This might be one of the most unique books I’ve ever read and I still don’t know how I feel about it.

Written in mostly letters and transcripts, this book tells the story of Evie and her new husband’s honeymoon at a sketchy villa in Greece. The story is interesting and vivid, and the writing is excellent, but the format really threw me. The letters cut off randomly and a new letter will start up written by a different author and you have to piece together who is writing it and how it all fits together. It’s clever but for at least half the book I didn’t know if this was intentional or an editing or corrupted file issue.

I am legitimately confused if I liked this book or even understand what happened, but I will 100% be thinking about this long after I finished it tonight.

This is a rather odd story. Not without its own appeal, but not to my personal taste. It centers around a newly-wedded couple who are spending their honeymoon on a Greek island; the first half is in a hotel of their own choosing with another couple, the second half in a hotel selected by and paid for by the groom's mother. The interesting thing in this story is that we hear both sides, the husband's and wife's, of the events that transpire, and how very different their viewpoints are regarding the inn's proprietess and employees. But these alternating viewpoints also add to some confusion and it's never really clear to me what the motivation is for the events that happen. Even when the underlying issue is exposed at the end, it feels like the author had to quickly come up with a motive. I really didn't see any hints about what was happening at this inn until it was revealed. So the ending felt disconnected from the remainder of the story. And there are places where a sentence just ends halfway through - is this intentional or a problem with my e version? If intentional, it made no sense to me.

This ARC was provided by NetGalley and the publisher, the opinions expressed herein are strictly my own.

What a wild read! Told from alternating letters to each other, as well as others, which was a writing style that I happen to love! Evelyn and Richard are on their honeymoon on a Greek Isle and become separated during a vast storm. There are quite a few crazy things we find out about these characters during this time. The story jumps back and forth in time and I found it a little difficult to keep up. However, the imagery and conflicts held my attention! So many conflicts, secrets, and so much marital disparity. This was a unique read, and definitely will take you on a roller coaster of happenings!
Thank you NetGalley for the eARC.

My first reaction to finishing this book was that I wanted to read more from this author. Wow, what an interesting story. This book involves a couple that just married, but their relationship is quickly moving towards divorce. The story takes place on their honeymoon, where many of the couple’s past issues are revealed. The issues are all interesting and complex, but the way the story is told is what makes this a great book. The book is a series of letters, pages, transcripts, etc. in the form of evidence. You never know what will come next.
Thank you NetGalley for an ARC.

I received an ARC of this book from Simon & Schuster via NetGalley in exchange for my honest feedback. Yay for a unique 5-star read that I couldn't put down.

This is a very interesting format that the entire thing is notes and letters. When I first started reading, I was thinking the prologue was a letter, but then it kept going and going. As another reviewer mentioned, this results in very long chapters so it is tough to find a spot to take a break.

This book is very literary, full of metaphors and gorgeous descriptions. Sometimes this style makes me roll my eyes, but I think Ms. Thomas is skilled at her craft and in this instance, it simply impressed me.

I have experienced some Kindle versions of books, especially ARC's, having issues with formatting. So I am still not 100% sure if some places where the narrative stops in the middle are on purpose or due to Kindle problems. In addition, since you are reading letters that are not totally in chronological order, things that you learn at the beginning don't make sense until later. For both of those reasons, I might actually seek out the physical book once published and read it again. Kind of like a mystery movie that you rewatch looking for clues to the outcome.

Right near the end, the author writes: "This story, is missing something. You gotta make it clearer what actually happened." And this has to be tongue in cheek referring to her own work as the reader (at least this reader) is left feeling just a bit confused. Someone come talk to me to see if I understood everything!

Wow! This book was so good. It grasped me from the very beginning. I love the format of various documents (letters, transcripts, etc). The story had me second guessing everything in the best way. TW: SA but it is actually pertinent to the characters and how they interact with one another.

What an intriguing read. I really like the way Scarlett Thomas set it up—letters, images (not seen but described), a poorly transcribed audiotape. What was most interesting to me is that as it was told from different viewpoints, one was never sure about the truth. Did things just seem dodgy or were they actually dodgy? Certainly not even one of the characters, as in real life, was perfect or good or completely evil. And they were often good and bad. Even the sanity of some of the characters could be called into question; even the settings had personality: the Villa Rosa and the room with the window opening onto the stairs—omg! The curio shop. Even the airport in Athens. In the end, I was left with questions but none that my imagination couldn’t fill in.

Evelyn and Richard on honeymoon in Greece have the less than ideal relationship for newlyweds. Richard seems to be flirting with the hotel manager/owner Isabel who treats Evelyn poorly.

I was a bit impatient that the novel then reverts to the high school/teenage years of Richard and his male friends and their questionable histories, and more eager to get back to Evelyn in Greece.

The atmosphere and stormy setting, the less than stellar tabernas, on a pebbly dirty beach on a Greek island or on hills seemed realistic, so much so that I have second thoughts about what I might find as a tourist on a visit to the real Greece!

Realistic about the small towns, even the crimes that might take place on the islands, by non Greeks or otherwise, the novel was interesting and presented another view beside a purely touristic one.

Sleepwalkers by Scarlett Thomas
Rating: ⭐️⭐️1/2 rounded up to ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Let me start with the fact that this is very well written and unique. Wonderful description and imagery. Some parts made me chuckle out loud.

The story was told through a couple’s notes written to each other. I struggled with this because the handwritten “notes” were sometimes 100s of pages. The thought of the wife leaving 100 pages on her husband’s pillow just didn’t seem realistic. (The time alone of how long it would have taken her to write that all down seemed unrealistic.) The letters/book felt as if I were stepping into someone’s stream of consciousness. The letters included specific details and quoted conversations. Obviously as the reader I need that information, but again, trying to picture a couple spelling out things that are obvious among themselves was strange to me.

Although titled, Sleepwalkers, very little is actually about the sleepwalking couple who had vacationed a year earlier than our main characters. They were barely even mentioned in the first 80+ pages.

Finally, I prefer short chapters, especially since I have young kids and can sometimes only read in short bursts. The first “chapter”/letter was over 100 pages long. It was hard to stop and pick back up for me personally.

I do think this will be well received by many other people. It is artistic in its uniqueness and maybe I would have rated differently if I were reading during a different phase of life.

Thank you to NetGalley, Scarlett Thomas, and Simon & Schuster for providing this ARC. This review is being shared on NetGalley and Goodreads.

Pub Date 09 Apr 2024

Man I just could not vibe with this story. It's told in that found documents style that can be done so well (hello, Janice Hallett), but is tricky to pull off as it needs to be actually believable that all of this stuff was written down or recorded and it just wasn't here. A great deal of the narrative hinges on two people writing long, detailed narrative-style letters to each other in the modern day while they're on vacation (???) for like...some reason, I'm still not sure why either of them did this or when they would have had the time to do so. The selection of documents are also incomplete, leading to moments where a letter or whatever cuts off mid-word, which was certainly a choice.

All of this was anchored by unfailingly tedious characters with opaque personal motivations who constantly made the weirdest possible choices. By the end I could honestly say I wasn't entirely sure what had even happened. The bones of a good story were certainly here, and those little twinkles of intrigue kept me reading, but overall the execution did not work for me.

My thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the ARC.

What the heck did I just read!
This was a bit of an out there concept, and the manner the story was delivered (using letters) was a bit unusual. I found the storyline to be confusing with some characters I couldn’t really follow.

Pros:
- interesting perspectives
- unusual storyline

Cons
- confusing storyline
- I didn’t understand the “sleepwalker” part of the story, which was the basis for the whole book - there was confusion on my end of what really happened
- the ending felt undone
- I’m not sure if the errors I saw were story related or because this was an arc

I really, really liked this book for the first third-- the author's voice is mysterious and thoughtful, the other characters are intriguing, and the setting is evocative. When the narration shifts to letters and memos (which is normally a style I really enjoy) I found it difficult to put together all the threads. There's a LOT to love about this book, and I'll try another Thomas novel, but the pieces didn't come together ultimately for me.

4.5 stars: Thank you Simon & Schuster for providing me with an advance reader’s copy of The Sleepwalkers.

Touted as a gothic White Lotus, I was hooked from the beginning. Evelyn and Richard visit the island of Kathos for their honeymoon and discover that their tawdry pasts have yet to be reconciled. It’s written in epistolary letters which really helped give insight into the character’s motivations. Part funny, gripping, and all together tragic, The Sleepwalkers is a grime look into the underbelly of the beautiful island life.

WHITE LOTUS is exactly the kind of story about fucked up white people I love to watch over a long weekend, so the comparison in this novel's summary had me hooked. The mixed-media storytelling completely engaged me, like each letter or note was a puzzle piece I needed to place. The characters were reprehensible almost across the board, but damn did I need to know what they did and what happened to them. If you're OK with the CWs and in need of a summer thriller, add this to your TBR!

DNF @ 50%. It is very hard to imagine I could hate any characters as much as I hate these. The stream of consciousness style did not work for me - I loathed hearing every little thought that went through their silly heads.

DNF at 30%… may give it another go, but didn’t find the characters or plot gripping enough to continue.

This is an intriguing novel that will keep you wondering up until the last page. A couple on their honeymoon and a sneaky hotel keeper make for a wild ride, A delightful addition to your TBR.

This book is an interesting read for sure.
The first half is basically a letter from the wife’s pov and the second half a letter from the husband’s pov.
The ending is a little tough because the author basically leaves you to put the puzzle pieces together on your own. I didn’t hate it but I didn’t love it. I’m very undecided about how I feel about this book now that I’ve finished it. I do know that I’ve never read a book like it, so for that it’s a 3.5 ⭐️

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

This is good, but I think the unusual format sort of gets in the way of the story. It's told as sort of a mixed epistolary novel. But it's out of order and there are pages missing. It may have been a better read if I had read it all in one sitting or hadn't been reading other books at the same time also.

That being said, the story itself is very good. And there's a lot of intrigue. The different perspectives are definitely interesting. The big reveal toward the end totally caught me by surprise. It is very difficult to put this down once the action accelerates toward the end (or it seems to accelerate).

This was an interesting and fun read. I didn’t especially like any of the characters but the story held my interest. It was part mystery, part family drama, and I suppose a little romance as well, although not in a warm and fuzzy way. There is a big reveal toward the end that sort of wraps up the entire story and while it stretches the imagination it also provides a satisfying ending.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book to read and review.