Sleep

by C.L. Taylor

[zooloo1983]

I had been hearing about this book for so long and with my FOMO I just had to pick this up and read it. So when the opportunity came up to do the audiobook tour I, of course, had to sign up straight away.

This book is somewhat of a slow burner, with the opening chapters all told from different points of view I just could not see how I was getting to Scotland and how everything would fit in with the shocking beginning.

Anna has not had it easy and she feels the only choice she has is to go to the island of Rum to escape it all. Taking up a position in an isolated hotel, seven guests are checked in and then a storm cuts everyone off from civilisation, things really take a turn for the worse. The guests are all quirky in their own way and they all have their own secrets, can any of them really be trusted? Who is behind the mysterious writing on the door? Who is stealing things from other guest bedrooms? Who is trying to break into Anna’s room?

One of key elements of this book is Sleep! From the lack of sleep, your mind can completely play tricks on you and you do begin to wonder sometimes is everything that is going on a figment of Anna’s imagination or is someone targetting her? Making sure she does not forget what happened.

The other element is the isolation, trapped on an island with no escape. It ramps up the thrill for the reader and makes you question everything and everyone. I mean who could the stalker be out of a small pool of suspects? Well, that is for you to find out! It is down to you to figure if you have been given a bunch of red herrings or if you are being shown the truth!

One thing I did like about this adventure was the ending, it left me with chills and it left me with no respite. When you discover what is going on, it blind sighted me, I did not see it coming and man it was creepy. I was screaming at the character at the end to walk away to not go there but in the final pages, I had no hope of getting what I wanted! What a bang!

I thought that Clare Corbett did a fab job of narrating the novel, she knew just went to amp up the tension with her voice. Her voice is one that I found easy to listen to and she had me intrigued with where this story was going. I would definitely recommend listening to her!

This is my first book by Taylor and I am looking forward to reading more by her. I loved her use of a claustrophobic setting, I love the element of sleep and the chilling meaning of it in this book, I love her writing!