What do you think?
Rate this book
SOMBRE. #1
A gripping new series that combines Steampunk, Horror and Macabre Fantasy.
Hope Kelley dreams every night. Every night she dreams in Sombre. Sombre is an existence beyond any other. A nightmare world so lucid, it can be felt, it exists.
The Kelley’s have just moved to Pento, a town in California. Hope is fifteen. Introverted and self-conscious she struggles to make friends. A new town is hard.
To make it even harder, Sombre, has taken over her life.
It all starts with a dream – a violent one. This dream is her Rite of Passage into the nightmare world of Sombre where she becomes the wonderfully spirited and sassy Halliday Knight. Halliday rides her machanihorse, Wilder, through Sombre’s endless nightmare towns and borough’s, rescuing earth’s troubled sleepers – building Sombre’s ever increasing population … one broken corpse at a time.
Hope wakes each morning feeling every stab, punch, and bite, Halliday receives on her nightly missions in the nightmare world.
Hope’s waking world begins to clash with her sleeping one as she discovers that there is another that endures Sombre. Someone close. An unlikely friendship evolves.
Hope Kelley’s world changes forever.
Hope Kelley dreams every night. Every night she dreams in Sombre. Sombre is an existence beyond any other. A nightmare world so lucid, it can be felt, it exists.
The Kelley’s have just moved to Pento, a town in California. Hope is fifteen. Introverted and self-conscious she struggles to make friends. A new town is hard.
To make it even harder, Sombre, has taken over her life.
It all starts with a dream – a violent one. This dream is her Rite of Passage into the nightmare world of Sombre where she becomes the wonderfully spirited and sassy Halliday Knight. Halliday rides her machanihorse, Wilder, through Sombre’s endless nightmare towns and borough’s, rescuing earth’s troubled sleepers – building Sombre’s ever increasing population … one broken corpse at a time.
Hope wakes each morning feeling every stab, punch, and bite, Halliday receives on her nightly missions in the nightmare world.
Hope’s waking world begins to clash with her sleeping one as she discovers that there is another that endures Sombre. Someone close. An unlikely friendship evolves.
Hope Kelley’s world changes forever.
297 pages, Paperback
First published May 25, 2020
4 people want to read
About the author
S.B. Norton
8 books9 followersS.B.Norton is a Speculative/Fantasy Fiction writer from Melbourne Australia. Has been a writer since 2009 and has five published novels to his name. Writing is pure escapism for him. The worlds he creates he escapes into often. He is a slow and fussy reader and is not a fan of dragons.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 13, 2024
This is a genre bending novel, combining dark fantasy, horror, and a pinch of steam punk perhaps? Whatever you want to call it, it's a fantastic book and different than anything else you'll read.
Our protagonist is a fifteen year old girl. In life, she's friendless, geeky, and seems to be a burden to her family. But every night, she's a Gatherer in a realm named Sombre.
In this world, she's a hard drinking, badass who rescues people trapped in their nightmares from the terrifying creatures lurking in this dreamscape.
Everyone here has a beating clock for a heart. They get only twelve beats before their life there is ended forever. Each beat is when they are killed and must be restored by the Menders.
When she finds out that other kids at school are somehow aware of Sombre, unlikely friendships will emerge as an evil attempts to take over this nightmare land. That world and what happens there also has consequences to the real world and bleeds over into one another affecting both.
That doesn't really do this book justice but you have to read it and find out the other secrets for yourself.
The bloody gruesome deaths and battles are thrilling and satisfying. And it's one of those weird books that is weird in the best possible way!
I thoroughly enjoyed this one and I highly recommend it.
Our protagonist is a fifteen year old girl. In life, she's friendless, geeky, and seems to be a burden to her family. But every night, she's a Gatherer in a realm named Sombre.
In this world, she's a hard drinking, badass who rescues people trapped in their nightmares from the terrifying creatures lurking in this dreamscape.
Everyone here has a beating clock for a heart. They get only twelve beats before their life there is ended forever. Each beat is when they are killed and must be restored by the Menders.
When she finds out that other kids at school are somehow aware of Sombre, unlikely friendships will emerge as an evil attempts to take over this nightmare land. That world and what happens there also has consequences to the real world and bleeds over into one another affecting both.
That doesn't really do this book justice but you have to read it and find out the other secrets for yourself.
The bloody gruesome deaths and battles are thrilling and satisfying. And it's one of those weird books that is weird in the best possible way!
I thoroughly enjoyed this one and I highly recommend it.
June 24, 2020
I can't say I've read anything quite like this book. A teen spends her day trying to survive school and her nights collecting stray nightmarers in a horrific realm where everything seems out to get you. Adding in a body chop shop of tangled limbs makes for quite a graphic plane of existence, and when it starts bleeding into the real world the protagonist discovers she's not alone. Unlikely friendships bloom and the girl who doesn't fit in becomes the hero of Sombre.
June 11, 2020
Sombre is a nightmare world.
There is only one way in.
The Rite of Passage nightmare – and it’s always a very violent one.
Hope Kelley’s family have just moved to Pento, a town in California. She has a new school, no friends and woeful eyesight. Friendships have always been hard to come by for Hope. To make matters worse, Sombre, has taken over her life. When she falls asleep, she dreams so-very-violently. This dream then takes her onto the nightmare world of Sombre where she becomes a ‘Gatherer’ – the wonderfully spirited and sassy, happily sociopathic and violent, Halliday Knight.
Halliday Knight’s sole job as a Gatherer is to go into any and many of Sombre’s nightmare towns and boroughs and retrieve new Nightmarers, who have generally been scathed or murdered by Sombre’s collection of violent citizens. Her mode of transport is her machanihorse, Wilder, part pure equine-part steam driven machine. On the back of her faithful mare, she then takes the hapless new Nightmarer, dead or alive, to The Office of The Menders, where the Nightmarer is made a brand new citizen of Sombre.
A Sombre citizen’s existence can be a fleeting one as they live by their Beating Clock, a timepiece planted in the chest that replaces the heart. Each time a citizen dies beyond a Mender’s repair, another stroke gets added to the Beating Clock. Twelve strokes and life will end in Sombre for said citizen.
The most wondrously vivid thing about Sombre is how wasted and sore Hope feels when she wakes in the morning. Every hit and stab, every drink Halliday Knight has at the bar she and her fellow gatherers inhabit (far too often it seems!) - Hope Kelley can feel.
So being the author, I wont be giving too much of the plot away, all the wildly diverse characters, wacky machinery, evil villains, the horror of it all and that indeed, Hope does actually find a decent friend (see how easy it is to spill these things!).
All I will say is that Sombre is a very different YA read. If you, like me, enjoy things a little out of the ordinary, all things Horror, Fantasy, Steampunk, Action and Humor – you will find a lot to like in Sombre.
Thank you.
There is only one way in.
The Rite of Passage nightmare – and it’s always a very violent one.
Hope Kelley’s family have just moved to Pento, a town in California. She has a new school, no friends and woeful eyesight. Friendships have always been hard to come by for Hope. To make matters worse, Sombre, has taken over her life. When she falls asleep, she dreams so-very-violently. This dream then takes her onto the nightmare world of Sombre where she becomes a ‘Gatherer’ – the wonderfully spirited and sassy, happily sociopathic and violent, Halliday Knight.
Halliday Knight’s sole job as a Gatherer is to go into any and many of Sombre’s nightmare towns and boroughs and retrieve new Nightmarers, who have generally been scathed or murdered by Sombre’s collection of violent citizens. Her mode of transport is her machanihorse, Wilder, part pure equine-part steam driven machine. On the back of her faithful mare, she then takes the hapless new Nightmarer, dead or alive, to The Office of The Menders, where the Nightmarer is made a brand new citizen of Sombre.
A Sombre citizen’s existence can be a fleeting one as they live by their Beating Clock, a timepiece planted in the chest that replaces the heart. Each time a citizen dies beyond a Mender’s repair, another stroke gets added to the Beating Clock. Twelve strokes and life will end in Sombre for said citizen.
The most wondrously vivid thing about Sombre is how wasted and sore Hope feels when she wakes in the morning. Every hit and stab, every drink Halliday Knight has at the bar she and her fellow gatherers inhabit (far too often it seems!) - Hope Kelley can feel.
So being the author, I wont be giving too much of the plot away, all the wildly diverse characters, wacky machinery, evil villains, the horror of it all and that indeed, Hope does actually find a decent friend (see how easy it is to spill these things!).
All I will say is that Sombre is a very different YA read. If you, like me, enjoy things a little out of the ordinary, all things Horror, Fantasy, Steampunk, Action and Humor – you will find a lot to like in Sombre.
Thank you.
June 13, 2020
A couple of years ago I read S.B Norton’s book the Flames from the North. I enjoyed it but didn’t pick up the other books in that series. I saw a post on instagram advertising this book Sombre. Thought I would give it a go. I don’t usually do reviews - but I just had to on this book! I don’t remember him writing like this! This is the best fantasy book I’ve read in ages! Hope Kelley and Halliday Knight are great characters. I loved the way Hope was a dork and dreams and becomes this ultra cool Halliday Knight night woman. There are so many gory and horror bits and I really like how they all live by a clock in their chests! The story is faster paced than most fantasy books and that works for me. There are so many characters I loved in this book. Recalcitrance Bexley and Dave Biplane were my favourites! I can’t recommend this enough if you love fantasy! Impressive! Easy 5 star rating from me.
Jeffrey Johns
Jeffrey Johns
May 31, 2020
I really enjoyed SB Norton’s first series of books so I was looking forward to the release of sombre! This has been one of my favourite books that I have read this year, the book jumped right into the action and it was a very entertaining ride. The characters really spoke to me because they made me laugh and smile, the towns in sombre were so wacky yet cool and spooky. I’m hoping this will be a series and I’m looking forward to the next book.
July 10, 2020
I really enjoyed this and read it in a weekend. I can’t wait for the next one!!! The characters are fun and likeable, the story is really fast paced but it did get a bit scary and creepy for me in some parts. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who likes a bit of horror in their reading, it’s a real page turner.
December 1, 2024
I didn’t like this book. Only made it half way through. Just feels like a bunch of rambling.
June 11, 2020
Sombre is a nightmare world.
There is only one way in.
The Rite of Passage nightmare – and it’s always a very violent one.
Hope Kelley’s family have just moved to Pento, a town in California. She has a new school, no friends and woeful eyesight. Friendships have always been hard to come by for Hope. To make matters worse, Sombre, has taken over her life. When she falls asleep, she dreams so-very-violently. This dream then takes her onto the nightmare world of Sombre where she becomes a ‘Gatherer’ – the wonderfully spirited and sassy, happily sociopathic and violent, Halliday Knight.
Halliday Knight’s sole job as a Gatherer is to go into any and many of Sombre’s nightmare towns and boroughs and retrieve new Nightmarers, who have generally been scathed or murdered by Sombre’s collection of violent citizens. Her mode of transport is her machanihorse, Wilder, part pure equine-part steam driven machine. On the back of her faithful mare, she then takes the hapless new Nightmarer, dead or alive, to The Office of The Menders, where the Nightmarer is made a brand new citizen of Sombre.
A Sombre citizen’s existence can be a fleeting one as they live by their Beating Clock, a timepiece planted in the chest that replaces the heart. Each time a citizen dies beyond a Mender’s repair, another stroke gets added to the Beating Clock. Twelve strokes and life will end in Sombre for said citizen.
The most wondrously vivid thing about Sombre is how wasted and sore Hope feels when she wakes in the morning. Every hit and stab, every drink Halliday Knight has at the bar she and her fellow gatherers inhabit (far too often it seems!) - Hope Kelley can feel.
So being the author, I wont be giving too much of the plot away, all the wildly diverse characters, wacky machinery, evil villains, the horror of it all and that indeed, Hope does actually find a decent friend (see how easy it is to spill these things!).
All I will say is that Sombre is a very different YA read. If you, like me, enjoy things a little out of the ordinary, all things Horror, Fantasy, Steampunk, Action and Humor – you will find a lot to like in Sombre.
Thank you.
There is only one way in.
The Rite of Passage nightmare – and it’s always a very violent one.
Hope Kelley’s family have just moved to Pento, a town in California. She has a new school, no friends and woeful eyesight. Friendships have always been hard to come by for Hope. To make matters worse, Sombre, has taken over her life. When she falls asleep, she dreams so-very-violently. This dream then takes her onto the nightmare world of Sombre where she becomes a ‘Gatherer’ – the wonderfully spirited and sassy, happily sociopathic and violent, Halliday Knight.
Halliday Knight’s sole job as a Gatherer is to go into any and many of Sombre’s nightmare towns and boroughs and retrieve new Nightmarers, who have generally been scathed or murdered by Sombre’s collection of violent citizens. Her mode of transport is her machanihorse, Wilder, part pure equine-part steam driven machine. On the back of her faithful mare, she then takes the hapless new Nightmarer, dead or alive, to The Office of The Menders, where the Nightmarer is made a brand new citizen of Sombre.
A Sombre citizen’s existence can be a fleeting one as they live by their Beating Clock, a timepiece planted in the chest that replaces the heart. Each time a citizen dies beyond a Mender’s repair, another stroke gets added to the Beating Clock. Twelve strokes and life will end in Sombre for said citizen.
The most wondrously vivid thing about Sombre is how wasted and sore Hope feels when she wakes in the morning. Every hit and stab, every drink Halliday Knight has at the bar she and her fellow gatherers inhabit (far too often it seems!) - Hope Kelley can feel.
So being the author, I wont be giving too much of the plot away, all the wildly diverse characters, wacky machinery, evil villains, the horror of it all and that indeed, Hope does actually find a decent friend (see how easy it is to spill these things!).
All I will say is that Sombre is a very different YA read. If you, like me, enjoy things a little out of the ordinary, all things Horror, Fantasy, Steampunk, Action and Humor – you will find a lot to like in Sombre.
Thank you.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews