miles to go

When Sybil couldn’t sleep, she went online and found a forum where she could chat with other insomniacs. Sometimes she would play sudoku with them, sometimes just talk. But one night, one of the other people online asked if anyone was in New York City, and if they would be interested in meeting in real life.

The three of them ended up in a diner. Sybil was married to a doctor and the mother of twins who had just gone off to college. Zeke was a Major League Baseball player recovering from a shoulder injury. And Julian was a widower who owned a candy store. The three of them chatted, and they included their server Betty, who was working the night shift because she also had trouble sleeping.

Quickly the four of them became genuine friends. When Betty needed a safer place to live, Zeke offered up his apartment, which was way too big for just one person. They all met at Sybil’s for Thanksgiving. They met up often, overnight, since they were all up.

But they each had their own struggles. Zeke still had one more surgery to get through before he knew if he could ever pitch again, and he was questioning whether he even wanted to. Julian was struggling after losing his wife and having a heart attack, and he wanted to reconnect with his daughter. Sybil was convinced that her husband was having an affair, but she didn’t want to confront him and deal with the consequences to the family. And Betty was secretive, having lost her parents in a farming accident. When she mentioned to Sybil that she had wanted to be an actress, Sybil immediately contacted her friend, a casting agent, to help her out.

And things start going better. The friendships help them all deal with their own personal struggles, and Betty gets a regional commercial and a new boyfriend. But one night, Julian is run down by a car and Betty goes missing, and Sybil and Zeke realize that the two of them had been keeping far darker secrets than anyone knew. As Zeke and Sybil work together to try to find Betty, the find out about her dangerous past and why there might be someone after her. They will need to work fast to find her first and try to protect her from the darkness of her past overtaking her.

The Insomniacs is a beautiful story of friendship and connection. It’s about four people from different walks of life coming together in their struggles and finding that they have things in common. They go from strangers to acquaintances to friends to supporters, and it’s a really beautiful story. I wasn’t entirely sure what to think at first, but it grew into an engaging, moving, feel-good novel that I had trouble walking away from. These characters will stick with me for some time, and I will be really happy to have their warmth in my heart. I think anyone who has struggled to sleep at some point in their life (I certainly have!) will find understanding and companionship in this book. It’s a dream.

Egalleys for The Insomniacs were provided by Berkley through NetGalley, with many thanks, but the opinions are mine.