Customer Reviews

Sleepless

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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!

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.

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!

Sea Cliff was a small, quiet town. Until now. A group of students went to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina to build houses for Habitat for Humanity. A terrible murder occurs there, leading the students to promise to stay silent about what happened. They return home, but start to have the most horrible nightmares. As the dreams get worse, some even start to sleepwalk. Then some students start killing. Both Emma and Jake are having trouble sleeping. They are terrified that they are going to die next or maybe kill someone in their sleep. What is causing them to sleepwalk? Will they figure it out before it's too late?

This book was pitched to me by my sister (who's a YA librarian) as a Nightmare on Elm Street wannabe, which is not really true. I found out after I had read it that she hadn't even finished the book. There are some similarities, but as a whole, the two works are very different. The book reads as a teen horror flick transformed into a book. I liked the concept and liked going along for the ride as more details are revealed about the mystery. The horror aspects of the novel were pretty good. I really liked that one of the kids that ended up killing someone had violent episodes that they had no recollection of afterwards. One of them in particular came out of the blue and surprised me.

The characters are typical stock characters in a horror movie: the strong survival girl, the bad boy, the preppy cheerleader girl, etc. Unfortunately the characters don't really develop or have depth beyond that. Also, the Voodoo elements were kind of lame and obvious since they came from New Orleans. At a certain point, the mystery became really predictable and I started figuring things out before the characters. I like being surprised and having my mind blown. This was not the case here.

Sleepless was an amusing read that didn't have much depth. If it were a horror film, it would be one of those PG-13 ones that I avoid because they tend to be lame. I would recommend this to people want a fast, generally entertaining read.

With a tag line of " Teens are killing each other in this summer horror Blockbuster", wouldn't you typically expect a thrilling and scary book? Well, when I read the summary on the back of the galley, I certainly did. Though, while Sleepless was based of an interesting idea, it was not executed that well.

First off, the characters weren't well developed, in my opinion. Sure, you briefly got to know Emma, Jack, and their friends, but there wasn't anything about them that really captured your interest or made them easy to relate to.

Also, it didn't make Sleepless any better, having a plot that was extremely dull at times and hard to get through. Sure, at first it was interesting to see the different things that were happening to the students, but soon after it finally clicked in my mind what was happening. Leaving, Sleepless to become anticlimactic and uneventful.

Thomas Fahy's writing was decent, though. It was easy to read because of the quick chapters, but the world he created in Sleepless didn't really imprint a memorable world in my mind.

Overall, Sleepless was a big disappointment for me. Though, I think I may try Thomas' previous teen novel, to see if it's any better.

Side note: Even though I didn't fully enjoy this book, if you think you think you may like do give it a try. It just wasn't my ideal book.

Grade: C-

I think Thomas Fahy did a really good job with this novel. There was some romance and it was really sweet, but it didnt overpower the plot, to find out who did it. I think he put a lot of thought and emotion in to this, which i didnt expect from a male author. Also the girls parts were pretty good, but all of them were a little over emotional and little too whiny and weak. That i kind of expected from a male author haha. Also, the story is told in a third person point of view, besides the conversations, which im not used to. Im used to there being one main character with them being the narrator, but because the story is told in different point of views, i guess thats the easiest way to do it. At first i didnt like it, but after i kept reading it grew on me and im fine with it. There is a scene that made me tear up and was really tragic, which im sure you'll figure out for yourselves when you read it, and the novel kind of reminds me of a Lifetime movie. It could definitely be made for tv.

This was a really different novel. Im glad i took a chance on trying a YA horror, because it turned out to be really good. It was a quick read and kept you reading till the end. It is full of suspense and keeps your heart pumping when things start to get scary, but its not too scary. It does have violence and death, but nothing that would be too much or too vivid for any young adult readers. Would definitely recommend this book.

A GREAT BOOK FOR LATENIGHT READING. BLEW MY MIND WITH THRILLIMG MYSTERIES WITHIN MYSTERIES. I COULDNT PUT THE BOOK DOWN.

Sleepless reads like a horror movie converted into a fast-paced novel. Dark, mysterious, and quite grisly in many places, this novel manages to simultaneously entertain and horrify. Events unfold fairly quickly: for some reason, a group of students are murdering others while asleep. And of course, since murder is a very bad thing, they've got to do everything they can to stop their bodies from engaging in homicide while they're unconscious. This includes unearthing the reason behind their behavior as well as massive amounts of sleep deprivation--hence the title.

Sleepless is written in third-person present tense, which may prove jarring to many readers at first. When I first started the novel, the prose came off as disjointed and self-aware, probably due to the present tense. Don't get me wrong--I LOVE present tense in a book. In Sleepless though, it took some time to get used to--I'd say the first sixty pages or so, I felt like something was a bit off. But once I'd settled into the book, I couldn't stop reading.

I think it's partly because I was in shock. I almost never watch horror movies, and the extent of my "scary" reading only reaches to a tattered copy of Poe's short stories. So I've never read anything quite like Sleepless: graphic, bloody, horrifying, and chilling. Many of the characters wake up to find that their vivid dreams of killing somebody--which Fahy does not shy away from describing in full detail--have come true.

Fahy certainly gets points for coming up with such a chilling premise--after all, what's freakier than killing a classmate or friend while you're asleep? It's the very concept of innocent murder and loss of control that proves to be so disturbing. The premise of this book was definitely the best part--but on the flip side, it didn't allow for much depth in terms of character development or themes. I didn't really connect with any of the characters, or feel that much sympathy for their plight. The bottom line is that Sleepless is pretty much action, action, action, all the way through. Oh, and lots of dead bodies. If you're looking for a gripping read, Sleepless certainly fulfills these requirements.

Despite this, I have a big beef with the ending. For some reason, Sleepless didn't hold my interest as much towards the last fifty pages or so, once the book dived headfirst into a voodoo-Katrina/New Orleans-revelation. The climax was in the same vein as the rest of this book: unashamedly violent and brutal. It's the resolution that is lacking since it literally felt as if the printers had made a mistake and not included the last ten pages of denouement.

After reading Sleepless, I was left unsatisfied, if not a bit shell-shocked. I think the cover is absolutely amazing--so eery and shiversome. I'll be honest, it's what made me pick up this book.

I'd be perfect if I could close with: Sleepless left me sleepless, afraid that I'd scuttle around town mass murdering innocents if I so much as closed my eyes. But unfortunately, it wouldn't be truthful--I actually dreamt of chocolate bunnies and rainbows after I'd finished.

When I found out what Sleepless was about, that is exactly what I was, Sleepless. When it finally came out I was ecstatic I could hardly wait to crack it open and read.

Sadly when I finally got done reading Sleepless, I was disappointed. It has an extremely good plot but the writing was, well, lame. I just think that it could have been written better with longer chapters explaining things more about their trip and each death, each dream and such.

I only gave it three stars for that. If it was written better and had better detailing, then I would have given it four stars. I still liked the book though and the cover is amazing.