Sleep, by C.L. Taylor {Book club pick}

I know, it’s been quiet around here lately on #BookReviewFriday…..  However, I’m back and ready to post about all the books I’ve been reading! Today’s book is titled ‘Sleep‘ and it’s a book I’ve really been keen to read for a while now. I was ecstatic when my book club gals agreed that it could be our #BookOfTheMonth for August. Did it live up to the hype though?

What is Sleep about?

All Anna wants is to be able to sleep. But crushing insomnia, terrifying night terrors and memories of that terrible night are making it impossible. If only she didn’t feel so guilty…

To escape her past, Anna takes a job at a hotel on the remote Scottish island of Rum, but when seven guests join her, what started as a retreat from the world turns into a deadly nightmare.

Each of the guests have a secret but one of them is lying – about who they are and why they’re on the island. There’s a murderer staying in the Bay View hotel. And they’ve set their sights on Anna.

Seven strangers. Seven secrets. One deadly lie.

Someone’s going to sleep and never wake up…

My review

The Cover

I thought the cover did a good job in setting the scene for this book. I love the colours used as well. In hindsight, I wish I actually studied the cover a bit more whilst reading the book. I always need a visual and I actually don’t utitlise the cover enough. I study it for the review AFTER I’ve read the book, which is a bit counter productive. Anyways, I’m rambling….

The characters

We meet Anna immediately, the protagonist, who sets the tone for the whole book. I really feel for her character…she was driving a car that ended up causing catastrophic damage to lives and characters in the book. This of course, is the reason for the book…Anna running away/starting over in Rum.

The characters at the Inn are all suspects, right from the very first page. At some point, you’ve literally thought that every single person is the killer….from the old woman, to the army veteran….to the hippie….to the moody teenager. The pool is wider…I’m just showing you that there’s quite the pool to choose from.

The storyline

This storyline is not original by any means. We’ve seen the ‘murder-at-the-resort-and-we’re-all-trapped’ scenario many times. C.L. Taylor though has set up a really decent plot for us and I absolutely love where the story was set. I thought the description of the scenery and the storm was done so well, that I was spooked. I could not read this book at night for some reason. I’ve read The Chalkman at night, The Taking of Annie Thorne….but this book, I don’t know, I found it really eerie.

So while the story line perhaps wasn’t that unique, the storytelling is really good and captivating.

My thoughts

The book is told from multiple POV’s. Anna, being the protagonist and then a few other people as well. Anna’s ex-boyfriend, Alex, being one of them. I didn’t quite see the need for him to even feature in the book if I’m honest. There’s a whole side story with him and a new flame….and I don’t know, I just didn’t quite understand his role.

So now the story, the book was a bit one tone. It starts off eerie….and it really maintains that pace all the way through. It’s creepy, eerie and sinister…. You don’t get a reprieve from it, where there are lighter, happier moments to give you a break from the mental (and actual) storm taking place. Due to that, the ending, while surprising (as in whodunnit…I didn’t guess), wasn’t that surprising…because you know…somebody-dunnit! Like I was sitting on pins and needles the whole time, waiting for the reveal, so nobody could scare me. Does that make sense? lol

What I loved about this book though, was that it had reading club questions at the back. This came in really handy for book club night, and now I’m wishing all books had this add-on.

Overall though, this was a good read, captivating and well written. It’s one of those books that you want to finish in one sitting. From the very first line, you NEED to know…who the heck the bad guy is!

Rating

Sleep has a Goodreads rating of 3.98 and that’s a pretty good rating. I rate it a solid 3.5 stars. My book club members were on the same page as I was….with one exception, saying they felt Sleep was a 3/5. I felt she was a bit overly critical myself, but to each his or her own. We battled to track a copy of the book down, but eventually ordered our copies off Loot. 

What do you think? Are you going to be picking this one up? Don’t ‘Sleep’ on it;) Also, do you belong to a book club?