carrielion143's review
3.0
A predictable story of a family tragedy. Our narrator has turned her back on her family after her family falls apart following her father’s violent death. Her past is thrown in her face when a podcast focuses on the murder begins to gain popularity.
The podcast element kept this otherwise stale tale fresh and current. I was glad they main character was the dependable “good girl”, rather than the unhinged twin sister. I’m really tired of the unreliable woman narrator and being able to trust the memory’s of the main character was comforting.
All in all, slightly above average book. Enjoyed my time with it but it won’t make any “best of” lists.
The podcast element kept this otherwise stale tale fresh and current. I was glad they main character was the dependable “good girl”, rather than the unhinged twin sister. I’m really tired of the unreliable woman narrator and being able to trust the memory’s of the main character was comforting.
All in all, slightly above average book. Enjoyed my time with it but it won’t make any “best of” lists.
jenibus's review
4.0
As someone who has about 5 different True Crime related podcasts on her phone, I was immediately intrigued with Are You Sleeping. Josie Buhrman has done her best to move on with her life after her father, Chuck Buhrman, was murdered in her teenage years and her twin sister witnessed the crime. Now, 12 years later, Josie finds her father's murder being unraveled piece by piece by a hit true crime podcast named Reconsidered, and all the walls and secrets Josie has spent her adult life building up come crashing down around her.
This book moves very quickly, a welcomed change of pace from my last novel, with the Josie keeping many elements of her life and her father's murder a secret from the people in her life, along with the reader. It'll jump back and forth from Josie's POV to excerpts from the Reconsidered podcast, and the reader gets to see how framing of events make all the difference. If this book had a flaw, I'd say it's that the build up for some of the revelations don't match the payoff. Josie spends the majority of the first half of the book talking about how estranged she is from her twin sister, Lanie, and hinting at betrayals that caused their entire relationship to crumble. When we finally discover the specific event Josie is referring to, I felt that we maybe had built this betrayal up a bit too much. I think their relationship was believable and it's understandable that Josie would react the way that she does, but the set up left me somewhat disappointed.
The part of this book that impacted me the most was the aspect of the podcast. As I mentioned above, I listen to several true crime podcasts, and several wrongful conviction based podcasts. If you know anything about true crime podcasts, your mind will immediately draw connections between the fictional Reconsidered, and the real life mega success podcast Serial. But for me personally, I was more reminded of the follow up podcast for the Adnan Syed conviction, Undisclosed. Whereas Serial was fairly objective in its coverage of the Hae Min Lee murder, raising questions and doubts for Adnan's both guilt and innocence, Undisclosed came at it from the perspective that Adnan did not murder his ex girlfriend, and strove to obtain his freedom. In Are You Sleeping, the fictional podcast is hosted by journalist Poppy Parnell, and to put it bluntly, her investigations put the Buhrman family through hell. She is constantly contacting them, putting Lanie's character and her testimony in a very unflattering light, and does nothing to stop the rabid nature of fans from harassing and insulting the Buhrman family. And while I feel strongly that the producers of any of the true crime podcasts I listen to would never behave in this manner, I have certainly see my fair share of rabid fans unable to distinguish their entertainment from reality.
Going back to Undisclosed and the Adnan Syed conviction, due to the podcast and due to Serial's success, Adnan now has a new trial and can possibly be released from prison. The case has been completely reframed, to the point that the name "Adnan Syed" is much more recognizable than that of the victim, "Hae Min Lee." A girl was murdered. This isn't entertainment, this isn't a fictional account the way Are You Sleeping is. A girl was murdered, and there's a high likelihood that justice will never be found for her. People like myself who listen to these podcasts need to remember that these people, these victims, are real. The Buhrman's might have been made up, but I can't help but wonder if the anguish Josie and her remaining family members go through is the same type of anguish the family of Hae Min Lee went through and potentially are going through still. I suspect that it is the same.
This book moves very quickly, a welcomed change of pace from my last novel, with the Josie keeping many elements of her life and her father's murder a secret from the people in her life, along with the reader. It'll jump back and forth from Josie's POV to excerpts from the Reconsidered podcast, and the reader gets to see how framing of events make all the difference. If this book had a flaw, I'd say it's that the build up for some of the revelations don't match the payoff. Josie spends the majority of the first half of the book talking about how estranged she is from her twin sister, Lanie, and hinting at betrayals that caused their entire relationship to crumble. When we finally discover the specific event Josie is referring to, I felt that we maybe had built this betrayal up a bit too much. I think their relationship was believable and it's understandable that Josie would react the way that she does, but the set up left me somewhat disappointed.
The part of this book that impacted me the most was the aspect of the podcast. As I mentioned above, I listen to several true crime podcasts, and several wrongful conviction based podcasts. If you know anything about true crime podcasts, your mind will immediately draw connections between the fictional Reconsidered, and the real life mega success podcast Serial. But for me personally, I was more reminded of the follow up podcast for the Adnan Syed conviction, Undisclosed. Whereas Serial was fairly objective in its coverage of the Hae Min Lee murder, raising questions and doubts for Adnan's both guilt and innocence, Undisclosed came at it from the perspective that Adnan did not murder his ex girlfriend, and strove to obtain his freedom. In Are You Sleeping, the fictional podcast is hosted by journalist Poppy Parnell, and to put it bluntly, her investigations put the Buhrman family through hell. She is constantly contacting them, putting Lanie's character and her testimony in a very unflattering light, and does nothing to stop the rabid nature of fans from harassing and insulting the Buhrman family. And while I feel strongly that the producers of any of the true crime podcasts I listen to would never behave in this manner, I have certainly see my fair share of rabid fans unable to distinguish their entertainment from reality.
Going back to Undisclosed and the Adnan Syed conviction, due to the podcast and due to Serial's success, Adnan now has a new trial and can possibly be released from prison. The case has been completely reframed, to the point that the name "Adnan Syed" is much more recognizable than that of the victim, "Hae Min Lee." A girl was murdered. This isn't entertainment, this isn't a fictional account the way Are You Sleeping is. A girl was murdered, and there's a high likelihood that justice will never be found for her. People like myself who listen to these podcasts need to remember that these people, these victims, are real. The Buhrman's might have been made up, but I can't help but wonder if the anguish Josie and her remaining family members go through is the same type of anguish the family of Hae Min Lee went through and potentially are going through still. I suspect that it is the same.
mcerrin's review
3.0
Easy, enjoyable read. But predictable and tried too hard to be relatable to this world. Wasn't very unique at all.
the_pepperwood_chronicles's review
Josie Buhrman has spent her entire adult life trying to recover after losing her family. Her father was murdered, her mother ran away to join a cult, and her twin sister betrayed her. Whatever peace Josie's found, however, is lost when journalist Poppy Parnell starts a Serial-esque podcast questioning the guilt of her father's convicted murderer. Soon Josie is back home--a place she never thought she'd return--and starting to wonder if the story she's believed about her family for a decade is really true.
This suspenseful, psychological thriller manages to hit on several cultural hot buttons all at once. The popularity of the True Crime genre, the viral popularity of podcasts, and voyeurism are all touched on, if not explored in depth. Fans of thrillers, true crime, and podcasts will enjoy the mystery and suspense, even if character and relationship development sometimes get shortchanged.
Digital ARC provided by NetGalley.
This suspenseful, psychological thriller manages to hit on several cultural hot buttons all at once. The popularity of the True Crime genre, the viral popularity of podcasts, and voyeurism are all touched on, if not explored in depth. Fans of thrillers, true crime, and podcasts will enjoy the mystery and suspense, even if character and relationship development sometimes get shortchanged.
Digital ARC provided by NetGalley.
laura2u's review
3.0
For all the hype, I thought this one was just okay. It didn’t seem at all like a psychological thriller to me but it was an okay story.
norcani's review
3.0
This is more of a family drama than a thriller in my opinion. Though as either genre it is rather average. I really liked the idea of following a family subject of a podcast and those part of the narrative - the inherent dehumanization of it - were the best parts. The story itself however was weak. The ending was also extremely...convenient. Average book.