Sleepless [Hardcover]

Thomas Fahy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 11, 2009

Emma Montgomery has been having trouble sleeping. Whenever she closes her eyes, all she can see are the horrible nightmares . . . nightmares of gruesome murder. And she’s not alone. All of the students in Dr. Beecher’s secret society have been having terrible dreams and sleepwalking. Now, as their classmates start turning up dead, Emma and her friends race against the clock to keep themselves awake and find out what is causing them to kill in their sleep—before the next victim dies.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up—Something is not quite right in the small town of Sea Cliff. An evil force is at work, leaving tragedy and death in its wake for a group of students from Saint Opportuna High School. The story centers around Emma, who recently moved to New York from the South and is grieving over the recent death of her mother, and Jake, a charismatic rebel who serves as car mechanic and pot dealer to his classmates. After returning from a school trip to New Orleans to rebuild homes destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, Emma, Jake, and the other students who participated band together into a "secret society," led by the faculty advisor, Dr. Beecher, sworn to keep quiet about what really happened down there. All of the teens are behaving erratically and suffering from horrific nightmares with bouts of sleepwalking. Then classmates begin to turn up dead. Fahy grabs readers right from the opening pages and uses a series of flashbacks to reveal earlier events in the story. The plot is full of suspense mixed with voodoo, vengeance, and murder, creating a chilling tale. Unfortunately, the ending is disappointing, as everything wraps up too quickly in the last few pages.—Donna Rosenblum, Floral Park Memorial High School, NY
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About the Author

Thomas Fahy is the author of two horror novels for teens, Sleepless and The Unspoken, and Night Visions, a novel for adults, for which Booklist lauded his "ability to develop characters" and "his substantial descriptive skill." Sleepless is his second young adult novel. He teaches literature at Long Island University (C.W. Post campus) and is editor of the forthcoming book, The Philosophy of Horror. He lives in New York City.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers (August 11, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416959017
• ISBN-13: 978-1416959014
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,529,327 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Thomas Fahy grew up in Los Angeles, California. He has studied literature and music throughout his life and received undergraduate degrees in both fields from the University of California at Davis. After earning a Ph.D. in literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he taught at several schools in California. He now lives in New York, where he is a professor of literature and Director of the American Studies Program at Long Island University, C. W. Post Campus. You can visit him at thomasfahy.com or on Facebook at http://bit.ly/ut3nl

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Death and Nightmares, August 11, 2009

By 

Darcy Wishard "libraryloungelizard.com" (Kelso, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sleepless (Hardcover)

Emma Montgomery has been having trouble sleeping. Whenever she closes her eyes, all she can see are horrible nightmares ... nightmares of gruesome murder. And she's not alone. All of the students in Dr. Beecher's secret society have been having terrible dreams and sleepwalking. Now, as their classmates start turning up dead, Emma and her friends race against the clock to keep themselves awake and find out what is causing them to kill in their sleep--before the next victim dies.

First off, the cover of this book has to be one of my top five all time favorites...it screams "READ ME!" I know this book will find a lot of action in my library just because of the awesome visual.

Told in third person narrative from Emma and her friend Jake's point of view, we find out that really weird things start to happen after a class trip to New Orleans.

Emma and her classmates went to New Orleans to help rebuild houses in one of the poorer communities there. After they witness a horrible tragedy which they promise to keep a secret, death seems to follow them home.

Mysterious deaths, lapses in memory and a creepy voo doo vibe are the only clues that Emma and Jake have to work with. It all seems to center around their teacher, Dr. Beecher. Will they be able to figure out who or what is killing their friends before it's too late?

If you like the premise of most teen horror flicks where a group of friends are dealing with some unknown menace, then this book is for you! Not a lot of depth here but the mystery itself will be enough to keep readers involved to the end.

A quick read at just over 200 pages, appropriate for 7th grade and up!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Engaging and Creepy!, September 12, 2009

By 

Vania Stoyanova "Reverie Media Book Reviews" (Atlanta, Ga) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sleepless (Hardcover)

Thomas Fahy brings a wonderfully suspenseful and haunting edge to the story of a group of teens who after a dark and even bizarre trip to New Orleans find themselves having nightmares and their schoolmates dropping dead liek flies. Even worse, the kids' nightmares are becomign reality in the way the schoolmates die. The mystery and the race to save a life gets the kids to investigate the strange happenings on their own puts them in more danger.



Fahy masterfully brings a horror aspect to his story but doesn't fail to touch on a romance. Sadly, it could have used a little bit more of it since it left the reader a bit dry in the middle. But overall, Fahy does a good job with blending horror, suspense and intrigue in a story that is sure to appeal to both girl and guys and fans of creepy-on-the-edge-of-your-seat-can't-read-at-night scary. It's short and fast read but not for the faint of heart.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Kept Me Up All Night, August 24, 2009

By 

Jay (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sleepless (Hardcover)

I loved this book! It's very scary and suspenseful. And the parts set in New Orleans are really cool and creepy. I also liked the fact that I could relate to the characters. It isn't very long, and I finished it in one night because I couldn't put it down!