Are You Awake?

Product Information

I have read a few of Claire McGowan's books before and enjoyed them. Nothing has wow'ed me, but they have been OK. Mary is a mother of two who is on maternity leave and is in desperate need of some sleep. Her children keep her up at night. Tim, her neighbour is a former journalist who suffers from PTSD and can't sleep at night. These two are separately looking out the window one night and think they see something sinister occurring in one of the (abandoned) homes across the street. There is also a girl missing from the neighbourhood. Mary and Tim later bond and try to piece together what they saw that night and begin to connect it to the missing girl. As I mentioned above, there are some very amusing scenes in this book, and I think it would have benefited if it just embraced the humorous aspects of what silly things the characters were doing here and there. It didn’t deter my reading, but I wonder if other readers would’ve embraced the silliness a bit more if it was straightforward in the funny department. I love reading about amateur sleuths, and it was fun to picture Mary and Tim bopping around town, trying to get information…only to find themselves in more trouble. I also found the pacing perfect. I had a hard time putting it down (until the end, when I was ready for it to wrap up), and wanted to know how it ended. The thing is that I actually liked the characters. The mom, Mary is just so freaking exhausted and I just felt her. Tim seemed like a really good guy and I was so sorry for all he went through. The husband, whose name I can’t recall, was kind of oblivious, but in general an okay guy. But my character like was not enough to sustain me. I had mixed feelings about this one. The premise was interesting albeit a little far fetched. Two unconnected insomniacs think they see a missing girl trapped in an empty house. The rest of the book is these characters trying to get the police to take them seriously whilst making various unsavoury discoveries along the way.

In ‘Mum of the Year’ fashion, Mary occasionally brings her nursing three-month old son and her continually screaming two-year-old daughter who either speaks Caveman “HOT, MUMMY!” or beyond her years sentences “WHO IS THIS MAN, MUMMY?” along on her potentially dangerous snooping. When they aren’t with her, she’s shuffled them off to her friends to continue investigating the disappearance of a girl she doesn’t know with her neighbor she’s just met, while continually whining about her mom guilt.

Set in the depths of London, Are You Awake? is a book drenched in atmosphere, suspense and deceptions. The insomniac angle is a fascinating one which I understand too well. The first half of the book is anxiety-inducingly slow in such the best possible way and gets snappy the last half. It is told mostly from the perspectives of Mary and Tim but also occasionally by a third. Ok so this could've been a guilty pleasure read but McGowan punched above the belt by making Mary a lawyer who didn't know the law from her left foot. If she had just been a SAHM or like a cupcake baker on maternity leave, that would've been fine. ANYTHING but a lawyer. They talk & realise that the person they both saw looked like a local missing teenager, Samantha. Her family have been on the news recently begging for her safe return, & Tim & Mary fear she has been kidnapped & is being held in the empty house on Cliveden Road. The two of them report what they have seen to the police but nothing much comes of it, so they decide to continue their own investigation. For Mary it's a chance to have something for herself outside of motherhood, whilst for Tim, it's the first time he's been interesting in anything (apart from stalking his ex-wife) for a long time. Can they trust each other though, & given their respective issues, can they even trust themselves? I enjoyed the premise of two strangers coming together in the dead of night to solve a kidnapping. The author did a really great job of setting the witching hour scene and anybody who finds themselves awake through the night will really empathise with the characters. The feelings of loneliness and tiredness, and not being sure if you can really trust what you see.

What starts out as an exciting idea though, soon turns into a fight for their freedom and their lives. Mary and Tim decide to become amateur detectives when they think they see a missing girl in an abandoned house. Their suspicions are all based on not very much, and they put their lives in danger because they can’t sleep and are bored. Mary is a married mum of two wee ones who is desperate to sleep. She is also a lawyer which in this story is almost irrelevant. One tormented sleepless night up with her babies she looks out the window and questions what she sees...is it her insomnia-induced state or did she really see something? Meanwhile, Tim is awake but for different reasons. His terrible past prevents him from falling asleep. But on that same fateful night he, too, sees something from his window. The two meet one night and make a decision to investigate. Is there a link to the missing neighbourhood girl? The pasts become the present as other characters appear. And there is reason to question each of them. I normally enjoy the author's work, but this book just didn't do it for me. Definitely an interesting premise, but the main character (Mary) is soooo aggravating. I found it not so believable that she was a lawyer, since she didn't really seem to know anything about the law. I also found the way everyone treats Mary really off-putting... they just kind of dump on her and treat her terribly, and she doesn't stand up for herself. Like I said, aggravating. I figured out the ending pretty early on and I enjoyed the journey but couldn't stand Mary. From the bestselling author of What You Did comes a chilling story about a missing girl and two potential witnesses. They both think they saw her. But can they trust their own eyes?

There definitely were more intriguing plot lines in this story and they were all woven together so well. Character development was excellent! I feel like this had promise going into it. I’ve loved the author before, started off with an intriguing plot line, and then my interest sort of fizzled. But with her marriage under strain and the police on their tail, Mary begins to doubt her own mind...and Tim's. How reliable is a man who doesn't sleep?

Overall this was a good, well written read but I did find it a bit slow in parts, was a bit bored and I found it hard to engage with the storyline. I have heard great things about this author’s work, so I will have to give her another try-but this one unfortunately, was a MISS for me! It wasn’t very fast paced but it wasn’t too slow. It definitely took me longer to read than average.

As a thriller and suspense lover, I was very excited for this book. However, I felt a little underwhelmed by the overall thriller & suspense aspects of this novel. Don’t get me wrong, it was good just not great! Sipping thoughts: I reallye enjoy McGowan's writing style. This was not my favorite of hers but I enjoyed it. It was a little repetitive but I had to find out if the characters were just crazy or delirious. I did figure out one part of the twist early on. And ended up figuring out the second part before the reveal. The main characters, Tim and Mary, really bothered me with some of their reactions but it made for a good read. Can't wait for the next release.