Emma Averell is about to turn 40. She is a divorce attorney in Leeds, England, working long nights, hoping to make partner soon. She has two children, Chloe who is 17 and Will who is 5. She can be such a success at work because her husband Robert stays home with the kids. Emma is happy, her life working out beautifully. Until she has trouble sleeping.
There are less than two week until her birthday, and she wouldn’t worry about it except for her mother. On her mother’s birthday, her 40th, she had snapped. She’d always had some mental health issues, but that night she had attacked her young daughters and then fell into a sort of coma. She had ended up in a facility and Emma and her older sister Phoebe ended up in two different foster homes.
The two sisters had met up again at university, where they lived together briefly. That was where Emma had met Robert, who had been originally dating Phoebe. Emma had gotten pregnant young, and she married Robert and had then gone on to study law. Phoebe had never really found her place in the world, but she’d recently moved back to the UK from Spain.
Phoebe hadn’t worried when she’d turned 40. It was Emma that their mother pointed to and said that she’d have the same problems when she got older. It was Emma who had the bad blood. It was Emma who wasn’t sleeping. Emma’s mother had stopped sleeping too, before that night.
Emma is determined not to let a little sleeplessness get to her. But as the days go by, with her up night after night, her behavior becomes erratic. She makes mistakes at work. She embarrasses herself at Will’s school. She fights with her husband and her sister. She scares her children. She loses time. She gets into a argument with Chloe in the car and accidentally drives into a tree.
She keeps insisting that she’s not losing her sanity, that the sleeplessness isn’t destroying her, but everyone around her thinks that she’s wrong. And sometimes, she wonders too.
When her birthday finally does come, will that be the end of her happy, successful life, or will she find a way to overcome the curse of her mother’s bad blood?
Sarah Pinborough is back with Insomnia, her latest creepy novel with a touch of the supernatural to that twisty ending. This domestic thriller takes a look at mental illness and how it can cause generational trauma. The countdown to the birthday creates tension, and the secrets that come out chapter after chapter adds layers of questions about what the ultimate truth is in the story.
I haven’t read one of Pinborough’s books since Behind Her Eyes, but I am certainly aware of her reputation. She’s knows for exceptional thrillers with unexpected endings. And I thought that Insomnia was an excellent thriller with an ending that had been telegraphed just a little too much. The ending is good, but the surprise of it was disappointing. It’s still worth the trip worth taking, through this family’s twisted past, a fun trip even. Just not the best trip I’ve ever had.
Egalleys for Insomnia were provided by William Morrow through NetGalley, with many thanks.
