Sleep by C.L. Taylor

Seven strangers cut off from the rest of world. What could possibly go wrong?

Genres: Thriller, Mystery, Suspense
Published: 4th April, 2019 (expected)
Goodreads
Series: N/A
Rating: 5

All Anna wants is to be able to sleep. But crushing insomnia, terrifying night terrors and memories of that terrible night are making it impossible. If only she didn’t feel so guilty…
To escape her past, Anna takes a job at a hotel on the remote Scottish island of Rum, but when seven guests join her, what started as a retreat from the world turns into a deadly nightmare.
Each of the guests have a secret but one of them is lying – about who they are and why they’re on the island. There’s a murderer staying in the Bay View hotel. And they’ve set their sights on Anna.
Seven strangers. Seven secrets. One deadly lie.
Someone’s going to sleep and never wake up…

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Sleepless nights are something I’m quite familiar with. Unlike Anna, I’m not riddled with guilt though, and nobody’s out there to leave me creepy messages and creepy Shakespeare quotes from Macbeth. “To die, to sleep.” Not very reassuring.

The story opens with an accident that claims the lives of two people, while Anna walks away relatively fine. She found not guilty in court, but that doesn’t stop her obsessing about her part in the tragedy, suffering from nightmares, insomnia, and a relentless stalker who leaves chilling messages wherever she goes. Her relationship was already on rocky grounds, and when the inevitable break up comes, she decides to leave everything, including her stalker behind, and moves to the island of Rum. In the book the island has 31 inhabitants, but according to what I found out online, there are actually only 22 of them. I personally love quiet places, but this might be a tad too much.

Anna is only on the island for about two weeks, when the seven guests show up at the hotel where she works. All fine and dandy, until the weather changes and the guests are confined to the hotel. Soon enough weird shit starts happening. Was there another death quote written on the window? Or did she just imagine it? Do these people behave strangely because they are bored, or do they have more sinister motives? Amid the secrets, lies and deception Anna is slowly losing her mind. When a storm cuts them off not only from the mainland but the rest of the island, emotions run high. The paranoia is palpable, and suddenly everyone’s suspicious.

The story is told mainly by Anna, but there are a few chapters involving other characters from the mainland, just to throw you off the scent! They complement the events on the island perfectly, and there are plenty of surprises throughout the whole book.

Sleep is a brilliantly written, suspenseful thriller with a great cast of characters and a beautiful but wild setting.

Thanks to the publisher for the copy via NetGalley.