I also really, really appreciated Josie as our main character. I wasn’t expecting the ending, and I would reread it based on the “family drama” aspect alone (usually, rereading mysteries doesn’t happen unless I’ve forgotten the ending). I liked Are You Sleeping a lot, having paired the ebook with the audiobook to take advantage of its unique format (bouncing back and forth between Josie’s POV in the third person, podcast transcripts, and chatter on the interwebs) I was engaged throughout the story and appreciated the way Barber weaved together not only a murder mystery, but a domestic drama. Okay, let’s get this out of the way right now. Listening to Reconsidered forces Josie to relive the worst night of her life, but it also casts suspicion on Lanie- she saw the murder, there’s no doubt about that, but what did she actually see? And no matter how hard she tries to outrun her past, it is always keeping pace with her, just waiting for her to turn around and look. The journey home makes it painfully clear that no matter what she changes her name to, or how she spins her backstory, Josie Borden has always and will always be Josephine Buhrman , the daughter of a murder victim. Then she learns about Reconsidered, her cousin calls to tell her that her cult-bound mother has committed suicide, and she heads home to face her past, in that order. Josie Borden is an only child her parents “died in a car crash” when she was young, and none of her lies have ever caught up with her. Josephine Buhrman is a girl with a horrific, unimaginable past and a drug-addled, manipulative sister who has betrayed Josephine again and again. She saw.īut Josie and Lanie haven’t spoken since they were teenagers after their father’s murder, their mother abandoned them to join a cult Lanie dove, headfirst, into the escapism of drugs and alcohol and Josie, left out in the cold, tried to hold the scraps of their family together until it became apparent there was nothing worth holding onto- she ran away and started a new life, as one does: changing her name, falling in love, and getting a job at a bookstore. She saw Warren Cave shoot their father in the back of the head. Josie knows this podcast is ridiculous her twin sister, Lanie, saw Warren Cave in their home all those years ago.
It’s been considered “solved” for nearly two decades, but when an inquisitive podcaster reopens the case and her podcast, Reconsidered, becomes a runaway sensation, the victim’s daughter, Josie, is forced to confront the past she’s been running from for half of her life.
Are You Sleeping (named after the children’s lullaby) has a markedly modern slant, echoing award-winning podcast Serial and utilizing well-known websites (Slate) and social media platforms (Reddit, Twitter) to help tell the story.Īre You Sleeping centers around the (fictional) murder of college professor Chuck Buhrman at the hands of his 17-year-old neighbour, Warren Cave.
This week’s read is a twisty psychological thriller, Are You Sleeping, by debut author Kathleen Barber. There have been a few times when I’ve admitted something I wasn’t wowed by will otherwise thrill most people, and something I liked probably won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, and even one instance where I couldn’t recommend a book at all. Since this column is subjective (meaning everything following is my opinion, and should be regarded as such), I am by no means claiming to be the authority on what constitutes a “good” book. Each week, I find new literature (traditionally published or otherwise) and read it for the explicit purpose of helping you decide whether it’s good enough to claim prime shelf real estate, or if it’s better-suited to be an ereader purchase. ‘S up readers? Welcome back to an early edition On The Shelf, Fan Fest’s premiere book review column.