Z’s Reviews > Insomnia > Status Update

As I’ve read other books by this author I’ve enjoyed much more it doesn’t take away from this one it’s just not my favorite. But I can’t avoid a good manic female POV. 3.5*

The beginning dragged a lot, I zoned out but clearly didn’t miss anything important cuz nothing was unclear when it picked up at the arrival of her sister. From there it became interesting and the crazy/gaslight concept is done so often you’re anticipating it, but author has other themes woven in to make it more layered: midlife crisis redefined as a psychotic break is one lol. Am I turning into my mother?

MC finds out from moms bff that the foster family didn’t adopt her cuz they were in a terrible car crash from prologue, mom disabled, young daughter survived (ended up being the nurse!) MC is convinced that this isn’t a curse but a gift of sentience passed down generations. That her mother signing a song before it’s written and the pillow recurrences that this nurse blames her and will smother her son!

On her 40th she plans to visit her sis in the hospital (she wakes up and tells her she saw her that day and was pushed but not by MC) then plans to check herself into an institution. Her paranoia went from her sister to her husband and now the nurse (apparently she has her spare house keys and threatened her which she doesn’t remember butttt she did go to her husband which was weird)

Imposition at her hose w husband and nurse. She was scared and told him. He admits that he knew her sister was in town but only by accident and that she warned him MC would be anxious hearing her 40th. Her son gives her a birthday card w the drawing and their daughter comes home pissed MC told about the affair (the nurse did actually) MC accidentally hits the boiling pot and water splashes

The woman she saw outside her work days ago comes forward it’s her mom’s bff. The one they ran to when their mom broke. She saw MCs sister at the hospital with HER HUSBAND. Two things can be true at once. MC is going through the same thing as her mother AND her husband/sis are up to something.

A patient at the psych ward says she’s seen MC sister visit and whisper mean things to their mom. That paired with the jealously she has, standing outside at night the first night, was also a visitor the day their mom died… she thinks this is all her sisters fault. Now she’s outside and her sis got pushed in front of a car

She’s getting closer to the nurse who returned her wallet, she’s also stressed w work and her mom and she’s similar in age, over 40. MC is staying in a hotel now cuz her husband suggested after the drawings were all over their son’s room. And her sister is filling her place in her stead. Her old flame is her defense lawyer

MC catches her daughter having the affair that she was accused of having she confronted her daughter they fight and then she loses control of the car and crashes it, but the daughter thinks that she was hitting her. the cops show up at the house and say that pillow fibers were found in her mother‘s nasal cavity, they take her in

Cops show up investigating her mothers death. There was a pillow on the floor. She’s put on leave at work and she slaps her sis for calling her “crazy” the forbidden word. Husband and daughter are mad she lied about her mother being dead all these years. At night she finds herself in the cupboard and her son finds her, admits the drawings are of her. She finds out her husband is always out during the day.