“Don’t Go To Sleep” by Bryce Moore is a historical, YA horror that follows two Italian teens at the try to track down in infamous New Orleans Axeman murderer in the early 1900’s.

As someone who has heard of the Axeman murders but not really looked into them, I found this book interesting. It is a blend of facts and the author using the source material to make a coherent story. The names of the families and the dates are true as well as the ever looming threat of Spanish Flu which was rampant in New Orleans at the same time.

The Spanish Flu will remind you of the way the first few months of Covid were without it being too over the top. I feel like this is balanced in the story due to the main character being more involved in the mystery with the flu being in the background for the majority of the book.

I feel like the two main characters felt like teenagers in that they were kind of dumb and a little annoying but they felt authentic to me. If you are expecting teen characters to act like adults, this is not the book for you.

There is a touch of supernatural elements in this book which I enjoyed because it fit well to the setting of New Orleans but overall kind of felt jarring in the actual story.

I think reading this, you can really tell that the author did his research into what was going on during the time this book takes place.

I think that while this book was entertaining and a fast read, it just isn’t my general style because it felt more like historical fiction with a dash of murder. I think if you are a fan of true crime and historical fiction, you will enjoy this book. Know going into it that it is YA, so it is not over the top graphic in its violence.

A historical mystery set against a deadly pandemic. Maybe a bit too close to home for some people, but an infrequently used setting and time period make this book a good one for readers looking to stretch their horizons.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me an e-arc!

I really enjoyed The Perfect Place to Die by the same author so the moment I saw the arc for this, I jumped at the opportunity. Again, I think this book gives the same vibes as Stalking Jack the Ripper (which I love so much). In this case, we follow a historical fiction that is based of an actual murder mystery but with a bit of a supernatural aspect.

The setting is 1918 New Orleans. An axeman murder appears (or reappears) in the neighborhood of 17 year-old Gianna. Afraid for her family and wondering if this is the same person who attacked them years ago, she starts to investigate with the help of her friend, Enzo. While all this is happening, the city is also struck with the influenza pandemic.

I loved that in this case, I had never heard of the real event (unlike in The Perfect Place to Die where I was familiar with the story) and so for me, it was genuinely a mystery. I loved that the author tried to stick to the actual story as much as possible because I felt like I learned so much. Seeing snippets of actual newspaper articles before each chapter really made the story feel more real or immersive and gives us a perspective of the general population at the time that both murders and an epidemic were occurring.

Keeping the influenza epidemic in the story added another layer of tension and worry. It’s something that I think a lot of readers will be able to relate to. (but if it’s still a triggering topic for you especially topics of death, then I suggest picking this book up with caution.) The supernatural aspect threw me off a bit and for some reason I couldn’t get the explanation as to why this aspect occurred.

I loved that Gianna was such a strong character who reminded me very much of Audrey Rose. She has no responsibility to go investigate and risk her life to solve these murders but out of her genuine care for the city, she did. I think that her relationship with Enzo could have been developed a bit more, especially with the way the story ended but I still enjoyed the parts where they worked together. Seeing Zuretta again in this story was comforting. You know how when a story ends, you wonder how the character is doing after? Well, here I got a bit of closure seeing Zuretta as a part of the Pinkerton Detectives.

Readers who enjoy murder mysteries, historical fiction, a bit of the supernatural, and more will surely enjoy this story. “Don’t Go To Sleep” by Bryce Moore hits the shelves on August 2, 2022! Thank you to the publisher for sending me an e-arc and congratulations in advance to the author for writing this captivating and dark book.

this was such an intriguing read! i really enjoyed the true crime aspect. it's a clever way to share a story. both fictional and not. the only issue is that i found the mc unlikable at times. especially with the way she treated enzo. although she did apologize at the end, it didn't feel like enough.

Excuse me? This book cover is amazing.

This story is so enjoyable, interesting and well-written.

Also, I liked the characters and the courage they showed, but I didn’t connect completely. Still a great read.

Don't Go to Sleep is based on the true crime story of the New Orleans Axeman who was at large between 1918-1919 (the killer's identity still remains a mystery to this day), and is set during the influenza pandemic. Gianna, a seventeen year-old Italian girl living in New Orleans, is swept up into a dangerous game of cat and mouse with the killer alongside her friend Enzo.

As soon as I saw this on Netgalley I requested it instantly and I was so thrilled to see I'd been approved! Historical fiction + based on an unsolved true crime + murder mystery = happy Saz. And as far as the plot in concerned, this one really did it for me; it's fast paced, it kept me interested and invested from the get go, and once I realised a couple of chapters in that the book had a supernatural twist to it I was completely hooked.

However, I do believe that the supernatural element to the plot is actually this book's downfall; it really didn't work for me. The ending was incredibly vague and did not explain the connection between Gianna and the killer, nor did it give any satisfying reasoning for why there was a connection in the first place. I'm not sure if this was intended by the author to add more mystery to the book, but because it was poorly executed it actually made the supernatural aspect more or less unnecessary, and I do believe this book would have been better had it been a simple cat and mouse thriller. Further to this, the killer is not identified in this book, perhaps because the killer's identity in real life is still a mystery, but the last chapter where this is discussed was so unsatisfying! I was desperate to know if there was a further connection between Gianna and the killer.

Furthermore, the underlying fear and worry of the influenza pandemic adds to the grittiness of the time period in which this book is set. It was dark, haunting, and scarily relative to the COVID-19 pandemic the world is currently facing. I liked this aspect of the book as it's true to the time period and made this read a lot darker and distressing.

I did very much enjoy this book and it's made me want to read Moore's first book based on H. H. Holmes! Really, the only disappointment for me was the supernatural aspect, but over than that I couldn't put this one down!

𝗧𝗪: the portrayal of the influenza pandemic is incredibly similar to that of the COVID-19 pandemic, and may be harmful to those that have lost loved ones to the virus.

This book popped up on NetGalley right after I watched the Buzzfeed Unsolved Axeman episode so of course, I had to hop right on it! I love historical fiction so getting the opportunity to read a historical fiction mashed together with a thriller that included a real-life murder mystery case? Absolutely! Unfortunately, I feel like I set my expectations a bit too high and I was too excited for this if that makes sense. I really wanted something different than what happened and I think I just had a different idea of what this would be about. It did include actual family names from the real-life murders (the author included information at the end about the Axeman murders and the victims) which added to the realism of the story and I appreciated that aspect. I do want to add that the "mysterious illness" that happens throughout the story is eerily similar to the things that are happening in our current world so if content like that is triggering to you, please be aware of this topic. There was a lot of focus on the mystery that the main character is trying to solve and I just wasn't a huge fan of her (or really how she treated her friend, Enzo) as I was reading. The story was fairly easy to read and I did enjoy the historical bits of it, but it was overall a miss for me, sadly.

Interesting and well written I just personally couldn’t get into the story. An ax murderer who is connected to one of his victims families. She is not sure what to do with these visions and thoughts. Definitely creepy. Just a little slow and unbelievable at some points. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

All you have to say is true-crime retelling and I'll read it.

This is based off of the Axeman of New Orleans. Gianna's parents were attacked years ago by the axeman. Now he's back in the city going after Italian grocery store owners and Gianna is tormented with nightmares and visions of where the axeman is going to strike next. She enlists her best friend Enzo to help her find the murderer to stop the attacks and her horrifying visions. All the while this is going on, the influenza pandemic is closing in on the city.

I really appreciate the authors decision not to stray far from the real life details with this book. I feel like I learned some things about the case, the time period, and the outbreak of influenza. It's so interesting that each chapter begins with an excerpt from a newspaper of the time. It captures a little bit of the public fear at the time of both the murderer and the virus. The descriptions of the attacks/murders get pretty gruesome for a YA. I love the vibe the descriptions combined with the supernatural elements of this book give. It felt like a historical slasher, but with a slice of paranormal.

I do wish some of the explanation of the connection with the dreams/visions was a little less vague at the end. But overall a solid story.

This book was a fresh change of pace. I liked that it took inspiration from real historical events and put an interesting twist on it. I didn’t enjoy the characters but the book held my interest.

What started as a series of burglaries in 1918 in New Orleans quickly escalated to murder. These murders are being committed by a man known as the Axe Man. The town is on edge. Seventeen year old Gianna and her family encountered the Axe Man in their home and survived.

The police investigation is slow going and as the Axe Man strikes again, Gianna is plagued by nightmares of that night. She decides she can’t sit by and do nothing and enlists the help of her friend Enzo to track him down. As the pair investigate they discover a pattern to the murders and Gianna comes to the realization that she knows the Axe Man better than she thinks.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this book, the story was great, could have been a little more fast paced in parts but this didn’t put me off. I really liked the characters and how the ending was very much unexpected. Would have enjoyed a little more horror just to top it all off but never the less great book!

Thank you to the publishers for sending me this ARC through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review!

This book is about a girl named Gianna who tries to navigate through her life in the middle of a pandemic while being targeted by an axe murderer. I enjoyed this retelling of the Axeman of New Orleans from 1918. One thing that I did not expect, though, was paranormal elements. I think that should be made clearer in the synopsis, so readers know what they are in for.

I love Gianna as a character, she's a feisty Italian girl that is plagued by a psychological connection with the Axeman. The description of how the public of New Orleans reacted to the pandemic and the serial killer was extremely interesting. For as many people that the Axeman attacked, I was disappointed with how many survived in the book. Based on how the attacks were gruesomely detailed, it did not feel as if that many people should have survived in the story.

Ultimately, I would recommend this book to people who enjoy historical serial killer retellings with a paranormal twist. I would not recommend this book to people who do not enjoy paranormal elements or people who love when characters are killed off left and right.

New Orleans, 1918 and there's an ax murderer on the loose.

Gianna is 17, Italian, and worried about the illness trying to overtake the city, her family's store, the war and a killer on the loose. The police can't seem to figure out who it is or how to stop this mad man so Gianna and her best friend Enzo try to. They find patterns linking to the time when her family was attacked years ago... she also finds something else out. She's linked to the killer in a way she never thought possible.


I actually enjoyed this novel a lot!
I wasn't sure how I'd take to it because it is a YA Thriller; however, it was well done. Pretty bloody, too. I didn't want to put the book down halfway through- I had to get to the end to figure it out!
I wish the chapters were shorter, just a preference of mine, but overall I enjoyed it a lot!

Thanks to Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

“Don’t Go to Sleep” by Bryce Moore is a historical fiction novel with supernatural elements that will keep readers up at night with paranoia. Centred around the actions of a madman in 1918 New Orleans and the influenza epidemic, this is a tale that hits close to home and presents a unique perspective on the notorious axe killer.

When Gianna isn’t helping her family run their grocery store, she is listening to jazz music or spending time with her childhood friend, Enzo. It’s the life a normal 17-year-old should have, except she’s constantly worried about the great war and the onslaught of influenza threatening to overtake the city and shut down her family’s shop.

On top of it all, there’s a madman on the loose, butchering innocent people with an axe. Gianna takes an interest in these attacks that are eerily similar to the one she experienced seven years ago. With the help of Enzo, the two of them begin to investigate these crimes with the hopes they can figure out the killer’s identity and stop another family from dying. The deeper they dig, the more convinced Gianna becomes that there’s a connection between her and the axeman she never thought possible.

Moore does an excellent job in blending fact and fiction together in this historical novel while adding a touch of supernatural to create an underlying, spooky feeling to the story. It’s an interesting experience to be pulled back into the past and to see how several events taking place at the same time had a huge impact on the people in New Orleans. Specifically, the attitude and behaviour toward Italians at this time, especially when they were being targeted by this axeman, was incredibly infuriating. Gianna’s desire to hunt down this killer and her connection to him feels righteous in the sense that she is able to fight for her people and for her city. She has agency in this book which makes her an easy and interesting character to follow.

The influenza epidemic and the ways it was dealt with add a dark and heavy layer of worry and fear to the story. It’s something many readers will relate to with the current pandemic situation. There are a lot of similarities in the way it was dealt with by the public and the officials. Having an axe murderer on the loose, news of the great war happening in the background, prejudices against Italians, and influenza spreading throughout the story, it's easy to imagine how much tension is occurring in this story.

Readers who enjoy murder mysteries, historical fiction, and anything supernatural will be captivated by this dark and gory story. Look for “Do Not Go to Sleep” by Bryce Moore when it hits shelves on August 2nd, 2022!

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for providing me with a free e-arc of this story and the opportunity to share my honest opinion in this review.

I wasn't as interested in this novel as I expected to be. There is a lot going on in this time period -- the end of WWI and the rising influenza epidemic. And then throw in an axe murderer on the loose! Apparently this is based on a true historical story I knew nothing about. But I just had a hard time getting into the mind of a 17 year old in this time period who apparently has the independence and gumption to investigate. And I wasn't sure about the supernatural aspects.

Thanks to sourcebook fire and netgally for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Release date 02.08.22

A seventeen-year old girl goes up against the notorious axeman murderer in 1918 in this suspenseful historical fiction story from the author of The Perfect Place to Die.

First of all, I liked that the book portrayed real events that I knew nothing about. It was also fitting that the murders described was at the same time as the influenza epidemic, when we’ve just experienced an epidemic. It made the story easier to relate to.

I didn’t love the supernatural angle, but that is all on me, but I can’t deny that it made the read less pleasurable to read personally. For others this might not be the case however.

Putting that aside, the book was well-written and the story unfolded logically. I loved Enzo and Gia, the courage they showed. But I didn’t get as invested in what happened to them and their families as I had hoped. I also found the description of the murders hard to stomach, maybe that shut off my emotions generally, making it harder to feel the fear and sadness that I otherwise might have felt.

Overall I enjoyed the book, but not so much that I would have read it again.

Last year we reviewed Bryce Moore’s impressive debut The Perfect Place to Die, a historical thriller set in Chicago in the late Nineteenth Century, which was inspired by a real-life serial killer. Moore tries the same trick in his latest novel Don’t Go To Sleep, but it is much less effective than its predecessor, meanders all over the place and has a weak cop-out ending. Whilst his debut vividly brought to life the era of the Great Exhibition, this novel set in New Orleans in 1918, with the Spanish Flu rampant, did not have the same sense of time and place and the accompanying story failed to ignite. Some years earlier a man with an axe terrorised the family of teenager Gianna, the daughter of Italian shop owners, and when the novel starts it seems the axe killer is back. With the novel revolving around the fact that Gianna seems to have a weird supernatural connection to the killer, experiencing what he feels when he is hunting his prey.

I flagged this same point when I reviewed The Perfect Place to Die and this novel suffers from the same problem, the main character seventeen-year-old Gianna seems to be too old to be starring in a YA novel and behaves pretty much as an adult and I struggle to see how genuine teen readers might connect to her. Not enough happened in the book, with burglaries soon escalating to murder, with the police struggling (and not very interested) in solving the case. Soon Gianna enlists the help of her friend Jake to investigate and they study the crimes looking for common link between the victims and why the killer seems particularly interested in her family. As with Bryce’s previous novel the story is loosely based on a real series of murders in New Orleans, but there was just not enough thrills to keep me interested and teen readers may also find the whole experience rather bland.

I really struggled with this as it didn't seem to fit firmly in either young teen or older teen. This made it feel disjointed. I also had trouble warming to the characters as they came across as 14 year olds but were in fact meant to be 17. The crime/horror element seemed too gritty for a teen read.

I managed to get halfway through and was going to stick with it until the ultimatum by the killer occurred. This played all too neatly into the world of the main character and felt so unrealistic as to make me wonder if it was meant to be a fantasy read. I couldn't continue.

I received this arc from netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

I was very intrigued with the fact that the plot of this book is a historical fiction mixed with horror/thriller. I think bringing in true crime into books like this can be very interesting! I felt like I was missing some parts of the thrill but overall I did enjoy it. I thought the MC was pretty well written.

Maybe my expectations were too high based off the promising summary but I found this novel lacking in thrill. It is based on true accounts of an ax murderer in New Orleans Early 1800's and the families affected were all Italians. While it had a some description of gore, it is more a cat mouse search. And more psychological than thrilling. I also didn't get any character connection with the two MC.
*Trigger warning -The way the influenza portrayal was extremely close to covid in details so many people may be tired of that or it could feel to close to home if you have lost a loved one from it.
I read this as an ARC courtesy of Netgalley and the thoughts above are what I thought of the book.