epilogue, which is something that I haven't done in years and years. But after reading that bit, I decided to forge ahead and see what was in store for Emma.)
After about 2/3 of the book, the story began to pick up steam, and I became much more invested in the story, although I really had no idea where it was going or who--if anyone--was responsible for what was happening in Emma's life. And I will say that if some of the things that were discussed during this portion had been revealed to the reader earlier, I think the pacing would have felt much tighter and the book would have been more balanced and gripping. Then when I got to the part where Emma figures out what was going on, things got a bit iffy for me. While the climax was exciting and extremely suspenseful, the ...mechanics?... of Emma's insomnia, her mother's breakdown, and her son's withdrawn behavior were just a little too much for me. Without revealing any spoilers, I guess the way everything was intertwined did "explain" some things, but there were still things that were left hanging, while the neat little bow that tied everything else up was slightly too perfect.
I am not sure if I would recommend this book or not. It was definitely a suspenseful and even creepy thriller. But the pacing was off for a good portion of the book and the ending was a bit far-fetched.

Thank you to NetGalley, William Morrow, and Sarah Pinborough for a copy of this E-arc in exchange for an honest review. I have heard great things about this author so I was thrilled to be approved for this one. This was an interesting story about Emma, a divorce attorney, who was worried about turning "mad" on her 40th birthday. We follow her through a decently long bout of insomnia and the chaos that ensues due to said insomnia. The twist was entertaining in this one and I think most people wouldn't see it coming. I wasn't super captivated by this one until about 60% in but it still was a quick, good read! This one just came out on Tuesday, April 12th!

Emma Averell is about to turn 40. She is a divorce attorney in Leeds, England, working long nights, hoping to make partner soon. She has two children, Chloe who is 17 and Will who is 5. She can be such a success at work because her husband Robert stays home with the kids. Emma is happy, her life working out beautifully. Until she has trouble sleeping.

There are less than two week until her birthday, and she wouldn’t worry about it except for her mother. On her mother’s birthday, her 40th, she had snapped. She’d always had some mental health issues, but that night she had attacked her young daughters and then fell into a sort of coma. She had ended up in a facility and Emma and her older sister Phoebe ended up in two different foster homes.

The two sisters had met up again at university, where they lived together briefly. That was where Emma had met Robert, who had been originally dating Phoebe. Emma had gotten pregnant young, and she married Robert and had then gone on to study law. Phoebe had never really found her place in the world, but she’d recently moved back to the UK from Spain.

Phoebe hadn’t worried when she’d turned 40. It was Emma that their mother pointed to and said that she’d have the same problems when she got older. It was Emma who had the bad blood. It was Emma who wasn’t sleeping. Emma’s mother had stopped sleeping too, before that night.

Emma is determined not to let a little sleeplessness get to her. But as the days go by, with her up night after night, her behavior becomes erratic. She makes mistakes at work. She embarrasses herself at Will’s school. She fights with her husband and her sister. She scares her children. She loses time. She gets into a argument with Chloe in the car and accidentally drives into a tree.

She keeps insisting that she’s not losing her sanity, that the sleeplessness isn’t destroying her, but everyone around her thinks that she’s wrong. And sometimes, she wonders too.

When her birthday finally does come, will that be the end of her happy, successful life, or will she find a way to overcome the curse of her mother’s bad blood?

Sarah Pinborough is back with Insomnia, her latest creepy novel with a touch of the supernatural to that twisty ending. This domestic thriller takes a look at mental illness and how it can cause generational trauma. The countdown to the birthday creates tension, and the secrets that come out chapter after chapter adds layers of questions about what the ultimate truth is in the story.

I haven’t read one of Pinborough’s books since Behind Her Eyes, but I am certainly aware of her reputation. She’s knows for exceptional thrillers with unexpected endings. And I thought that Insomnia was an excellent thriller with an ending that had been telegraphed just a little too much. The ending is good, but the surprise of it was disappointing. It’s still worth the trip worth taking, through this family’s twisted past, a fun trip even. Just not the best trip I’ve ever had.

Egalleys for Insomnia were provided by William Morrow through NetGalley, with many thanks.

Insomnia is the first book by Sarah Pinborough for me. It started out engaging for me, Emma is a successful lawyer with a husband, Robert who stays at home and handles taking care of the kids. William is an adorable five-year-old and Chloe is a teenager. For about the first 15 percent of the book, I was hooked, I love short chapters as I think it adds excitement to a psychological thriller. Emma is dreading turning 40 for reasons that are divulged about her mother. I also liked that there is a countdown to her birthday as the story moves along. And then, the insomnia becomes repetitive for me and I find the book putting me to sleep as I read. It was difficult to make it to the end. My thanks to William Morrow and NetGalley for an ARC of this book. the opinions in this review are my own.

Emma Averall has lived her life in fear -- fear that on her fortieth birthday she will go mad like her mother. As it gets closer to that special birthday, Emma finds herself in some serious insomnia, another symptom her mother had before she ended up in a secure facility. As the insomnia gets worse, Emma's actions follow -- I can't tell you how many times I shook my head while reading this.

One minute she's worrying that she is going mad, the next she's visualizing smashing in skulls in a restaurant while she's on a work dinner or drugging her husband's tea! There's definitely something going on here, although I wasn't sure for most of the book.

Emma is one of the most unreliable narrators I've read. She lies, keeps secrets, I'm not even sure how she was able to function in a job at this point. I found myself constantly wondering if she really was mentally impaired or not. At one point she even asks herself if she's her own unreliable narrator.

This book is all about the ride not the destination for me. I was glued to the book for the two days it took me to finish it. The question of whether Emma mad or not is a compelling one, and the characters around her -- her sister and husband especially -- help to muddy the waters quite a bit.Reading Emma's descent into something awful as a result of the insomnia is really chilling at times.

The conclusion and explanation of what is happening was actually less interesting to me than the journey Emma takes as she deals with some very damaging events and insomnia. I'm not even sure that I bought the eventual explanation of what was happening, not because I didn't believe it, it just seemed to come out of the blue and turned this story into something that I wasn't expecting. The suddenness of that was a bit unsettling for this reader.

Overall, an entertaining story. Insomnia can be deadly, that's for sure, and the impact on Emma was an interesting tale of what not to do if you aren't sleeping. I loved the buildup to the ending, but wasn't a big fan of the explanation at the conclusion. Your mileage may vary as they say. It was definitely worth the ride / read, in spite of my feelings about the explanation for why this all happened.

😴 • REVIEW

Insomnia by Sarah Pinborough

rating: 4⭐️
format: digital arc
length: 448 pages
pub day: april 12 - today !

Emma Averell is married and works as a lawyer, as her husband stays home with their two kids. Despite the event that changed her life when she was 5 yeads old, she lives a great life. Not long before her 40th birthday, Emma starts having trouble sleeping. She has compulsive tendencies that she must do, periods of timing missing, numbers that she keeps repeating, and she doesn't know why. Her mom went mad as she was approaching her 40th birthday, and Emma is paranoid she is going down the same path. She has the bad blood too, just like her mother warned her. Emma starts questioning everything she does, and so does everyone around her. Is she really capable of all these things that are happening, or is someone trying to frame her ?

This is not your typical unreliable MC, domestic/psychological thriller. A lot of books with unreliable MC's frustrate me because it's always a woman who drinks too much or is taking pills, where despite the fact Emma is taking sleeping pills, that isn't the reason why it's hard to trust her. This book kept me guessing the entire time. I had suspicions about who was behind everything but did not guess it would play out in the way it did. Pinborough adds in an element that I don't even know if I would describe as paranormal or supernatural, but it makes you think even more about how everything ties together. This book was a little on the long side, but despite being a bit of a slow burn, the pacing and short chapters really helped speed things along and keep me interested. As usual, I went into this book blind, just knowing that I really enjoyed Behind Her Eyes. However, I'm not sure I enjoyed this one AS much, since the ending of BHE left me more shocked in comparison. Overall, a great read, and another great book by Pinborough.

Thank you to @netgalley and @harpercollinsca for the digital arc !

🤍

Emma is a successful lawyer with the perfect house and the perfect family, but she has a secret. Something horrible happened on her mother’s 40th birthday, and now, with Emma’s 40th approaching, she fears she might have the same issues as her mother. This causes sleepless nights for Emma, and as her insomnia gets worse, so does her paranoia and fear for what she might do.

I was skeptical going into this book. I’ve always had an unpopular opinion when it comes to Sarah Pinborough’s books, yet I keep reading them in hopes that I’ll see what everyone else does. Finally, with Insomnia I get the hype! This book was suspenseful and kept me on the edge of my seat trying to figure out what was going on.

Although she wasn’t completely likable, Emma was the perfect unreliable narrator. I honestly couldn’t figure out who was behind the strange things happening to her. Was it someone in her life or was Emma actually doing these things herself during her sleepless nights?

The ending did feel a bit rushed, and I wish part of it had been explained more, but overall I really enjoyed this story. There was something I noticed which was a spoiler to me so I was able to figure out who was involved early on, but not why. This did not take away from my rating though.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Emma is a woman about to turn 40 and she has it all: 2 beautiful children, a loving, stay-at-home dad husband, and a thriving career… She’s also got a pretty big secret. Her mom went insane on her 40th birthday, and Emma suspects that the same might happen to her. If Emma could only get some sleep, surely she’d have some more clarity on what’s going on.

I couldn’t put this one down, and eagerly turned the pages to find out how this story was going to wrap up. I didn’t love one of the plot twists at the very end, and it put some tarnish on an otherwise sparkling story.

Thank you @williammorrowbooks and @Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Pinborough certainly knows how to write a book to keep you guessing. And if you have read any of her works in the past, you know nothing is at is seems.

Emma can't sleep. Her 40th birthday is around the corner, her estranged mother suffered from a brain injury and isn't likely to survive, her flakey sister has reappeared in her life after several years, and her stay-at-home husband seems to be having a midlife crisis. She has plenty of reasons to be up at night, but once the exhaustion starts to overtake her, Emma begins to wonder if she is going crazy as her mother always predicted she would. Strange things start happening, confirming Emma is losing her grip on reality and scaring her family. But crazy or not, Emma can't shake the feeling that with her 40th birthday comes doom, and she'll do whatever it takes to protect her family.

This book felt a little tedious to me. It felt repetitive with night after night Emma wandering around her house, checking the doors, muttering to herself, and peeping in on her sleeping children. I was frustrated with Emma's character - she was stubborn, often selfish, and a seemingly unreliable narrator.

There were aspects of the novel that felt pretty obvious, but knowing Pinborough's style, I didn't trust my gut on anything! Ultimately, some of the book was predictable but others felt so far fetched that I either missed the signs completely or they came out of nowhere.

Overall, this isn't one that is likely to stick with me. It was a good read and I'm sure many readers will love it, but I was ready to move on.

Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this novel.

Emma has always ran from her childhood trauma, and now that her fortieth birthday is approaching, she really needs to get a grip.
You see, her mother’s monstrous behavior developed right around the age of forty. Could this be hereditary? Is Emma really going to turn into her mother? The thought of it is keeping her up at night. And now she is losing chunks of time, just like her mother.
Like mother, like daughter?

The countdown to Emma’s 40th birthday is on and as the day approaches she begins to doubt her sanity. Her mother suffered a complete breakdown when she reached forty and committed an act that still preys on Emma’s mind. Leading up to her breakdown, she suffered from insomnia and became obsessive about checking door locks. Emma now finds herself following some of those same routines and suffering from a lack of sleep. She is a successful lawyer and hopes to soon become a partner in the firm but her fears are taking a toll and it has begun to show. Emma had originally told her husband that her mother was dead but that is a lie that she has been living with. She was actually committed and is now dying. Emma’s sister Phoebe has moved back to the area and is pressuring Emma to visit their mother, something she vowed that she would never do.

As the clock ticks down, Sarah Pinborough not only shows how Emma is breaking down, but also the effect on her family. Her husband Rob has been a stay at home father. After being home with their two children for a number of years, he has become dissatisfied with the role. He is holding secrets of his own that are causing resentment in the marriage. While he is initially supportive of Emma, he also begins to question her actions. When several incidents occur that Emma knows she was not responsible for she begins to wonder if someone is actually working against her to fuel her anxieties. Each chapter brings you one day closer to Emma’s birthday and one day closer to a confrontation that changes Emma’s life. This is a psychological thriller that is filled with twists and surprises that will have you reading well into the night. I would like to thank NetGalley and William Morrow/Custom House for providing this book for my review.

This was such an addictive and compelling read! I was hooked immediately and ultimately just couldn’t put it down! It will keep you up long into the night but for all of the right reasons! 😉

It was dark, chilling and suspenseful and I really enjoyed Pinborough’s fantastic writing.

This sinister plot definitely isn’t your typical psychological thriller but it’s certainly a unique page turner worth picking up!!

May need an extra dose of suspension of disbelief for this mind-blowing domestic thriller, but have fun on the ride!

Emma Averell is an accomplished lawyer with two children and a househusband. She’s come a long way from a traumatic childhood tainted with madness and attempted murder. Her mother, subsequently placed in a mental health facility, has been out of Emma’s life for years. Unfortunately, as Emma’s 40th birthday approaches, she starts to experience insomnia and soon fears she is going insane — just like her mother. As her life starts to crumble and fall apart, Emma tries to find answers about her childhood but discovers that she has no clue whom to trust.

The story was wholly original in some ways with the time paradox elements, but I had to work hard to buy in. I also had a difficult time relating to Emma as she wore on my last nerve with all the angst and wishy washy behavior where she never got control of herself or made good decisions. I admit that I was waiting for the huge twist that never came because there were enough hints that a reader could figure out most of what was going to happen. I know that I was hoping for some surprise like the controversial ending of Behind Her Eyes and the climax did not really come close in this novel. In addition, the pace was quite slow and repetitive. Despite those drawbacks, I still enjoyed the book and definitely will read more by this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow & Company for this e-book ARC to read and review.

Unreliable narrator books are a huge hit and miss with me. Unfortunately this one was a miss for me. I just couldn’t get behind the main premise of the story at all. If you’re a fan of unreliable narrator books, or this author, you’ll probably love it.

A slow burn that turns upside down near the end. Emma's life looks good from the outside but her husband Robert is loathsome and worse, she had a terrible experience as a child that landed her and her sister Phoebe in foster care and their mother in a mental health facility. Now she's about to turn 40- the same age her mother was when she snapped-and things are getting weird. Worst of all is the insomnia. Or is it the loss of time? Phoebe turns up, her husband more or less kicks her out of the house, and then there's the murder. No spoilers from me but what's really happening might surprise you. I felt for Emma, who didn't deserve what was happening to her. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. A good read.

Although I hadn't read this author's previous book, Behind Her Eyes, I did thoroughly enjoy the Netflix adaptation of it, so I was very excited to read this book and it did not disappoint! Although it started a bit slow, as it introduced Emma, a successful divorce lawyer, her stay-at-home husband and two children, after the first couple chapters, it picked up speed and I couldn't put it down! The book kept me guessing and although I did have portions figured out, the ending was extremely supernatural twisty with a satisfying conclusion! I'm hoping this book also becomes a streaming series and I'm looking forward to watching it!

This book was very interesting! I had absolutely no idea where it was going, and no idea what was going on until it was spelled out for me. It honestly was a little more "woo-woo" than I would have liked, but a lot less so than Behind Her Eyes. Well done and I probably will read more by this author. 4 stars.

All things I love - creepy people, not being able to sleep, family life struggles and mix it all in with a slight fear factor of an upcoming 40th birthday sounds like a great premise for a book. It falls a bit flat. There is a twist, and I love a good twist but this is just bleh. I’m grateful for the early read from NetGalley, but I was hoping for more from this one.

There are a lot of good reviews for this book, but subjectively, Insomnia was a miss for me.

The premise is certainly interesting:

Emma Averell has it all: a beautiful house, a successful job as a divorce attorney, two great kids, and a handsome husband who takes care of it all as a stay-at-home-dad. But as she nears forty, she's plagued by her past. You see, that's the age her mother went insane with insomnia and tried to kill Emma's older sister. And now Emma can't sleep either and is having frightening thoughts herself. Is madness truly in her blood and will she do something to put her family in danger?

The writing is strong in this book; Author Sarah Pinborough paints a vivid picture of one woman's descent into madness. And as someone who struggles sleeping well, I can relate to the desperation Emma feels as her sleepless nights begin to pile up. I also liked the format of the book, as Pinborough frames the narrative as a countdown to Emma's 40th birthday.

Unfortunately, a few things held me back from enjoying this book.

First, it gets incredibly repetitive. Maybe as a short story this would work better for me, but to spread "I can't sleep, I'm going crazy" over more than 300 pages, it gets awfully tedious quickly.

Secondly, for a thriller to succeed (again, this is a personal, subjective thing), I need tension and a sense of danger, but I also need at least one sympathetic character to root for, someone who I want to make it past the dangers the author is putting them though. In Insomnia, everyone is truly awful, especially Emma and her husband. And her daughter. And sister. And boss...Ok, like I said, everyone, with the exception of Will, because he's only five.

And lastly, and this is probably because I haven't make it through one of the author's books before, as some other reviewers mention that this is sort of her thing, I couldn't get past the bizarre science fiction-y turn this book took near the end to tie Emma's mother's life to her own. I'm not against a mix of genres like that, but I would need a little more world building to buy into it, not just the word of the pot-smoking aging hippie character who swoops in to assure Emma, that, yes, all that is perfectly normal!

I'm not sure I would try this author again, but despite everything I said in this review, I don't really regret reading this book, which I can't always say.

Special thanks to William Morrow for giving me the opportunity to read an early copy of this book through The Scene of the Crime Book Club and NetGalley.