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Sleepless

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SOMEONE ELSE WILL DIE SOON she tells herself.
SOMEONE ELSE WILL DIE AND I WILL BE RESPONSIBLE.

A few days after the first time you
walk in your sleep, you kill someone.
That's how the end begins.


Emma Montgomery has been having gruesome nightmares. Even worse, when she wakes up, she isn't where she was when she fell asleep. And she's not the only one. One by one the students of Saint Opportuna High start having nightmares, and sleepwalking. And the next morning one of their classmates turns up dead. Something is making them kill in their sleep. Emma and her friends need to band together, to keep themselves awake until they can figure out what's behind the murders-before anyone else dies.

224 pages, Hardcover

First published July 28, 2009

30 people are currently reading
1748 people want to read

About the author

Thomas Fahy

26 books53 followers
Thomas Fahy is a nonfiction writer, novelist, and professor of literature and creative writing. His most recent book, The Life of the Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald, is being released in the fall of 2025. He has also published essays on everything from Paris Hilton and 1980s vampire films to contemporary television and theater. His works have been translated into several languages, and he has been interviewed by the Associated Press, Salon, and other publications, as well as radio hosts in the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, Ireland, and Malaysia. He was recently featured in a documentary about Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood for Arte Television and on the BBC radio program “Literary Pursuits.”

When he is not writing, Dr. Fahy performs regularly as a classical pianist with the New York Piano Society and has appeared in recent concerts at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Merkin Concert Hall, and other venues in New York City.

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5 stars
203 (21%)
4 stars
230 (24%)
3 stars
300 (32%)
2 stars
141 (15%)
1 star
60 (6%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 137 reviews
Profile Image for ⭒Christie ☽✯➳✯☾.
228 reviews3 followers
February 14, 2018
Well I don’t know where to start. Do I start by saying I hated all the characters? The authors writing style? The empty shallow ridiculous conclusion? Nah, I’ll just say skip this b.s. book. 👎🏼
Profile Image for Annie.
122 reviews13 followers
October 8, 2014
Isn’t the cover amazing! It caught my eye right away and I couldn’t wait to dive into the story. But, in the end, I was disappointed with many aspects of the book but in love with other parts.

I’ve found that most horror novels I read start off horribly. They’re incredibly boring and I have to force myself to read the book. Sleepless was no exception. Even right now trying to write this review, I can’t remember what the first half of the book was about. I just read it. I did soak up the main details and the important plot points but nothing else really mattered I just wanted something scary to happen. Also, I was not a fan of the way the novel switched between telling the present and telling the past and the dreams. I found it to be choppy and confusing.

That being said, the last half of the book was amazing. It was scary with great twists, everything that should be in a good horror novel. Best of all it was very fast paced nothing that was unneeded happened. Also Fahy’s descriptive writing which I had found long and annoying in the beginning was greatly appreciated during the ending because it brought the story to life.

Even though, it took me a day to read the first 100 pages and an hour to read the last 100, I did enjoy the novel. The ending was enough to redeem the book in my opinion. What do you guys think did you like the book?
Check out my book review blog at www.anibelle.blogspot.com
Profile Image for Mitchel Broussard.
247 reviews250 followers
December 15, 2009
It starts off menacing enough, with a prologue meant to grab your interest (it may, did for me) and then moves along with frequent mentions of a class trip to New Orleans where something "terrible" happened, something nobody wants to talk about anymore. Turns out someone was murdered (shocker, i know) and the group of kids, including the teacher, swore never to tell anyone what happened.

Unfortunately, for everyone involved, when they got back home, one by one they start having nightmares, and one by one they start killing other students. This is the part that kind of lost me, i mean i know it would be terrible if i woke up to find out i had drowned someone in the ocean, but there's no real threat directly aimed to the main characters throughout the book (well except at the end, of course.) I just never felt like any of them would die or were in trouble, because they weren't. Only unimportant, barely mentioned characters get bumped off. And of course the one character from the group that does get killed, is done so by lighting himself on fire, he was just paranoid, never in real danger. He was also the least developed and most uninteresting of them all.

And then there's the final twist. I mean i can't say i saw it coming, because i didn't, and it was a nice change of pace to have something unexpected, i just did not fully see the character's motivation to do this to all of her fellow students. Yeah, she was "troubled" and having an affair with the teacher, whatever, i just felt there could have been a better reason for her to want to murder half her class. But, the way she did cause the sleepwalking was really neat: through hypnosis using this old projection machine with character's names etched into creepy old paintings. Sure its completely implausible but it sure is nifty!

So, it's a pretty quick read that is hampered down by a unfortunately uninteresting take on the "I Know What You Did Last Summer" story, a group of uninteresting characters, and a meandering plot that never really feels like it actually goes anywhere, especially anywhere interesting. I'd give it a 2.5 if i could, but i cant, and i'm not feeling generous today. A 2 out of 5.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
1 review
February 25, 2015
Being a horror fan, I was impelled to pick up this book. The whole concept made me think it was like A Nightmare on Elm Street, but it had a different twist to it. Instead of being killed in your sleep, the dreamers themselves are the killers. When they wake up they have no recollection of what happened, until they're left with a little hint at where they might've been and what they've done.

I liked the book, but I thought there could've been a little more added to it. This book leaves you with some questions that go unanswered the whole time. I feel as if I was more intrigued by the relationship between Emma and Jake. Any less of the horror involved would've made it just another love story between some troubled teens.

All of the characters except Emma were way too underdeveloped. Most of the book talks about Emma's past and her life in general. Readers don't really get a chance to relate with any of the other characters.

Personally, the book was lacking in the horror/gore parts so I would have liked to see more of that. Those parts of the book weren't as descriptive as I would've liked, but for others it could have been the perfect amount. Although there was a shock element at the end of the book the rest of the book was pretty dull.

It was still a good and quick read nonetheless!

Profile Image for Paige.
5 reviews
January 9, 2011
This book is about four teens who join this class. Then the pictures do some kind of voodoo type thing and make them kill people in their class or just people they dont like. Emma and jake end up having this thing. Emma is trying to figure out whats happening to everyone. she finds out that caitlin is behind all the killings. The killings are very graphic you can tell just by reading how gross the deaths are. there was this kid who is on the football team and his nickname is hicky stevens beacuse he gives like every girl hickies. This one girl who hates him. She sleepwalks then she finds him at the train station where the class is and she pushes him over the edge right in front of a train. He dies. Duncan sets himself on fire because he kept dreaming about killing lily the girl he likes. Lily goes insaine. Jake,Emma,Caitlin,Duncan, and Lily try staying up all night when they start sleepwalking/nightmares. Emma and Jake end up sleeping in the same bed then they end up making out. Dr. Beecher ends up dead in the end of the book because Caitlin stabs him and hits him in the junk.

I thougth this book was really good. It was a good read. You could read that book in days. It was graphic and fun to read. I would recommend people read the book
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Brittney.
15 reviews
Read
July 1, 2024
BEFORE:
I found Sleepless in the school library after being told that we're doing a project in english involving reading a book. No big deal.

The cover is amazing. Kind of cliche, but it makes you think. So a girl is wearing those eye cover things you use to sleep sometimes, and there's blood streaming out from behind it. E.W.

At 209 pages, this book is a bit shorter than I usually read, but this is for a class, so I didn't want to pick too big a book just in case I didn't like it. Because either way, I still have to read it. So, it's best that it's short.

I have high hopes for this book. I'm hoping that it will be scary, yet not too gory. It's hard to find a good book/movie that knows how to differentiate between the two.

So, I know by the blurb that Emma, the main character, starts having dreams, and she kills people in her sleep. Then people in her school start to have the dreams too, and kill people. They have to work together to stop themselves from killing anyone else.
Profile Image for Anto Tilio.
432 reviews55 followers
October 14, 2017
Me re gustó la idea del libro y los temas que toca. Interesante y perturbador.
Me jodió al final con el malo. Estaba tan segura de quién era y si bien también sospeché del que terminó siendo me hubiera gustado más si fuera el que pensaba. Aunque el desenlace le da un toque más de condimento a la historia y el villano es un personaje digno de analizar.
Profile Image for Christina.
Author 2 books34 followers
September 2, 2017
It seems to me that YA horror books are either good (original or using tropes in new ways) or bad (stuffed with clichés like a Thanksgiving turkey). It’s difficult to find books that go beyond the low budget horror films kind of suck. Sleepless was not one of those books. It just wasn’t very good.

The New Orleans backstory where the starting point of all that ensues was not fleshed out enough. I wasn’t comfortable with the fact that it was right after hurricane Katrina and the whole cliché of evil Voodoo magic was brought up. It just came across cheap and disrespectful.

As for the characters, I disliked them all. Didn’t care about who died or who lived. *shrug* The romance was highly annoying. Jake and Emma..I could have crawled into this book just to murder them both.

Jake is your typical pothead and drug dealer. He’s failing out of high school. No direction whatsoever in life besides wanting to sleep with the pretty Emma. And Emma likes him too. I don’t understand why but 99% of the time she’s thinking about him. Everybody else is dying but who cares, right? He admits he thinks he killed a girl on the beach, considering he woke up with sand all in his clothes and bed..but does this bother her? Nope.

Teens are dying under mysterious circumstances and this is her train of thought:

“Why won’t he touch me like that? Emma keeps asking herself.”

Not only that but she had some petty reasons to hate another girl. The list was things like big breasts, blonde hair and blue eyes, perfect body, and “putting the moves on Jake Hardale.”

… I know girls can be petty to the point of childishness..but in all my days of disliking someone, it was not because of their breast size or hair color. Emma retracts some of this once she gets to know the other girl a little more, but it’s painfully obvious that a dude is trying to write girls and it just didn't work. The only character with any real depth is Jake, even then it’s not much besides getting high and hoping to bang Emma.

If you’re looking for a good horror book to read, this is not it. So underwhelming from beginning to end.
639 reviews
January 23, 2011
I liked the book, I wanted to give it five stars, but there was a loose end that I just could not stand.
The loose end waas the whole Jake and Emma situation. I just love it when you get a book, and in the blurb, it doesn't mention anything about romance, and then in the book, there is some smoochy-smoochy or something. So, Jake and Emma both like each other and they hooked up in Jake's room before and yeah. And that's it. They like each other still, and worry about each other but nothing else happens. I mean, they were in abed making out with each other for heavens sake. And I know that there was stuff going on in their lives but I can't stop worrying abput what happens between them after.

Sometimes in the book when it is in dream sequence, I am confused. Like, not in all of the dreams, but in some of the dreams, I barely have any clue to what is going on. Maybe I was reading too fast, or just not paying attention or something but... I dunno. Blehy.

I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT! I had a feeling that person was making everything happen. I had a bad vibe coming from him/her. I never like him/her. Blehy. THAT PERSON'S AN EXSPIRED BURRITO!

I give tribute to all those people who died in the book because honestly, they didn't deserve to die. A moment of silence please............................

You ever notice that sometimes when you read a book and the book gives off this book-like smell. You just breathe it in and sigh. Not because it stinks or something, but because the smell relaes you or makes you feel good. The copy of this book that I had had that smell. Ah....

So yeah, here's my review. I seem to notice that my review now-a-days seem to just really talk about what happens in the books and not about the writing itself, so let us say someting about that.

Hmmm.
This book had very grown-up words. :D

Peace.
Profile Image for Christina.
66 reviews
December 22, 2015
"Someone else will die soon, she tells herself. Someone else will die, and I'll be responsible."

A group of teenagers in high school are in a club. They all have one thing in common. They all went to volunteer in New Orleans. Something happens and it is making some of them sleepwalk.
This story is told through Emma and Jake. Each chapter is told through their point of view. The premise hooked me but I was a little iffy about reading this book because some of the reviews said it wasn't scary. I went into this book thinking I won't be scared but halfway in I got spooked... This may not be the case for most of you but if you are scared easily, beware.

"Sons of Hypnos,
The gods who bring dreams into the world,
Bring us rest."


Profile Image for Laura.
818 reviews49 followers
March 7, 2010
Gets one star because I stopped reading and skimmed the rest of the book. I feel really disappointed in this book because the premise sounded great and the cover is beautifully haunted, I was hoping for a good horror novel.

I simply couldn't get past the third person present tense voice that jumps from narrator to narrator, and the tell, don't show descriptions. The choppy, disjointed sentences really kept me from getting involved in the book. From page 7:

"Jake Hardale likes old cars. Everything about them."
"He likes his job more than school, that's for sure. But Saint Opportuna High isn't the worst place in the world. Some of the girls are hot. Especially Emma Montgomery. Sure, she's a total nerd, always studying and carrying around a book, but still, she's hot."

Blugh. Then the book gets into some New Orleans Voodoo nonsense, and it completely lost me. Voodoo/Vodou/Voudon et al. is a real religion that involves ancestor worship and, particularly in Haitian Voodoo, is tied to Roman Catholicism. I'm not a big fan of raising yet another generation to have misconceptions and racist fears about a religion.
Anyway, I would ignore that if the plot made sense and/or the book was good.
Profile Image for Postal Dude.
32 reviews12 followers
January 14, 2023
Before I have decided to buy this book I read some reviews first.
Now that I have readed the book, I disagree with the biggest complain people had: the third person narrative. I wasn't a problem and was necessary to put both Emma and Jacke as main characters.
The real problem for me was in the plot. I sound kind weird and not because of the paranormal side of things.
First: I know it may be just me, but I found strange how in so small town there were such specialized business like a store for mystic artefacts and fortune reading. A kid that sells weed in large scale is there too. But the town was supposed to be the "smallest in country" according to the Jake! So how there were so many customers for such narrow business?
Second: What end was that? Or the writer got tired of writting or he didn't know how to end the story.
And at last: In a moment were you and your friends are having a collective sleeping walking crysis and may are being compelled to kill under supernatural force, thinking if you are going to hold hands with you crush is not your top priority! Those teenagers were too much stereotyped "teens in love" to be belivable in that storie.
Those flaws weren't so bad as they looks, but screw a plot that had so much potential.
2 reviews
February 12, 2019
Sleepless by Thomas Fahy was a very intriguing novel. I rate this three out of five stars because it was a decent book but not completely in my interest. The book is about a group of teens from Habitat for Humanity. The main characters are Jake, Emma, Caitlin, Duncan, and Lily. The group Habitat for Humanity, that is ran by Reverend Michaels, went on a trip to New Orleans to help rebuild a house that was massively destroyed from Hurricane Katrina for Calliope and Selene Johnson. During their trip, something horrifying happened that changed the lives of these teens forever. To cope with the feelings and memories they have from New Orleans, they go to their teacher, Dr. Beecher's house to work on their senior projects and talk as a group about their feelings. Sooner than later, ominous and strange things started to happen with these teens. Unfortunate and mysterious deaths within these teens started to occur. The only way to solve this creepy crime is to all work together to see what is causing these fatalities.
Profile Image for Jameah Hilton.
4 reviews
November 15, 2019
This novel was very well written. Nightmares, sleepwalking, and murder all were great attributes to this plot and made it by far, an extremely thrilling ride. Emma and her friends have been having a problem. Ever since their trip to New Orleans following the hurricane, they've been having gruesome, repetitive nightmares that have resulted in sleepwalking. However, this is not your average take on sleepwalking. The students have had violent tendencies during these episodes which have made them fearful of sleeping. As a result, the students make it their duty to find the source of these nightmares while trying to restrain from sleeping in an attempt to keep others from getting hurt. Can they find its origin? Can they restrain from hurting others? I'd recommend this book to those who are able to follow a slow plot. Considering how long it takes for the plot to develop, it's important to pay close attention to the small details that are presented during this novel. Overall, this was a fantastic choice! The end was quite the cliché, but it was still rather interesting to read. 7/10.
1 review
May 30, 2019
The book overall was okay to me it could've been better. Reading the back of the book for an overall summary of what the book was going to be really didn't help at all in this case. By the cover the book looks like it instantly has something to do with something horrific along with sleeping, this book didn't really give me a scary vibe at all. The characters were very emotional, the book was kinda all over the place. There was a lot of suspense that kept you waiting but it was hard for me to connect and gain a neutral amount of interest to the book to fully understand it. Some events in the book took to long to get to the point as if they were being dragged. I wouldn't say its a bad, horrible book but it could've been better but ill still recommend you to read it.
4 reviews
Read
April 6, 2023
this book was very good, in the beginning, it was kind of hard to understand with all the flashbacks that happened. After that, it was hard to put the book down because I wanted to know what was going to happen next. who was going to die or if they were going to figure out what was happening to all of them before another person dies. in the end, they did figure out who it was and why they were doing it to them, and you'll never believe who it really was.
Profile Image for Kasey Marie.
9 reviews
June 15, 2024
An easy-to-read thriller about sleepwalking and hypnosis! I enjoyed this book very much and really liked the concept. It had a great twist and I loved the intertwining of historical art and hypnosis. The ending could have been better as I feel it lacked detail and just suddenly ended but overall, it is an entertaining, quick read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
88 reviews1 follower
July 13, 2023
Sleepless is about a bunch of teenagers started having nightmares after their trip from New Orleans. After the death of Emma classmates she and her friends decided they need to band together and try to figure out what is going on.
Profile Image for Sucre.
552 reviews45 followers
August 31, 2023
I read this b/c summer is ending but the heat is still so stifling and I'm going thru SSRI withdrawal and just need dumb teen horror to get thru it but this one was too bad even with my least-criticial-hat placed firmly on my head. it is fun to read about teens with ipods tho.
Profile Image for Carlimact.
109 reviews1 follower
May 5, 2024
This story had a lot of potential but ultimately fell through.

The main character annoyed me and the twist at the end came out of left field without prior evidence.

Too bad. I liked the concept. I just wish it was better executed
Profile Image for Kieli Lapina.
657 reviews7 followers
May 15, 2017
re read a creepy book I loved as a kid! did not disappoint
Profile Image for Eliza Cragun.
52 reviews
September 20, 2019
Didn’t love it, but didn’t hate it. The story line was what kept me reading because I wanted know how it ends. Kind of confusing in some parts. But overall 3/5 stars.
55 reviews
April 11, 2021
This was a very quick read. I really enjoy Fahy's style. It was a good thriller/mystery that kept me guessing until the last few pages. A good read overall.
26 reviews4 followers
August 5, 2022
Quick, fun read. Good story. Great basis with enough supporting information that it could have continued or had a sequel.
Profile Image for julia cosenza.
16 reviews2 followers
May 6, 2024
extremely shallow characters (emma). the central idea behind the book was good, but the ability to expand upon it was lacking.
Profile Image for Shaina.
12 reviews
December 4, 2024
The beauty of this book was cover.Full Stop

The book grips you because you want to know what is behind the death. But the reason is disappointing.

Again beautiful cover
Displaying 1 - 30 of 137 reviews

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