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Insomnolence #1
The Sleepless
In 2111, no one in the Nation sleeps unless they earn it—the hard way.
Kate does the dirty jobs no one else wants to do, stuck in a dead-end job-to-job lifestyle that weighs down on her soul, all so she can fade away into a half-remembered dream of a better tomorrow that might never come.
But when her friend Decker reveals himself as one of the Sleepers—rebel citizens in hiding who can still sleep naturally—she finds herself faced with a choice.
Stay in her seemingly hopeless yet safe world.
Or help the Sleepers uncover the mystery behind the sleepless plague.
Kate does the dirty jobs no one else wants to do, stuck in a dead-end job-to-job lifestyle that weighs down on her soul, all so she can fade away into a half-remembered dream of a better tomorrow that might never come.
But when her friend Decker reveals himself as one of the Sleepers—rebel citizens in hiding who can still sleep naturally—she finds herself faced with a choice.
Stay in her seemingly hopeless yet safe world.
Or help the Sleepers uncover the mystery behind the sleepless plague.
205 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 13, 2017
11 people are currently reading
28 people want to read
About the author
D.K. Cassidy
19 books120 followersD.K. Cassidy has been scribbling stories since she was a child and loves to write in various genres including Magical Realism, Urban Gothic, Science Fiction, and Literary Fiction. She has a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Washington.
D.K. Cassidy lives in the Pacific Northwest with her greatest fans: her husband Mark, twin sons Aidan and Jared, and three cats. When not writing, she loves to travel, run, knit, use the Oxford comma, and of course read!
D.K. Cassidy lives in the Pacific Northwest with her greatest fans: her husband Mark, twin sons Aidan and Jared, and three cats. When not writing, she loves to travel, run, knit, use the Oxford comma, and of course read!
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
April 17, 2017
Another intriguing well-written story from this talented author. The Sleepless is an imaginative tale with appealing characters and plenty of action. A plague of sleeplessness is such an interesting premise and the plot just takes off from there. Fast-paced, the story will keep you turning pages as it sweeps you into a world immersed in conflict 2111-style. Sci-fi with a unique dystopian vision.
April 14, 2017
I always enjoy D.K. Cassidy's books. From Spilt milk and every thing in between, she manages to take you into her world with her, oh so real characters.
This Science Fiction story is a bit of a departure from the author's other books, but she manages to twist a tale with ease and with great, snappy writing that kept me engrossed throughout.
Sleepers is a great example of how an expert author can take a futuristic tale and write it so well It almost seems plausible.
Read this book. You will be glad you live in the present and are able, and permitted to have a good night's sleep.
This Science Fiction story is a bit of a departure from the author's other books, but she manages to twist a tale with ease and with great, snappy writing that kept me engrossed throughout.
Sleepers is a great example of how an expert author can take a futuristic tale and write it so well It almost seems plausible.
Read this book. You will be glad you live in the present and are able, and permitted to have a good night's sleep.
September 28, 2017
The Sleepless (Insomnolence Book 1) Kindle Edition
by D.K. Cassidy
Great reading!
Super futuristic adventure, one to certainly capture the reader's attention.
Looking forward to Book 2.
Superb future tales.
by D.K. Cassidy
Great reading!
Super futuristic adventure, one to certainly capture the reader's attention.
Looking forward to Book 2.
Superb future tales.
June 2, 2017
Another great book! Loved it!
April 26, 2017
D.K. Cassidy states she likes to mess with your mind - THE SLEEPLESS fits her goal. A look into the future that even though on the fringes of reality has the potential of coming true in one form or another - who knows what the government can come up with all under the myth you need our protection from almost everything. Science Fiction that will make you think and maybe lose a little sleep.
June 12, 2019
Garbage! All of it, just garbage!
Do you know how long it takes for this book to get on with Kate's job of the day, cleaning up dead bodies? From the moment she gets the assignment to when it's done?
15 CHAPTERS.
15 fucking chapters with timestamps on them, some barely 5 pages long with sequences paragraph-long, about nothing
LET ME SHOW YOU
Chapter 2: Kate snaps at the guy responsible for giving her a job and gets the cleaning up assignment.
Chapter 3: Flashback to six months "BIB", aka "before insomnolence began" aka way too dramatic. Kate gets a package telling her to go someplace. She talks about it to her grandma before complaining about her job. She gets a phone call and lets it go to voicemail because "they would text her if it was important" before realizing it's her dream job.
Chapter 4: Still a flashback. She got the job and goes to the package place and gets a free super high tech phone. No, it's never mentioned again.
Chapter 5: Flashback from some of the Sleepers' perspective, how they notice they can still sleep and run away from their loved ones who don't in fear of being reported.
Chapter 6: Flashback from Decker, about how he's a goddamned purist and judges everyone looking at their phones as sheep while he runs into Kate and decides to paint her waiting for her phone with the others.
Chapter 7: Back to the present! Well, maybe. It keeps switching between the present and the first night of sleeplessness. In present time, she meets up with Decker.
Chapter 8: Decker shows her this ridiculously high tech thing that can fool the detector in Kate's head that she did the job while he does it for her. There's this ridiculous moment where Decker says "we made it", Kate is like "we?" and Decker is like "a mere slip of the tongue (ACTUAL LINE)" and later they feel the need to clarify that no, it wasn't a slip of the tongue, like anyone would actually fall for it. ANYWAY they enter the arena to clean up the bodies and Kate gets triggered by Decker making a dark joke, saying if he jokes about death he'll lose his humanity. Decker then starts doing Kate's job while she sits on a log and listens to music.
Chapter 9: Pete is the guy who gave Kate her job. He has a black market business where he sells the sleeping pills everyone wants, but split from his partner in a flashback because he's asking for sexual favors from the customers and Pete doesn't agree with it. Pete gets home and sits down to watch this book's shitty version of the hunger games.
Chapter 10: Remus was Pete's partner and now he wants revenge. He goes to the cops and says Pete might be working for the Sleepers (a lie) and is tasked with infiltrating them for some retarded reason. While spying on Pete he sees Decker steal his pills but is unable to follow him.
Chapter 11: Ling is a player of shit hunger games who volunteered to assure her parents a nice life. She runs away because she's scared of dying, forgets her pills and sits in a tree before being found and taken back.
Chapter 12: Pete's watching the show. Ling is fighting a guy called Aidan who's feeling just as scared as she is.
Chapter 13: Pete is sad the fight was so short. Ling is dead. He thinks about his wife who killed herself by not taking pills.
Chapter 14: Aidan has to fight the other guy. Jordan has a family to protect, yadda yadda. He dies too. And that's the end of the hunger games, Aidan won.
Chapter 15: Kate is sad about the hunger games. We see what their parents think of their kids dying. There's a poll and you have like 2 min to answer before he reads the answers.
Chapter 16: Exposition about the hunger games. Decker is still cleaning. He meets Aidan who's back to mope and they talk before Decker FINALLY goes away with Kate as the job is over.
THIS IS NOT OK.
Let me tell this author something: I don't care about Ling, I don't care about Pete, I don't care about Aidan, Jordan, Claudia, Jeremy, and their families. Hell, I don't even care about Decker and Kate! You know why? Excluding the fact that they're pretty unlikeable and boring? You need to make me care, and sorry author, but you're not Quil Carter, for only he can make my cold mean heart care about every godforsaken character in his stories- nah but seriously, playing the "he has a family and he needs to protect them and he might die isn't sad" card is cheap and bad and you should feel bad.
First thing is that the difference between Quil and this author is that he writes goddamned dictionaries! These characters get entire books to themselves before being even mentioned in the main story, where here it's 4 chapters that could've been 1! Because nothing happens in them! The characters aren't three-dimensional or interesting enough to carry introspection like Jade and Reaver, the set up is played so overly dramatically when it's actually really dumb it takes away from any realistic reaction I could have because all these idiots do is be overly dramatic.
Wow this Fallocaust comparison is actually more relevant than I thought and totally not because I love that series and I want to talk about it all the time. In case you don't know, Fallocaust is also one of these stories where the set up is actually really dumb- the world has been destroyed by a nuclear war and is now ruled by an immortal gay king and his just as immortal and gay clones. But you know what? It doesn't matter, because the author knows it! He doesn't pretend it's anything but what it is- no one is crying over jokes or "losing their humanity" no, they're crying because of actual reasons to cry. Which is why it's so good.
Here? People can't sleep naturally anymore. They say there's no cure, but there are pills to make them sleep.
they could also just read this book it'll put them to sleep just as well
Yet it's they need to live in a quarantined area doing useless job work and fight to the death in the hunger games while being lied to about the state of the world- it's actually fine, the sleepless are a minority and the rest of the US is fine, kinda.
How about
Hear me out there
They return to society, do their actual jobs and are prescribed the pills
BUT HUNGER GAMES!!!
/I am so confused about that, it's only been 10 years and murder is a sport again, and also we see at the end that the US government is still a thing and that they don't want the sleepless euthanized, so either 1) they know about the hunger games but don't care or 2) they don't know about the hunger games in which case means the Nation's (the name of the quarantined place, very original) president could just... kill everyone by herself, as the US gov clearly doesn't have a way to see what's happening in there.
In whatever world would "omg! these people can't sleep!" lead to "WE MUST QUARANTINE THEM AND MAKE A WALL OUT OF PERFECTLY GOOD BUILDINGS"
Watch out insomniacs the government is coming for you
It's so dumb overall. There's other random chapters from characters we barely know- and we barely know the main characters because of that- , one sleeper is like "there are other groups like us" years after being in this group and this is the first time she's telling them because SHE NEVER THOUGHT TO.
I know someone else who didn't think about a lot of this here-
In conclusion, this is bad and you should feel bad. Definitely amongst one of the most boring, nothing books I've ever read. I could tell this story and more in half the chapters.
Do you know how long it takes for this book to get on with Kate's job of the day, cleaning up dead bodies? From the moment she gets the assignment to when it's done?
15 CHAPTERS.
15 fucking chapters with timestamps on them, some barely 5 pages long with sequences paragraph-long, about nothing
LET ME SHOW YOU
Chapter 2: Kate snaps at the guy responsible for giving her a job and gets the cleaning up assignment.
Chapter 3: Flashback to six months "BIB", aka "before insomnolence began" aka way too dramatic. Kate gets a package telling her to go someplace. She talks about it to her grandma before complaining about her job. She gets a phone call and lets it go to voicemail because "they would text her if it was important" before realizing it's her dream job.
Chapter 4: Still a flashback. She got the job and goes to the package place and gets a free super high tech phone. No, it's never mentioned again.
Chapter 5: Flashback from some of the Sleepers' perspective, how they notice they can still sleep and run away from their loved ones who don't in fear of being reported.
Chapter 6: Flashback from Decker, about how he's a goddamned purist and judges everyone looking at their phones as sheep while he runs into Kate and decides to paint her waiting for her phone with the others.
Chapter 7: Back to the present! Well, maybe. It keeps switching between the present and the first night of sleeplessness. In present time, she meets up with Decker.
Chapter 8: Decker shows her this ridiculously high tech thing that can fool the detector in Kate's head that she did the job while he does it for her. There's this ridiculous moment where Decker says "we made it", Kate is like "we?" and Decker is like "a mere slip of the tongue (ACTUAL LINE)" and later they feel the need to clarify that no, it wasn't a slip of the tongue, like anyone would actually fall for it. ANYWAY they enter the arena to clean up the bodies and Kate gets triggered by Decker making a dark joke, saying if he jokes about death he'll lose his humanity. Decker then starts doing Kate's job while she sits on a log and listens to music.
Chapter 9: Pete is the guy who gave Kate her job. He has a black market business where he sells the sleeping pills everyone wants, but split from his partner in a flashback because he's asking for sexual favors from the customers and Pete doesn't agree with it. Pete gets home and sits down to watch this book's shitty version of the hunger games.
Chapter 10: Remus was Pete's partner and now he wants revenge. He goes to the cops and says Pete might be working for the Sleepers (a lie) and is tasked with infiltrating them for some retarded reason. While spying on Pete he sees Decker steal his pills but is unable to follow him.
Chapter 11: Ling is a player of shit hunger games who volunteered to assure her parents a nice life. She runs away because she's scared of dying, forgets her pills and sits in a tree before being found and taken back.
Chapter 12: Pete's watching the show. Ling is fighting a guy called Aidan who's feeling just as scared as she is.
Chapter 13: Pete is sad the fight was so short. Ling is dead. He thinks about his wife who killed herself by not taking pills.
Chapter 14: Aidan has to fight the other guy. Jordan has a family to protect, yadda yadda. He dies too. And that's the end of the hunger games, Aidan won.
Chapter 15: Kate is sad about the hunger games. We see what their parents think of their kids dying. There's a poll and you have like 2 min to answer before he reads the answers.
Chapter 16: Exposition about the hunger games. Decker is still cleaning. He meets Aidan who's back to mope and they talk before Decker FINALLY goes away with Kate as the job is over.
THIS IS NOT OK.
Let me tell this author something: I don't care about Ling, I don't care about Pete, I don't care about Aidan, Jordan, Claudia, Jeremy, and their families. Hell, I don't even care about Decker and Kate! You know why? Excluding the fact that they're pretty unlikeable and boring? You need to make me care, and sorry author, but you're not Quil Carter, for only he can make my cold mean heart care about every godforsaken character in his stories- nah but seriously, playing the "he has a family and he needs to protect them and he might die isn't sad" card is cheap and bad and you should feel bad.
First thing is that the difference between Quil and this author is that he writes goddamned dictionaries! These characters get entire books to themselves before being even mentioned in the main story, where here it's 4 chapters that could've been 1! Because nothing happens in them! The characters aren't three-dimensional or interesting enough to carry introspection like Jade and Reaver, the set up is played so overly dramatically when it's actually really dumb it takes away from any realistic reaction I could have because all these idiots do is be overly dramatic.
Wow this Fallocaust comparison is actually more relevant than I thought and totally not because I love that series and I want to talk about it all the time. In case you don't know, Fallocaust is also one of these stories where the set up is actually really dumb- the world has been destroyed by a nuclear war and is now ruled by an immortal gay king and his just as immortal and gay clones. But you know what? It doesn't matter, because the author knows it! He doesn't pretend it's anything but what it is- no one is crying over jokes or "losing their humanity" no, they're crying because of actual reasons to cry. Which is why it's so good.
Here? People can't sleep naturally anymore. They say there's no cure, but there are pills to make them sleep.
Yet it's they need to live in a quarantined area doing useless job work and fight to the death in the hunger games while being lied to about the state of the world- it's actually fine, the sleepless are a minority and the rest of the US is fine, kinda.
How about
Hear me out there
They return to society, do their actual jobs and are prescribed the pills
BUT HUNGER GAMES!!!
/I am so confused about that, it's only been 10 years and murder is a sport again, and also we see at the end that the US government is still a thing and that they don't want the sleepless euthanized, so either 1) they know about the hunger games but don't care or 2) they don't know about the hunger games in which case means the Nation's (the name of the quarantined place, very original) president could just... kill everyone by herself, as the US gov clearly doesn't have a way to see what's happening in there.
In whatever world would "omg! these people can't sleep!" lead to "WE MUST QUARANTINE THEM AND MAKE A WALL OUT OF PERFECTLY GOOD BUILDINGS"
Watch out insomniacs the government is coming for you
It's so dumb overall. There's other random chapters from characters we barely know- and we barely know the main characters because of that- , one sleeper is like "there are other groups like us" years after being in this group and this is the first time she's telling them because SHE NEVER THOUGHT TO.
I know someone else who didn't think about a lot of this here-
In conclusion, this is bad and you should feel bad. Definitely amongst one of the most boring, nothing books I've ever read. I could tell this story and more in half the chapters.
November 11, 2019
In the year 2111, citizens of the Nation all suffer from a strange illness--they cannot sleep. Walled off from the rest of the world to protect themselves and the rest of what remains of humanity, they lead pretty dull lives. Kate is one of those who suffer from perpetual insomnia unless she earns the required pills that allow her to sleep. Stuck cleaning up the remains of bodies after the Sector Series, she is often helped by Decker who unbeknownst to her can sleep. He's part of an underground group that have hidden themselves from the government fearing they too will disappear like so many other sleepers. But when Decker reveals himself to Kate, he makes her an offer that she may not be able to refuse.
I really liked the premise and the set-up of the book as it was different from much of the other scifi I read. It had a lot of promise that unfortunately didn't really deliver. First, the character dialogue tended to be flat as did the characters themselves. Everyone was so polite and no one ever got angry or violent except during the Series Sector Games which was a rip off of The Hunger Games. We learn later that passivity is part of the illness, which made having the games seem an odd choice for a government trying to keep an already passive population entertained. This key plot point painted the writer into a box. Since no one could show their true anger and their emotions were subdued, it made the underground movement the village of the happy people and even the bad guy following them not a real threat. I never felt any sense of urgency from the main characters. There was a threat from the outside, but they didn't know anything about it.
To me the real story was happening outside the Nation. It's possible the second book delves into it, but I wish the author had thought through the effects of this illness on how her characters would be perceived by a reader. I think she could have come up with something much more interesting.
I really liked the premise and the set-up of the book as it was different from much of the other scifi I read. It had a lot of promise that unfortunately didn't really deliver. First, the character dialogue tended to be flat as did the characters themselves. Everyone was so polite and no one ever got angry or violent except during the Series Sector Games which was a rip off of The Hunger Games. We learn later that passivity is part of the illness, which made having the games seem an odd choice for a government trying to keep an already passive population entertained. This key plot point painted the writer into a box. Since no one could show their true anger and their emotions were subdued, it made the underground movement the village of the happy people and even the bad guy following them not a real threat. I never felt any sense of urgency from the main characters. There was a threat from the outside, but they didn't know anything about it.
To me the real story was happening outside the Nation. It's possible the second book delves into it, but I wish the author had thought through the effects of this illness on how her characters would be perceived by a reader. I think she could have come up with something much more interesting.
September 26, 2017
The Sleepless (Insomnolence Book 1), begins a new D.K. Cassidy series. If you like this author, you'll mightily enjoy this offering. If you're not familiar with Cassidy, this is a good place to start. Set in 2111, where the protagonists live in a Nation where sleep must be earned, the world building here is well done. Our heroine Kate works hard at a series of dead-end jobs that grind on her. She wants only to find her way back to a half-remember dreamland ... Her soul in tatters, she searches for a better life that may never be hers. A man called Decker indoctrinates her into a group called "Sleepers": where most can't sleep without expensive artificial aids, these folk can and do sleep -- which makes them rebels. Interested? I was - and am, in this writer. Try this book, reminiscent of the good-old-days when science fiction had social conscience, offering risky truths and a cautionary aspect that one seldom sees today, with everyone bludgeoned into politically-correct sameness. An ambitious book, well told.
Stay in her seemingly hopeless yet safe world.
Or help the Sleepers uncover the mystery behind the sleepless plague.
Stay in her seemingly hopeless yet safe world.
Or help the Sleepers uncover the mystery behind the sleepless plague.
October 29, 2018
The Sleepless (Insomnolence, Book One) by D.K. Cassidy
This is a unique futuristic tale in 2111. Where in the Nation sleep is earned by doing jobs most of us would not even phantom such as the ghastly “arena cleanup,” and illegal trade for sleep pills. The Sector Series fights are brutal, but I had sympathy for the compelling fighters. I was engrossed with all the characters’ plight in this scientific and dark government world. Will the CDC find a cure for the sleepless? Cassidy has a gift for creating fascinating and captivating surreal tales that compels you to ponder the unimaginable. Well done!
This is a unique futuristic tale in 2111. Where in the Nation sleep is earned by doing jobs most of us would not even phantom such as the ghastly “arena cleanup,” and illegal trade for sleep pills. The Sector Series fights are brutal, but I had sympathy for the compelling fighters. I was engrossed with all the characters’ plight in this scientific and dark government world. Will the CDC find a cure for the sleepless? Cassidy has a gift for creating fascinating and captivating surreal tales that compels you to ponder the unimaginable. Well done!
September 30, 2017
An outstanding story, so different and gripping. Starting with such unusual premise, the plots piques right away with an endearing character of Kate and most intriguing developments that she must face unless wishing to go on with the pointless existence, working for a few hours of paid-for sleep. But the Sleepers might need her help. A riveting story with twists and turns aplenty. A wonderful read!
September 30, 2017
In 2111, the important things in life are given code names and referred to by acronyms. If that wasn’t bad enough, sleep, is tampered with and as a result, some citizens are going around craving sleep, which they can't seem to get enough of. The country is divided into Sleepers and the Sleepless. Pills and injections are given to one group, and the other group has to steal or kill to get them.
A fast-paced read with well-developed characters and plot.
A fast-paced read with well-developed characters and plot.
January 24, 2020
A compelling post-apocalyptic tale. The characters are deep and consistent for the most part, and as someone with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, I find the idea of being tired all the time quite relatable (though there weren't as many descriptions of bone-weariness or brain fog as I expected). Happy to read the next one.
February 4, 2018
Not being able to does not mean you don't need sleep
Extremely intriguing storyline. You start reading about a world where you have to take a pill to be able to sleep. But the sleep must be earned. The big question is- why?
Extremely intriguing storyline. You start reading about a world where you have to take a pill to be able to sleep. But the sleep must be earned. The big question is- why?
September 28, 2017
I loved The Sleepless. D. K. Cassidy is one of my fav authors and I'm always quick to grab her latest. The intriguing sci-fi plot keeps you on the edge of your seat. No spoilers here! Fascinating and I give it 5 stars.
June 19, 2017
This was another great read by D.K. Cassidy! As someone who LOVES sleeping, this one definitely kept me up at night thinking. It's a science-fiction, dystopian type book set in 2111 in a world that is plagued by sleeplessness. Although it is science-fiction it is incredibly realistic and really makes you wonder, "what if this could actually happen?!" This was a very fast-paced read with well developed characters and an ever better plot. Highly recommend!
April 15, 2017
I'm new to the science fiction genre, but this book reeled me in hook, line and sinker. The Sleepless story line was mesmerizing and easily catapulted me into a gloriously-constructed, futuristic world where I lost all sense of space and time. It truly was a fascinating read that provided me with some much needed escapism. Five stars for this highly recommended novel.
April 16, 2017
D. K. Cassidy has created a futuristic world in 2111, in which the important things in life are given code names and referred to only by acronyms. If that wasn’t bad enough, one of the most critical needs, besides food and water, sleep, is tampered with by the government in a hellish virus experiment. As a result, some citizens are going around craving sleep, which they can't seem to get enough of. The country is divided up into two fractions, (Sector Series): The Sleepers and the Sleepless. Pills and injections are given to one group, and the other group has to steal or kill to get their hands on the pills. What a concept. Now the situation is quickly unraveling, let’s hope Dr. Anne Beaumont and her fellow scientists at the CDC can fix it. After all, it started with her group. Great Sci-Fi.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews