Name: Are You Sleeping
ISBN: 9781432859527

Kathleen Barber

"Serial meets Ruth Ware's In A Dark, Dark Wood in this ... psychological thriller about a mega-hit podcast that reopens a long-closed murder case and threatens to unravel the carefully constructed life of the victim's daughter"--

Are You Sleeping

Serial meets Ruth Ware’s In A Dark, Dark Wood in this inventive and twisty psychological thriller about a mega-hit podcast that reopens a murder case—and threatens to unravel the carefully constructed life of the victim’s daughter. The only thing more dangerous than a lie...is the truth. Josie Buhrman has spent the last ten years trying to escape her family’s reputation and with good reason. After her father's murder thirteen years prior, her mother ran away to join a cult and her twin sister Lanie, once Josie’s closest friend and confidant, betrayed her in an unimaginable way. Now, Josie has finally put down roots in New York, settling into domestic life with her partner Caleb, and that’s where she intends to stay. The only problem is that she has lied to Caleb about every detail of her past—starting with her last name. When investigative reporter Poppy Parnell sets off a media firestorm with a mega-hit podcast that reopens the long-closed case of Josie’s father’s murder, Josie’s world begins to unravel. Meanwhile, the unexpected death of Josie’s long-absent mother forces her to return to her Midwestern hometown where she must confront the demons from her past—and the lies on which she has staked her future.

A Novel

Totally solid beach read. I think it was interesting enough but the plot, characters, and ending all left something to be desired. I think this book might be more palatable for someone younger or new to the crime/thriller genre but it felt a bit played out.

Liz collins 

Dee B. 

I need to sleep on this one...

Full Review: www.deereadsforfood.wordpress.com
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I've decided that I need to do a full review of this one (deereadsforfood.wordpress.com) but I will say this: It was entertaining enough, but if you're searching for a book that is mainly mystery solving, THIS is NOT that book. 

This book carries you on a journey of familial hurt, mental illness and deceit. Our main character makes some very stupid decisions where her sister and boyfriend are concerned and her sister likewise, reverts to a version of herself that she least likes when the twins meet up.

All in all, it's not a terrible read.

Milo Jean

This was a great read! I would have finished it all in one day if I hadn’t been reading it along with someone else. So I forced myself to take it slow. 

I felt like it was a quick read that kept me consistently interested. The podcast transcript element was really neat to see since podcasts like this really do exist and suck in a wide audience. I found it interesting to contemplate what that must feel like for the family of the victim. I had some guesses as to who the killer might be, and the final reveal wasn’t too big of a surprise to me, but it was for the main characters in a way that felt real. I appreciated that. 

All and all I’d give it 4 stars, knocking off one since the ending felt a little rushed to me. And personally I wish there was some satisfying karma that could have made it to Poppy... but then again I suppose that’s life.

An addictive debut psychological thriller for fans of Serial and Luckiest Girl Alive.Josie Buhrman has spent the last ten years trying to escape her family's reputation and with good reason: her father was murdered, her mother ran away to join a cult, and her twin sister Lanie, once Josie's closest friend and confidant, betrayed her. Now, Josie has settled in New York with her boyfriend Caleb, and that's where she intends to stay.The only problem is that she has lied to Caleb about every detail of her past - starting with her last name.Then investigative reporter Poppy Parnell sets off a media firestorm with a hit podcast that reopens the case of her father's murder and Josie's carefully constructed world begins to unravel. She is forced to return to her hometown where she must confront the lies from her past - as well as those on which she has staked her future.

Lauren Attaway

As an avid podcast listener, I had been waiting on this book since I first heard the description at the beginning of this summer.  A woman learns that the murder of her father has become the subject of a popular podcast? In recent years, I've echoed what feels like America's popular fixation with True Crime and become a frequent listener to podcasts like Serial, My Favorite Murder, Casefile, and Sword and Scale.  I have to admit rather guiltily that the victim's family is generally given thought only in the immediate after. No one really reflects on the impact of a murder on the family decades after. Death is a part of life and so is the grieving process, so I personally can't imagine how it would feel to have people fascinated by the source of your grief. 

The author of Are You Sleeping does a great job with giving the impact of this loss on the main character Josie and her sister Lanie, even while she bashes the consumer of this podcast. I think the internet allows everyone to be anonymously awful at times, and the host of the podcast Poppy Parnell  is cartoonish-ly awful.  Parts of this book may have slid into the predictable, but it's still worth the read. I couldn't get enough of this audiobook.  I just discovered there is another novel about a fictional podcast murder series called Six Stories  and I plan on reading that one as soon as I finish It. 

Are You Sleeping was an enjoyable and quick read, and was the perfect audiobook for that week's commute.

Tanya Sutton

Are You Sleeping? is based on an interesting premise - does our society's obsession with true crime help keep our justice system accountable or unnecessarily upset and intrude upon a family's private grief? Unfortunately the inclusion of a true crime podcast and social media responses (via tweets, Reddit feeds, and transcripts of the podcast itself) were the most interesting part of this novel for me. The characters, while not entirely unbelievable, fell flat for me. I was massively annoyed with the one-sided relationship the protagonist, Josie, had with her significant other, Caleb. It quickly became tiresome listening to her complain that "he's *too* good" and "she never understood what he saw in her." It all got a bit schmaltzy for me and after a while I started to hope they'd split up just so I wouldn't have to listen to her talk about how little she deserved him. This book wasn't particularly dark and was more mystery than suspense with no graphic violence. Overall it's a decent debut with an interesting story line that had some unique aspects.

(Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Books for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.)

Rachel

Entertaining overall, but as a podcast listener I thought they did the host dirty to make her out to be some opportunistic bitch, when most podcast journalist are lovely & genuinely concerned. Also the whole mystery kind of lacked buildup and was just a information dump at the end.

kelsey

Katrina Meyers

Amanda Ferguson

Coleen Bachi

✨Tyler ✨

Kate Patterson

Rebecca Laparra

Now a major TV series called Truth Be Told from Apple TV+ and produced by Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine! Serial meets Ruth Ware’s In A Dark, Dark Wood in this inventive and twisty psychological thriller about a mega-hit podcast that reopens a murder case and threatens to unravel the carefully constructed life of the victim’s daughter. The only thing more dangerous than a lie…is the truth. Josie Buhrman has spent the last ten years trying to escape her family and with good reason. After her father’s murder thirteen years prior, her mother ran away to join a cult and her twin sister Lanie, once Josie’s closest friend and confidant, betrayed her in an unimaginable way. Now, Josie has finally put down roots in New York, settling into domestic life with her partner Caleb, and that’s where she intends to stay. The only problem is that she has lied to Caleb about every detail of her past—starting with her last name. When investigative reporter Poppy Parnell sets off a media firestorm with a megahit podcast that reopens the long-closed case of Josie’s father’s murder, Josie’s world begins to unravel. Meanwhile, the unexpected death of Josie’s long-absent mother forces her to return to her Midwestern hometown where she must confront the demons from her past—and the lies on which she has staked her future.

Are You Sleeping

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