The Insomniacs

by Marit Weisenberg

Ingrid can’t sleep.
She can’t remember, either.

A competitive diver, seventeen-year-old Ingrid is haunted by what she saw at the pool at a routine meet, before falling off the high dive and waking up concussed. The only thing she remembers about the moment before her dive is locking eyes with Van - her neighbour, former best friend, and forever crush - kissing his girlfriend on the sidelines. But that can’t be all.

Then one sleepless night, she sees Van out her window... looking right back at her. They begin not sleeping together by night, still ignoring each other at school by day.

Ingrid tells herself this is just temporary, but soon, she and Van are up every night piecing her memory back together. As Van works through his own reasons for not being able to sleep, they’re both pulled into a mystery that threatens to turn their quiet neighborhood into a darker place than they realised.

• ISBN10: 1250257352
• ISBN13: 9781250257352
• Publish Date: 1 December 2020 (first published 1 September 2020)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 25 June 2022
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Flatiron Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 336
• Language: English

Reviews

[shannonmiz]

You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight

Oh hi, I loved this book. A lot. It centers around Ingrid, who has just suffered a concussion during a brutal diving injury. Have you ever seen a diver hit their head on the board? It is horrifying. The blood, the dead silence of the crowd... 0/10, do not recommend. Well, neither does Ingrid. After a very successful career, she's doubting herself and her capabilities. She's never before felt that sense of doubt, so it's shaken her. And with her injury, she is forced to step back from diving, which has become her life.

One of the side effects of her concussion seems to be insomnia, and while she's awake roaming the halls, Ingrid reconnects with neighbor/former friend/longtime crush Van. Van just so happened to be at the meet where Ingrid was hurt and okay, maybe Ingrid had been a bit rattled when she saw him canoodling her teammate right before her dive. Look, this is why my high school coach would kick any guy immediately off the deck, she'd not even need security, she'd just drag him away herself. By the ear, probably. I digress.

Not only are Ingrid and Van rekindling their friendship, but they're on a mission to find out a few things: What is up with the creepy, abandoned house next door; what the deal is with their other (former) mutual friends; why neither one of them can sleep; and a whole other slew of mysteries that creep up along the way.

I'll say no more, because spoilers. But the mystery is really fun (and I didn't see where it was headed at all!) but even more wonderful is how Ingrid learns and grows, and takes the time to build (and rebuild) relationships with her family, her friends (current and former), and begins to figure out what she really wants out of life.

Bottom Line: I loved this book so much, and I am so afraid to spoil any of it for you, so you should really just read the thing.

[Sam@WLABB]

After suffering a head injury, Ingrid is plagued by insomnia as she tries to unravel what was behind her diving accident. Her sleepless nights lead her back to her once best friend, also unable to sleep after a night of blackouts and holes in his memory. Together they search for answers, while drawing closer to one another and renewing their friendship.

The promise of mystery drew me to this story, and yes, there was a mystery going on, but I found myself more intrigued by Ingrid. Here was this young woman, who was an accomplished diver with an Olympic dream. She was always able to do it all and do it all well. From the outside, you would never guess the weight of the baggage she carried. There were a bunch of reveals about Ingrid's past and present throughout the story, which told the tale of a girl, who was let down by those she hero worshipped and depended upon. This experience, this hole in her memory forced her to confront some of the truths about her life. It was a bit sad to watch her close the door on certain people in her life, but I was happy to see her make a conscience choice to save some of the other relationships which had suffered over the years.

One of the relationships she chose to save was with her childhood best friend and neighbor, Van. After her father left, Ingrid put up a wall and broke her connections to the past. She dedicated herself to diving, in an effort to impress her absentee father, but she never stop caring about Van. The nights they spent awake together ranged from awkward and tense to delightful. They resuscitated their relationship and let some new feelings burn, while uncovering those missing pieces to their memory puzzles.

This book, for me, was a coming of age tale wrapped in a mystery with a touch of romance. I was all in from the very first page, and I found myself fully invested in the outcome. Ingrid may have set set out to discover what went wrong the day of her ill-fated dive, but she ended up finding herself in the process, and I enjoyed getting to be a part of her journey.

*ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

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