Review: Sleep by C. L Taylor

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…

Review

I loved this book!

The story begins on the night that changed Anna’s life. Something terrible happened and now Anna has to live with the guilt. Worse still, someone is determined to ensure that Anna never forgets her nightmares.

Rum is the Scottish island where the story is set. It is a small island with only 32 residents. The island is known for its seclusion, storms and dangerous cliffs. True to its reputation, the hotel where Anna is working ends up being completely cut off by the storm. This meant that Anna was stuck at the hotel with seven strangers and one of them was a murderer.

Apart from the setting, I also loved the narrative style. The main narrator was Anna. However, through the chapters, we also got to hear from other characters. This helped in adding different dimensions to the story and certainly heightened the tension. It also added more suspense to the story. A couple of times, I thought I had guessed the identity of the murderer. At some point, I suspected everyone at the hotel including the cat that just turned up on one stormy day.

The book is titled Sleep but most of the characters are struggling with insomnia. In addition, sleeping isn’t really an option as danger looms. Interestingly, once I started reading this book. I couldn’t sleep until I turned the last page. If you enjoy dark, twisty page-turners with claustrophobic settings, get this book.

What an excellent psychological thriller!