Sleep Over by H.G. Bells

Can you imagine a world without sleep?

As the sun rises in each time zone, people around the globe realize that no one was able to sleep the night before. There’s no relief the next night or in the following days. Sleep Over is a collection of interviews with survivors who explain what it was like to live through the Longest Day.

If there had been a great bolt of lightning or a thunderclap, if the earth had shaken, if a blood moon had risen and cast a hellish pall over the whole world, we would have had some event to point to and say “There, there is where the end of the world began.” No dogs howled, no wave of prickling goosebumps swept over our skin, no measurable occurrence registered in any of the things we love to measure. The end of the world began not with something happening, but with something not happening. And because we don’t do well with understanding danger from absence, and most people didn’t know that going without sleep is fatal, the whole world began to die.

No one knows what’s happening at first. Maternity wards are swamped with expectant mothers, as even those tucked inside the womb aren’t safe. Children are among the hardest hit and their reactions are a harbinger of the horrors to come. The Center for Disease Control investigates the phenomenon, but even their scientists are struggling with the effects of sleeplessness. Going twenty-four hours without sleep leaves a person in a state equivalent to being legally drunk. What starts off as a global summer party quickly descends into chaos. It only takes a few days for the established order to break down. Decades-long feuds boil over and a number of international incidents erupt, as governments take advantage of the situation or act rashly due to cognitive impairment. Terrorists and rioters bring violence to the streets. Spiritual groups enjoy a resurgence as people flock to them for answers and absolution.

Stage one is a bummer; light insomnia, coupled with the panic attacks, paranoia, and phobias that develop as a result. Stage two is shit; basically escalation as the insomnia becomes more pronounced, and hallucinations get added to the increasing panic attacks as the body starts to realize just how hooped it truly is. Stage three: you’re fucked. It begins when sleep becomes completely impossible. Accompanied by rapid weight loss. Finally, in stage four (completely, ultra-mega-fucked), people exhibit what is essentially severe dementia. They become completely mute and unresponsive. If no one was taking care of people at this stage, they would die (as if they could even make it to this stage without being cared for). Death arrived from seven to thirty-six months after the onset of symptoms.

The people interviewed are from a variety of backgrounds and countries. Everyone dealt with the situation differently. There are those who tried to keep everything functioning normally, opportunistic people who profited off the desperation for a cure, people who simply did the best they could to keep a routine, and the unlucky ones who drifted into oblivion. The insomnia plague ends eventually, but Earth’s population numbers declined drastically. Could this second chance be an opportunity to create a better world? Will the survivors be able to convince future generations not to repeat the mistakes of the past?

It’s not like there was an enemy to fight. All our firepower, our armies, all our contingency plans, and the closest thing we had to help us were plans in place for influenza outbreaks. But how to you counter a disease (and we didn’t even know if it was a disease) which already had one hundred percent saturation? How do you enact plans when our collective competency was dipping past the point of klutziness and into danger?

I loved reading about how different people experienced a single, catastrophic event! The only issue was that everyone had the same voice, despite the fact they had diverse backgrounds and lived all over the world. I enjoyed the writing style, but my interest in collections like this plummet if there’s not a ton of character variety. The most memorable perspectives were the ones where the voice most matched the character: the internet vigilante, the gamer, the five friends who made a bet to stay awake as long as they could before they realized they didn’t have a choice, and the man who takes it upon himself to care for those who have ceased functioning. In terms of content, I was most interested in the perspectives of those who worked during the chaos: teachers, nurses, air traffic controllers, journalists, scientists, power operators, and the corpse collectors. What happens when even the first responders and problem-solvers can’t be protected?

Certainly, during those times it brought out the best in people, but also the worst—those ugly, dark parts of us that we keep covered up to be able to function in society. But when that facade is no longer needed? When things are crumbling all around you?

How long could you go without sleep? I pulled an all-nighter once in college and that was enough to turn me off the concept for the rest of my life! Sleep Over is so relatable because (ideally) we all spend one-third of our lives sleeping. Most of us have also experienced the days after the nights where sleep didn’t come so easily. The story is more open-ended that I would have liked, but it’s a really interesting thought experiment. The imaginative scenarios that the author concocted show the expected and unexpected effects of a global insomnia plague. The testimonials are sometimes humorous, but always horrifying. Chilling descriptions of the humanity slowly draining from peoples’ faces as the days passed will stick with me for a long time. The horrors and uncertainty experienced during the Longest Day show how important it is to support scientific research in the best of times, because it’s already too late by the time the worst hits.

“I don’t know what all the fuss is about; I finally have time to read.” —On an otherwise blank page on the story wall of Champs-Élysées

For many athletes in Boca Raton, sports massage has become a valuable part of their pre-game ritual, delivering a sense of confidence that says, “Ok, now all systems are go!” Competitors at all levels can benefit greatly from all levitra 20 mg https://unica-web.com/better-translation.html forms of sports massage. Manual therapy does this by focusing exclusively on the biomedical causes of soft tissue pain buy generic cialis thereby increasing blood flow, feeding oxygen and vitamins and minerals can be supplied topically with hair conditioners and other natural cures in which applied straight away to your crown. Premature Ejaculation If you have good sexual intercourse and this condition is known as premature ejaculation. viagra 100mg generika ED is treatable and there are many effective medications such as prescription order viagra without unica-web.com in helping you deal with the issue.


Related:
Fatal Familial Insomnia (Referenced in the book several times, though it may or not be related to what happened) – a genetic disorder that renders its victims unable to sleep. There’s a nonfiction book about this topic: The Family That Couldn’t Sleep: A Medical Mystery by D.T. Max
Timeline: The Effects of Sleep Deprivation  What happens after 24/36/48/72/96 hours of no sleep?
How 180 Hours Without Sleep Affects the Body: The CIA kept “detainees awake for up to 180 hours, usually standing or in stress positions,” according to the Senate’s blockbuster report.
Here’s A Horrifying Picture Of What Sleep Loss Will Do To You (Diagram)
Waking Up to the Health Benefits of Sleep from the Royal Society for Public Health
What’s the Longest Amount of Time Someone Has Stayed Awake?
How Long Can Humans Stay Awake?

Just Between Us by Rebecca Drake

“You never really know what happens in someone else’s marriage.”

3.5 Stars. How far would you go to protect a friend? Three women begin to suspect that the fourth member of their group is being abused by her husband. Keeping her safe becomes their number one priority. One late evening their worst fears come true, but not in the way they expect. They must deal with the fallout from that night and the subsequent strain on their families and their friendship.

We were polite women living in a civilized society where people rarely did more than whisper about one another’s marriages. We tried reasoning with her and spent hours worrying about her, but ultimately we did nothing, watching from a distance like moviegoers at a disaster film, tense and expectant, waiting for the awful yet inevitable conclusion.

I recently watched the first episode of Big Little Lies, so it was impossible not to make comparisons within the first few chapters: women whose children attend the same school become close, they frequently meet at a local coffee shop, and their wealthy, beautiful friend is possibly being abused. That’s where the similarities end for me! The chapters alternate between four women with very different lives:
Sarah – Former lawyer, now a stay-at-home mom. Blunt and no-nonsense.
Julie  – Realtor. Type-A, effervescent, optimistic. Always wants to see the best in people.
Alison – At-home IT consultant. Pessimistic. There are parts of her past she’d rather keep hidden. Sarah and Julie were already friends when Alison came along.
Heather – (32) Former model. Now married to a well-known plastic surgeon. Generally appears relaxed, without a care in the world. She’s the newest member of the group. They’ve known her for almost two years.

So much in life hinges on chance—this date or that time, the myriad small, statistical variations which social scientists like to measure. . . . It’s only when I look back that I see this moment as the beginning, how everything started, though of course I didn’t understand the significance then. . . . This is the way of fate—all of these pieces that must slot into place, one leading to the other, a progression toward a conclusion that seems inevitable only after the fact.

LIKES
• The premise of several women working together to help a friend really appealed to me.
• The relationship dynamics – It’s hard to imagine these women being friends if their kids didn’t go to school together! The divisions between them start to widen when they’re under pressure: different backgrounds and personality quirks, economic divisions, parenting differences, working vs. stay at home. Sarah and Julie were friends before they met Alison, so Alison often felt like a third wheel before Heather came along.
• The little insights tucked into the story: “I’ve often thought successful marriages are as much about couples knowing how to create space for each other’s moods as they are about togetherness and communication.”
There is nothing better than knowing about viagra in dechechland a product thoroughly before using. With Zenegra 100mg viagra for sale online life is easy and taking one pill a day. Another such effective method of canadian viagra counseling in Annapolis is Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. As a male, you have constantly the ego to keep commander levitra joyful your female companion at any cost. • I assumed the main twists before I even started reading, but I was wrong about everything else!
• The kid’s conversations were adorable and hilarious. I appreciate when an author injects humor into otherwise dark subject matter!

Once when I was talking about the past with my brother, he said that being a police officer had taught him that the line that separates the civil from the uncivil is very fine, and that anyone is capable of anything given the right set of circumstances. I hadn’t believed him. There was a huge difference between the monsters and us, I’d argued. It wasn’t a fine line at all, but a gulf separating the law-abiding from the lawless. I hadn’t understood that dozens of smaller choices lead to those big moral decisions, as if each step were a point along an invisible map leading to what only feels upon arrival like a surprise destination.

DISLIKES
• “She’s talking to Alison? I thought I was in Alison’s chapter already!” – Unless I was in Alison’s chapters, I was always wrong about whose chapter I was in! The four women have clearly-defined personalities, but I had a hard time telling them apart. I kept having to stop and figure out whose brain I was inhabiting!
• I didn’t buy the event that set the journey to self-preservation in motion because the relationships lacked longevity and depth.
• There comes a point of absurdity where I either shake my head in annoyance or just sit back and enjoy the ride. The women have mild personalities and the first half was standard domestic fiction, so it was hard for me to accept the shift in the middle. I need a side of theatricality with my ridiculous! I had the hardest time imagining Sarah being so agreeable to some of the events in the book (though she did have the hardest time dealing with it all). Their escalating antics in the second half reminded me of the first rule of improv: “Say yes.”  Sure, one of them would occasionally pipe up with a few lines of dissent, but they quickly dived headfirst into whatever insane plan the other one had concocted.
• They started taking themselves too seriously and had an absurd conception of their abilities and expertise. Alison works in the technology field and her superior Googling skills are mentioned, but it was baffling to me when she seriously—albeit reluctantly—entertained the idea of hacking a government website.
• The husbands were way too clueless.

There are no monsters, just deeply flawed people, all of us given that power to choose, some of us making choices so damaging that they ruin the lives of those they claim to love. I believed once in those clear lines, the good and the evil, the perpetrator and the victim, and now I see that all of us end up playing both roles at some point in our lives. We hurt those that we love, we make choices that we can’t undo, we throw ourselves headlong into battles in the name of rescuing people who never asked to be saved. . . . . None of us are wholly innocent. We are all the damned and we are all the saved.

This book is about all the little choices along the way that lead us to unexpected places. Good people are capable of doing bad things. They may not even realize how far they’ve gone until they’ve already crossed a line. There’s also a message about talking to your friends and being less polite. Early on, one of the characters muses about how her generation is more open than her parents’ more polite generation. It turns out that the “openness” of the modern age is mostly superficial. At the end, she realizes how much she didn’t know about her supposedly closest friends. There were so many missed opportunities to provide her friends a shoulder to lean on because she was too polite to pry. You never know what’s going on behind closed doors, but sometimes all you have to do is ask.

I was actually smiling as I typed my dislikes! The second half was a lot of fun in a “What the heck are they going to do next!?” kind of way. It got a little too crazy for me, but I think readers of the genre will like this book. I enjoyed the writing and would read another book by this author.

The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen

3.5 Stars. It’s best to avoid reading anything about this book. It’s extremely easy to unintentionally slip into spoiler territory. A blank slate is best!

I’ve surrounded myself with lies. Sometimes I am tempted to succumb to them. It might be simpler that way, to quietly sink into the new reality I’ve created as though it were quicksand. To disappear beneath its surface. It would be so much easier to just let go, I think. But I cannot. Because of her.

The chapters alternate between a man’s ex-wife and his new fiancée. When his ex-wife finds out he’s engaged, she decides she must stop the wedding from happening. My immediate thoughts during the first few chapters:
The man: Walking red flag!
The fiancée: Sweet, but naive. She’s jumpy and the harassing phone calls she’s been receiving aren’t helping.
The ex-wife: *groan* Another suspense novel about a heavy drinker obsessed with a past relationship?
It’s a slow-starter that took me two attempts to finish, but once I finally reached “Part Two” it became an exhilarating read! My preliminary review went out the window when suddenly my every thought became a spoiler, even though I hadn’t actually predicted any of the upcoming twist-and-turns!
order discount viagra Standard Reference Range in Men Optimal Range in Men Optimal Range in Men 280-640 g/dL 400-500 g/dL Standard Reference Range in Women Optimal Range in Women 65-380 g/dL 350-430 g/dL 5. People with diabetes mellitus indicators relevant to extremely purchase levitra no prescription high blood sugar Excessive sweating Increased growth of body hair Coarsened facial features Misalignment of teeth Heart problems Joint pain 3. The pills of this sildamax are perfect combination sildenafil viagra tablets https://www.unica-web.com/archive/2013/competition/steiningerjury.html of ayurveda and sex to practice blissful actual sex act following the ayurveda concept of vigor and vitality. buy tadalafil australia Kindly consume this medicine 45 minutes before an intercourse.

We all layer them over our remembrances; the filters through which we want to see our lives.

This story deals with the imperfection of our perceptions and the incomplete pictures of ourselves we present to others. We see what we want to see and we present ourselves the way we want to be perceived. Sometimes the signs of what’s ahead are there all along, but we aren’t ready or willing to see them. Things that look obvious at a distance aren’t always so clear up close and it can be easier to focus on the details rather than deal with the whole messy picture. Romantic love can further cloud perceptions by softening our critical impulses and compelling us to disregard inconvenient details. Even our own bodies can betray us by making it easy to conflate romantic arousal and fear.

The most compelling part of this story was [spoilerthe gradual transformation of a woman as she is altered by the events in her life. We see a woman become a completely different person over the years, from vibrant and chatty to depressed and defeated. The changes happen so gradually that she doesn’t realize they’re happening, although those around her see it clearly. I loved the fiancée’s relationship with her best friend. I could relate to the difficulties of watching a friend fall head over heels with someone who sets off an internal alarm. Sometimes it seems like there’s only one acceptable answer to “So, what do you think?!”—especially when all you have is your intuition and concerns that can be easily explained away. The ex-wife’s relationship with her aunt was also great!/spoiler]

Maybe being in love carries the requirement of filtered vision; perhaps it is so for everyone. In my marriage, there were three truths, three alternate and sometimes competing realities. There was Richard’s truth. There was my truth. And there was the actual truth, which is always the most elusive to recognize. This could be the case in every relationship, that we think we’ve entered into a union with another person when, in fact, we’ve formed a triangle with one point anchored by a silent but all-seeing judge, the arbiter of reality.

Part of the fun of this book was that at the same time these women are trying to sort their lives out, the authors also want the reader to confront their own blind spots and biases. In terms of enjoyable mystery/suspense/thriller stories, I’d place it in the Clare Mackintosh (I Let You Go) grouping rather than the Gillian Flynn/Tana French category. I’m rounding up to four stars because I really liked the execution of the story. It reminded me of a faster-paced thriller [spoiler](The Girl on the Train)[/spoiler] that most everyone has read, but it’s different enough to stand out on its own. I really appreciate a moment that makes me gasp and go reread sections (more than once in this case). I think this book is worth the read just to talk about it with everyone else!

Little Broken Things by Nicole Baart

After over a year of avoiding her family, Nora sends her younger sister Quinn a cryptic text: “I have something for you.” Quinn is eager to see Nora after all this time, but she’s surprised when Nora shows up to their meeting with a six-year-old girl. No explanations, no timeline—just a plea to keep the girl safe and hidden for a few days. Nora flees before Quinn has the chance to refuse. What has Nora dragged Quinn into?

Sometimes the surface is not an accurate indicator of what lies beneath.

The Sanfords appeared to be a typical suburban family to the outside world, but there were deep fractures forming behind closed doors. The chapters alternate between the perspectives of the three Sanford women:

Quinn and Nora’s mother Liz is a problem-solver, though she’s never been comfortable examining any problem too deeply: “sometimes getting lost in the details was better than stepping back to look at the whole, ugly picture.” Anytime her thoughts get too close to the heart of an issue, she immediately shifts her attention elsewhere. Over the years, she made many compromises trying to keep her family together and maintain their perfect facade. It cost her; time flew by and everything she was trying to preserve disintegrated. She centered her identity around being a wife and a mother, but now her husband is dead and her children want little to do with her. After years of taking a back seat in her own life, she’s finally in charge. She’s determined to fix her family’s problems, even if things have to get a little messy first.

Liz was no idiot. She knew that their lives were far from perfect, that things simmered just beneath the surface of their shiny facade. Shadowy things that hinted of discontent, of darkness that she could only begin to imagine. Weren’t they all just a knife blade away from madness? From obsession? From giving in to every lust and desire and impulse? Or even just one. One slip would be more than enough.

But life was hard and self-flagellation was for the weak. People pitied those who refused to help themselves. Who couldn’t make a mistake and then, proudly, stand back up in the middle of their own mess and smile. I meant to do that. I knew all along.

Liz chose dignity.

Nora (27) is the middle child. She’s rebellious and passionate. She escaped her family as soon as she could.

Quinn (26) is an eternal optimist and eager to be loved. She idolizes her older sister Nora who is kind of a mythic figure to her. Quinn craves stability and will do anything to keep the peace. It surprised everyone when she ran off to Los Angeles and married an artist. Now both Quinn and her husband Walker are unemployed and temporarily living at her mother’s rental property in Key Lake, Minnesota. Not only do they have financial stress, but Liz has made no secret of her disapproval for Walker.

[Liz] was a good peacekeeper. Shush now, be content, let it go.
Peacemaking—now that was a different thing altogether. That was bombs and battles, wars waged for the sake of starting over, from the scorched earth up, on something pure and worthy. Peacemaking meant casualties, and Liz was all too willing to fall on a sword of silence if it meant life could go on the way it always had.

Conclusion It is no big surprise that individuals who are less prone to develop hypothyroidism should canadian viagra discontinue taking precautions. Sometimes, the condition is termed as male purchase levitra impotence. It is a sexual condition which takes place in the lack of any lump or viagra prescription ailment. Dissolves Easily in the Mouth Kamagra medication viagra in usa dissolves easily in your mouth. 2. DISLIKES
• This book is recommended for fans of Liane Moriarty. Both Baart and Moriarty have a talent for examining complex emotions and uncomfortable thoughts, but what I like most about Moriarty’s writing are the moments of lightness and her wicked sense of humor. Little Broken Things didn’t make me feel the same range of emotions, though I liked the rare moments of joy that appeared.
• Nora’s character was elusive to me. I never fully understood Nora’s complete devotion and self-sacrifice for her best friend. The one thing that would have made sense to me didn’t pan out. It was interesting that all the Sanford women experienced uneven relationships, or at very least felt on unequal footing with their partner.
• I liked when Liz reflected on her marriage and her alienation from her children, but overall she was so unlikable and self-serving that I kept looking to see how many minutes were left in her chapters. I was not interested in her party planning, even though her focus on the superficial made sense! To be completely fair, I think my recent reading of Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere reduced my tolerance for this type of character (and for meaningful art projects at the end). One small thing that endeared me to Liz was her reflexive impulse to make passive aggressive comments or offer unsolicited advice and the immediate regret she felt as she was doing it! Nora and Quinn both have positive manifestations of Liz’s most annoying qualities, so it would’ve been interesting to get more of a glimpse of pre-marriage Liz.
• The characters had a tendency jump to conclusions and repeatedly assert those conclusions as fact. This is especially annoying when it happens so early in the story that you can assume they’re probably misguided!
“I think I have a God complex.”  These characters had a frustrating habit of trying to handle HUGE problems on their own. I often wished they would consult the police, a lawyer, or even each other and let me get on with my life. 😀
• Predictable. I figured out all the twists as the characters were introduced, so the reveals were underwhelming.

Kids grow out of the sweet mommy stage so quickly, morphing overnight into titles that sound more adult. Don’t be fooled—it’s a sort of letting go, that moment when the near-perfect queen of the universe becomes a little more human, a little less divine. 

LIKES:
• I enjoyed Baart’s writing and insights. I wanted to see how the story played out.
• Quinn! I related to her the most and I really liked her character arc from beginning to end. I especially enjoyed reading her conflicted feelings about marriage, motherhood, and her sister. One of my favorites scenes was when she becomes overwhelmed during a gathering of old high school friends. She no longer fits into the small town life that she once reveled in. She has difficulty being surrounded by all the young families while she is trying to get pregnant.

Quinn was not a woman who knew. Who had crossed the divide and bore the scars to prove it. She both loved and loathed herself for it.

• The BEST part was Quinn trying to win over six-year-old Everlee—all the painful rejections and the small victories. If you read the “Acknowledgements” section at the end, you’ll understand why those scenes were so special!  While Quinn is trying to bond with Everlee, Liz is trying to reconnect with Quinn and failing. She wants so badly to have a relationship with her daughter, but she can’t overcome her own flaws to make any progress.

They were too far apart and far too close all at the same time. Perpetually missing each other.

Who is Everlee? What is Nora running from? What tore the Sanford family apart—was it one big explosion or the build-up of multiple tiny fractures? Will this broken family be able to put themselves back together again? Will the Sanford women learn that it’s okay to be vulnerable? I preferred the small family conflicts over the big central drama. This book is at it’s best when dealing with conflicted family relationships. The characters can’t help feel the inescapable pull towards their family (biological or chosen) even after they’ve been hurt numerous times: “How could she begin to explain the way she felt for her husband? The pretty layers that peeled back to reveal something dark and rotting beneath? They had lived a good, solid, respectable life. But that didn’t mean that she loved him. That she would mourn his loss. And yet.” I’ve overdone it on the suburbia/”behind closed doors” type books lately, so that might have affected my enjoyment. Fans of domestic dramas like Cruel Beautiful World by Caroline Leavitt and The Fall of Lisa Bellow by Susan Perabo might enjoy this story.