Oh my God. Now I understand the #TaylorEffect!
Last year, I read and reviewed The Fear, deeming it okay. I think the hype got to my head. Still I believed there was something about C.L. Taylor’s books. So many people talked about them, praised them, and devoured them. So okay, I got a miss. It didn’t prevent me from getting very excited when I received an email about Sleep. The blurb had my “good book coming” radar going crazy (what, you don’t have that radar?!) When I received my proof, I was over the moon, and not just because this title promised to accompany me during one of insomnia’s visits. Lies, secrets, guilt, all of those stuck on a remote Scottish island? YES please!
The first sentence was the perfect lure and before I knew it, I was wolfing down snack after snack, my eyes never leaving the pages, until the wee hours of the morning.
7 guests.
7 secrets.
1 killer.
I want to turn this into:
7 reasons.
1 reader.
Let me give you seven reasons why Sleep should be on your nightstand tonight.
This novel has the best first chapter I have ever read. You know something must have gone wrong. You are given names. Think Cluedo. I was at the starting line of a game. A deadly game. That’s when I decided I needed enough food and drink to not be disturbed for the next hours because I knew I wouldn’t put the book down.
The sense of place is both brilliant and suffocating. The author knows how to put you right in the middle of the action! I was in a car, I visited an empty flat, I moved to Scotland and felt the powerful wind slap my face and mess my hair. Even jumping from one point of view to another never made this atmospheric feeling disappear.
Taylor creates a terrific and captivating piece about one life-changing event and its aftermath. An accident changes Anna forever, sending her down a highway to hell. If ‘it’ hadn’t happened, so many lives would have taken different turns, and one killer might never have been caught. The thought scared me, although I wish our poor Anna didn’t have to go through so much for justice to be obtained. But there is something enthralling in watching someone struggle with their demons, only to find themselves trapped with other demons… Sleep is sitting on dominoes, and the author cleverly follows a thread from the first to the last, pushing them one after the other, offering light on something before plunging the reader in an even darker corner with another piece of information. What made this book so addictive for me was this feeling of actions and consequences. I couldn’t get enough, I needed to know everything that had happened to everyone involved. More than a simple quest for answers, Taylor nurtured my need to explore and understand what makes people behave the way they do.
It’s a Cally Taylor book, just READ IT.
Anna. Oh, what to say about this character? Riddled with guilt, she decides to leave her old life behind to settle in a magnificent but remote place. Run as you may, your shadow will always follow… Anna is easy to warm up to. Damaged by what she think she destroyed, her world has turned grey and you easily get into her mind. It’s like slipping your feet in familiar slippers. I could be an Anna. You too. Her emotions bubbling at the surface moved me and, as a queen of the Guilt feeling, I couldn’t help but wish I could reach out to her and save her from herself, and what’s coming after her…
The setting adds the perfect edge of isolation. Scotland is perfect if you need to escape the claustrophobia of your old self… or is it? I fell in love with the island of Rum. Tiny and wild, you can’t find a better place for a locked-in mystery. Only, choosing a point on a map isn’t enough. C.L. Taylor breathes life into the hotel, its surrounding, and its awful weather! I can swear I was there. You need a (scary) holiday? Pick your copy and jump on the ferry!
A tightly-weaved plot you won’t be able to let go of. Seven suspects. Small number, isn’t? Hahahahahahaha. I thought I would crack this one really fast, relying on my crime fiction lover superpowers. I had another thing coming. Everyone remained a suspect. I doubted each character at some point, EVEN ANNA! I wasn’t wrong to do so, actually, as Sleep plays with the notion of guilt, and there are no white doves in this novel…
In a nutshell, I loved this book, and you will too!
Are you convinced? If you are looking for suspense, you’ve come to the right place. A real ride for survival, Sleep is one of those books which haunt you, revealing the things we prefer to hide in our closets and locked drawers.
I dare you to Sleep!
Last year, I read and reviewed The Fear, deeming it okay. I think the hype got to my head. Still I believed there was something about C.L. Taylor’s books. So many people talked about them, praised them, and devoured them. So okay, I got a miss. It didn’t prevent me from getting very excited when I received an email about Sleep. The blurb had my “good book coming” radar going crazy (what, you don’t have that radar?!) When I received my proof, I was over the moon, and not just because this title promised to accompany me during one of insomnia’s visits. Lies, secrets, guilt, all of those stuck on a remote Scottish island? YES please!
The first sentence was the perfect lure and before I knew it, I was wolfing down snack after snack, my eyes never leaving the pages, until the wee hours of the morning.
7 guests.
7 secrets.
1 killer.
I want to turn this into:
7 reasons.
1 reader.
Let me give you seven reasons why Sleep should be on your nightstand tonight.
This novel has the best first chapter I have ever read. You know something must have gone wrong. You are given names. Think Cluedo. I was at the starting line of a game. A deadly game. That’s when I decided I needed enough food and drink to not be disturbed for the next hours because I knew I wouldn’t put the book down.
The sense of place is both brilliant and suffocating. The author knows how to put you right in the middle of the action! I was in a car, I visited an empty flat, I moved to Scotland and felt the powerful wind slap my face and mess my hair. Even jumping from one point of view to another never made this atmospheric feeling disappear.
Taylor creates a terrific and captivating piece about one life-changing event and its aftermath. An accident changes Anna forever, sending her down a highway to hell. If ‘it’ hadn’t happened, so many lives would have taken different turns, and one killer might never have been caught. The thought scared me, although I wish our poor Anna didn’t have to go through so much for justice to be obtained. But there is something enthralling in watching someone struggle with their demons, only to find themselves trapped with other demons… Sleep is sitting on dominoes, and the author cleverly follows a thread from the first to the last, pushing them one after the other, offering light on something before plunging the reader in an even darker corner with another piece of information. What made this book so addictive for me was this feeling of actions and consequences. I couldn’t get enough, I needed to know everything that had happened to everyone involved. More than a simple quest for answers, Taylor nurtured my need to explore and understand what makes people behave the way they do.
It’s a Cally Taylor book, just READ IT.
Anna. Oh, what to say about this character? Riddled with guilt, she decides to leave her old life behind to settle in a magnificent but remote place. Run as you may, your shadow will always follow… Anna is easy to warm up to. Damaged by what she think she destroyed, her world has turned grey and you easily get into her mind. It’s like slipping your feet in familiar slippers. I could be an Anna. You too. Her emotions bubbling at the surface moved me and, as a queen of the Guilt feeling, I couldn’t help but wish I could reach out to her and save her from herself, and what’s coming after her…
The setting adds the perfect edge of isolation. Scotland is perfect if you need to escape the claustrophobia of your old self… or is it? I fell in love with the island of Rum. Tiny and wild, you can’t find a better place for a locked-in mystery. Only, choosing a point on a map isn’t enough. C.L. Taylor breathes life into the hotel, its surrounding, and its awful weather! I can swear I was there. You need a (scary) holiday? Pick your copy and jump on the ferry!
A tightly-weaved plot you won’t be able to let go of. Seven suspects. Small number, isn’t? Hahahahahahaha. I thought I would crack this one really fast, relying on my crime fiction lover superpowers. I had another thing coming. Everyone remained a suspect. I doubted each character at some point, EVEN ANNA! I wasn’t wrong to do so, actually, as Sleep plays with the notion of guilt, and there are no white doves in this novel…
In a nutshell, I loved this book, and you will too!
Are you convinced? If you are looking for suspense, you’ve come to the right place. A real ride for survival, Sleep is one of those books which haunt you, revealing the things we prefer to hide in our closets and locked drawers.
I dare you to Sleep!