This book is based on the podcast/TV series of the same name which has been out for several years. The thesis is that a worldwide plague hits when people go to sleep, so the obvious conceit is to stay awake to try to fight it and figure out an antidote. So we have the real-life pandemic to compare with the fictionalized version, and that may or may not sit well with some readers. We touch on several different groups of people in everyday situations around the world as they try to cope with the calamity, which I think works better in a TV version than trying to keep track of them throughout the novel. Think of it as a zombie apocalypse without the zombies, which has never been a favorite genre for me. The novel has some terrific descriptions and the plot takes us to some interesting places. In place of the hyper-science and politics of Covid, we have just ordinary folks who are trying to live their lives and cope with staying awake.

2.5 stars
Don't fall asleep for if you do, you might not wake up ever.

Poor Dave, plagued by nightmares, and the only way out of this horror is to self medicate. When Dave awakens the day after Independence Day, he finds his town and all in it dead, lying where they fell, and sending Dave into a nightmare that becomes a daymare. Dave, along with his girlfriend Katie, his friend Matteo, and Linda must find out together what is going on for if they sleep, they will suffer the same fate as others.

Is the secret concealed in Dave's dreams? Sounds like a very interesting premise bu the whole book often turned into a descent into crazytown. All the friends must keep each other awake, as they search for answers. The initial chapters were captivating, but the ending was beyond bizarre.

I listened to this story and perhaps a hard copy would have been a better fit. However, for those who like a mixture of sci fi, dystopian, and crazy, this one might be for you.

Thank you to Jake Emmanuel, Willie Block, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for the ability to listen to this book due out in June of 2023.

The concept of “The Edge of Sleep,” caught my interest right away. Based on Dave, a character who has always had trouble sleeping, I couldn’t help but wonder where his story would take us. One morning, after getting off work as a security guard, Dave realizes people all around him are dying. With the help of friends, and a nurse he meets along the way, Dave realizes when people fall asleep they die.

This is a fast paced, action packed read and I thought was a pretty cool idea. If I am being honest I did not like the end though. It was left open ended, and I hoped for closure. I know a lot of stories in this genre end this way, but I wondered if the author had a sequel planned, or simply wanted to let the reader draw their own conclusion.

Even without the perfect ending, it was a fun ride along the way. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

A definite page turner. What a great concept: people die when they fall asleep so the survivors need to stay awake. Simple yet so effective. It could have been a cheesy sf but the author weaves in some terrific backstory for our mc, Dave. Plus - gorgeous cover,

Thanks to Netgalley for the arc to review.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication date: June 20, 2023
Fans of “The Stand” will definitely enjoy “The Edge of Sleep” by Jake Emanuel, Willie Block and Jason Gurley.
Dave Torres is a night watchman in a quiet California town. Since childhood, he has struggled with night terrors- night terrors that are so real they have infiltrated Dave’s waking life on more than one occasion. Now, he medicates to get some semblance of rest (albeit broken, choppy and littered with terrifying things), and does the best he can to muddle through a mundane existence with his best friend, Matteo and his (now ex) girlfriend, Katie. But on July 5th, the entire world falls silent. No cars, no people, no noise at all. Dave quickly starts to realize, with the help of his friend Matteo, that as soon as people fall asleep, they don’t wake up again. Fighting to stay awake (and stay alive), Dave, Matteo, Katie and an ER nurse named Linda travel to a mysterious island that Dave sees in his dreams, in hopes that they will finally find peace.
This co-authored novel is creepy dystopian fiction at its best. Sure, it strongly resembled “The Stand” and other end-of-the-world novels of its genre, but it’s so deeply terrifying and utterly believable, I couldn’t help but become instantly addicted.
The novel is told in very short segments, each segment narrated by one of the remaining people on Earth. Although our protagonists narrate a large portion, the reader hears from a few random strangers (who have no connection to the main plot in any way) about their last remaining hours before they fell asleep, never to wake. These parts were interesting, if not completely irrelevant. Normally, space-filling characters would lower the enjoyment of a novel, but the plot won out on this one.
The ending of the novel brought all the survivors together after being led there by the figures in their dreams (again with the King references), but it had a little twist at the end that had me wanting more. Quick and fast-paced, these three authors have mixed sci-fi with horror, and will no doubt keep readers up late reading (which is just as well anyway…..).

I really had a problem with this book and I did not connect with the story or the characters as much as I tried I am sure others will enjoy it.

It’s a DNF for me. I couldn’t stand the narrator or how the characters talk, maybe because I’m just not used to that vibe. What I listened to was just messy, chaotic, and boring. Wasn’t a fan of the writing style or narration. I definitely don’t think I can listen to these characters talk for the entirety of the book, especially Mateo. Not for me.

This was a quick read for me but ultimately fell a little flat. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't a LOST comparison, and I think that might have been a negative for me. I hear that this is also a podcast and a TV show and I'd be interested in checking out both of those. Despite the ending falling for me, it was a quick read and I did enjoy it.

3.5⭐️ rounded up.

Every night before I go to bed for the past 8+ years, I have rested my hand on my daughter’s chest to make sure she is still breathing. It started when she was a newborn and has just become a habit ever since. After reading The Edge of Sleep by Jake Emanuel and Willie Block with Jason Gurley, I think I might start making a habit of doing it when I wake up as well.

When Dave and Matteo finish their overnight shift, they find that everyone who went to sleep the night before has died. Alongside a nurse named Linda and Dave’s ex-girlfriend Katie, the group do whatever they can to stay awake, get the word out to keep other people from going to sleep, and try to uncover what’s behind the worldwide pandemic.

When I first read the description for this story, it sounded terrifying. And honestly, it’s even scarier than I thought it would be. This book takes “going peacefully in your sleep” to a whole different level and I’m not sure if I want to get more sleep or never sleep again.

I found out after reading the book that it is based on a podcast by the same name, which actually made the book make a little more sense. There are different titled sections of the book and each has its own chapters, which was confusing when I read it but makes sense as a podcast format. It does not, however, make the jumps from different characters and locations any easier to navigate. While the main group consisting of Dave, Matteo, Linda, and Katie feels like the focus of the story, there are other groups that pop up in different sections and it just makes it harder to follow.

That being said, the writing itself is excellent. I was easily able to picture everything as it was happening which is a sign of great writing for me. However, the writing style in this case lends itself more to film than it does to written word in my opinion. I could easily see this story as a television show where each titled section was a new episode, but it didn’t work for me as a book.

There were a lot of loose ends that didn’t get wrapped up by the end of the book, which can work for some people but not me. I don’t need everything tied up in a neat and tidy bow, but this definitely felt like there was more to be told. I know that there is a second season of the podcast forthcoming so I suspect that there will be a sequel to the book as well. Which would be great because that ending confused the daylights out of me.

In addition to an eARC, I was also approved for the audiobook ARC, read by Franz Drameh who (if you’re anything like me) you might know from his role as Jefferson Jackson aka Firestorm in The CW’s Arrowverse. One of the best narrators I have encountered (and I listen to a lot of audiobooks)! Franz was able to create a different voice for each character that made them stand out and I was never confused about who was talking at any given point. Truly, if the whole acting thing doesn’t work out, he could definitely make a living as a full-time audiobook narrator.

If you value sleep at all, maybe don’t read this book. But if you enjoy a well-written (albeit slightly confusing to follow) dystopian speculative horror thriller kind of story, this might be the book for you. As for me, I’m going to go mentally prepare for putting my kid to bed so I don’t have an anxiety attack and keep us both up all night for fear of never waking again.

Rating: 3.25; cerebral, psychological, puzzling: The Edge of Sleep was a quick phycological thriller (bordering on horror) with an intriguing plot, but a somewhat lackluster delivery.

You go to sleep, you die. Some people never had a chance. The novel follows a group of survivors as they fight their exhaustion and try to figure out what to do before they succumb to sleep and never wake up. Based on the podcast from Qcode (that I hadn't listened to before, but had heard of).

I can't say I wasn't interested. I read it relatively quickly and found myself speeding through paragraphs to know what happens... speeding so fast that I sometimes would wholly skip pages to get to what I wanted to know.

There are some chapters that worked more as short stories to immerse you into microcosms of the situation to give you a broader view of how the world was affected. Normally, I really love little bits like this thrown into a dystopian narrative, but they were just too long for my attention span (so I skimmed through the last two giant sections of them). For pacing, it might have been nice if one or two were placed before a chapter, instead of squeezing them all in together after a huge cliff hanger.

This is a book that will keep you up at night and put you in a strange mood. There are many questions unanswered, in that satisfying horror/thriller way. The second you know too much, it would become boring and loose its edge; The Edge of Sleep did a good job of keeping the question answering purposeful, suspenseful, and effective.

If you hate stories that leave some questions unanswered, this book is not for you. I'd recommend this for fans of psychological thriller & horror, unnerving reads, strange dreams, dystopians, the dream logic of Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation, the absurdity of Donnie Darko, the survival tension of Squid Game, and apocalypse/end-of-the-world plots. It's really not too much of a commitment to read.

Ultimately, I was entertained, but I don't see myself revisiting this one. I might check out the podcast, though.

Thank you to the St. Martin's Publishing Group Influencer Program for for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book was just not the book for me. The concept seemed exciting when I requested to read this one, and credit to the authors for keeping this one quickly moving and engaging. I have a hard time with slow burns so I appreciated that.⁠
However, I immediately found the writing to be incredibly chaotic. I couldn't tell if the authors were trying to make the the characters more conversational or relatable, but whatever the goal was it ended up being messy and the characters just annoyed me. ⁠
My second big issue was the ending. I was clipping along, hoping to maybe end up liking the book and I got to towards the end and it was just bizarre. And while I'm no stranger to bizarre, I felt like I ended up with more questions than answers, and I don't like having tons of unanswered questions in a standalone novel.⁠
Overall, the book just lost it's luster after the initial "shock" of a sleeping illness wore off, and it couldn't find it's way back in way that spoke to me as a reader.

Soooo I'm not really sure how to review this book. I wanted to like it but honestly it was hard to get thru. I almost gave up so many times but was invested enough in the plot to continue reading, if not hesitantly. It's a good premise, people fall asleep and die, the few still awake needing to figure out what's happening before they too succumb to sleep. But I wasn't a fan of the dialogue between the characters, couldn't connect with any of them, I found most of them quite annoying. And while I did finish reading the story, I'm not 100% sure I understood the conclusion... I want to give it 2.5 stars because like I said before, the premise is an unusual and interesting one, there were some good scenes (the one inside the plane was entertaining), so 2 stars seems too low but I can't quite give it it 3 stars. Unfortunately I can't do 2.5 stars here on Netgalley, so 2 stars it is...

The premise of this book was so intriguing and hooked me right away. People around the world are dying in their sleep, except for a handful of those who struggle to stay awake. The first half of the book was good, then it started getting weird, and the ending was totally crazy. Maybe the authors plan on a sequel to finish this bizarre story, but right now it just doesn’t make any sense at all. I didn’t get it and I don’t care.

This one sounded so interesting and I really wanted to love it but at about 50 pages, I gave up as I really wasn’t enjoying it and the dialogue was driving me a bit crazy 🤷🏼‍♀️

Thank you to the publisher for a gifted copy on exchange for an honest review

This one starts out strong, with a compelling cast, jumping pretty quickly into the story. I though the premise was unique and actually quite terrifying. A strange kind of death is taking over. If you fall asleep, you die, but David is strange even among this situation. He has had a bad relationship with sleep for his entire life. When his dreams start to give him messages that take on meaning in his waking life, he and a small group of people left head on a journey of sorts…

While this started off strong, the middle just dragged on and on, making me lose interest almost completely… the very end of the book was a great twist that I had been waiting for but had given up hope on… until the moment the book hits you with it.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

4 out of 5 stars
Dave has somnipathy. When he sleeps, he dreams, and when he dreams, it is about an evil elephant or a sentient whale.
Stay with me.
As someone obsessed with sleep, dreams, and the disorders that come with it all, this book lured me like the pied piper.

On July 4th, Dave and his friend-slash-coworker, Matteo, ditch work to go to a party. It's already past its prime when they get there, and people are passed out. But when they try to wake up one of the partiers, they find that he is quite dead, so they throw him in the back of Matteo's car and rush him to the hospital, where they find deserted emergency lanes and deserted hallways.

Linda, a nurse, has just been abandoned by whatever doctors remained after most of their patients died when they fell asleep. She is already tired, and she is trying to save what she can. A daughter and her father, who were also in the emergency waiting room, have fallen asleep and do not wake up.

Eli, an accident survivor (although his parents did not survive) who is in a wheelchair, broadcasts his own podcast about his insomnia. After accidentally knocking his pills down the sink, he airs a plea for help because the pharmacies are not answering, the doctors are not answering, the emergency line is busy. Millie, who works from home with her own sleep issues, hears him, and decides since no one else is doing their job at the moment, neither will she.

She drives the hour or so it takes to get to Eli and together they break into a drug store and find the meds they need.

Meanwhile, once they realize that sleep is when people are dying, Linda and Matteo go to a local radio station and broadcast their own warning: do not go to sleep.

Dave, however, who can't reach his girlfriend, Katie, runs to her apartment where she is trying to sleep and none too happy that he won't let her.

Together, Dave, Matteo, Linda, and Katie try to figure out what to do or where to go, popping pills that will keep them awake and therefore alive, while Millie and Eli drive and drive and try to figure out the same.

Along the way, we get microstories of people mid-life as their days wind down and they go to sleep, never to wake up again.

The book was genius. The whole of it should have been utterly stunning. But the end was a mess. It felt like the three authors had three different ideas of what was actually going on, and since they could not agree on just one, they decided to put all of the ideas in.

Still, the first 80% of the book was captivating and brilliant. I have not listened to the podcast behind this, but I imagine it is addicting—hopefully the ending is patched up with the final release.

Thank you St Martin's and Macmillan audio for review copies of this as ebook and audiobook. The Edge of Sleep is a book that has such a fascinating premise, I do love themes related to sleep and dreams and an edgy mood/vibe but this is a case of liked a book more for the idea than the execution. For me the limitation is not the idea or creativity of the idea or the characters/plot but what happens when different writers come together without perhaps a cohesive focus and cohesive writing style. The book works as a fun read but I think worked a little better for me as a multi actor audiobook, the audiobook was a fun one to listen to over a few days of commuting (though the issues of coherence were still present, the acting made the audio fun).

This one was a tough one for me. The story rambles and gets a little to “out there” for me. I honestly do not know what else to say about this one. I could not connect with this story.

Part apocalyptic, part Nightmare on Elm Street, part sci-fi, with hints of Stranger Things and Resident Evil. I feel like I just went on a wild trip lol. We start off like any good apocalyptic origin tale, with normal people doing normal things, but they slowly realize that anyone who falls asleep never wakes up. Thus starts a race against the clock (there's just only so long one can stay awake) to figure out what in the world is going. I don't want to say too much to spoil anything but let me just say, I'm still not really sure exactly what is happening lol. The end is clearly setting us up for more to the story. And I am def interested to see where the story is going. However, things were a bit slow for me for a good chunk of this book. The last half went by so much faster as the action picks up. I will say listening to the audio while doing other things I did have to go back and physically read the last couple of sections just to wrap my head around the end. Which isn't a bad thing!

I’ll be honest, I don’t know how to rate this book. Some parts were so mind bending and interesting that I was thinking, THIS is a 5 star read. Then other parts I was thinking more along the lines of, “this takes away from the book. Now it’s a 3 star read.” The ending had me feeling like I wanted to go down to a two star based on how almost cheesy? it became. Then I honestly thought the epilogue was too drawn out. Personally, when I read an epilogue I want it to be one chapter summing up the story or adding that extra post note that further opens your eyes (an ohhhhh moment) to what you just read. I definitely did not expect 5 sub chapters within the epilogue. Sadly, this was my least favorite part of the book.

All in all, the story was very interesting! I found the storyline unique and fun to follow along with. I’m settling on 4 stars which was more of a 3.5 rounded up.

Thanks so much NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC.