A review by marieeh
Insomnia by Sarah Pinborough

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

2.5

I guess I just don't really like Sarah Pinborough's writing.  I can't quite place what exactly it is, it felt really middle of the road for me and I had a hard time staying motivated to finish it.  Since reading Behind Her Eyes I knew to at least suspect that there could be a
supernatural element
and there was, but this one was not quite as shocking for me.  Maybe because I did expect it.  

The story itself was fine, if a little forgettable.  There was one side plot in particular that felt really unnecessary to me, and in my opinion was not handled appropriately: 
Chloe being groomed/abused by her parents' friend.  It wasn't handled in the way you'd expect a parent to react to something like that.  Even after it came out what was going on, her parents didn't do anything?  It just kind of was brushed under the rug.
 

As for the meat of the story, some things just felt a little too convenient.  And I guess I just didn't like the main device that caused everything to happen in the way that it did. 
How time is cyclical and the reason Emma's mother lost her mind at her 40th was simply because she was having premonitions/visions and had to do these things to warn Emma of the danger that was coming for her in the future at her own 40th... but if she hadn't done those things, none of it would have happened to Emma, Caroline, etc.  I just didn't like it. 


My final little complaint was the epilogue.  It's fine to write a stand alone book, you don't have to create a whole universe for each of your books to exist in together, and even if you do put them in the same universe, characters don't have to interact.  Maybe I've just read too many books lately where that happens but I'm tired of it (maybe I'm just no fun!).
Expand filter menu Content Warnings