Are You Awake?

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Claire McGowan is an accomplished writer of thrillers and the premise of ‘Are You Awake’ sounds promising. Two people, unable to sleep for very different reasons, believe that they see a missing girl being assaulted in the middle of the night. The police do not appear very interested. Tim is a journalist who suffers from PTSD and Insomnia, since getting injured in the field. His partner, Alice has left him and he is on administrative leave from the paper he works for. Dual POVs between Tim and Mary. And ocassionally we get a POV from the missing girl, Samantha. I also loved the dynamic between Tim and Mary. I enjoyed their journey of sleuthing. I have read a few of Claire McGowan's books before and enjoyed them. Nothing has wow'ed me, but they have been OK.

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 kept really wanting something exciting and gripping to happen, but it didn’t; it was very disappointing. It is possible that my perspective may be unpopular, but I am convinced that honesty should always be the guiding principle.

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. This was a hard one to rate. It's a book that I didn't dislike but I didn't particularly like either. Although readers are meant to feel for the two main characters as one struggles with PTSD and the other is a sleep deprived Mother with a husband who is clueless. I mean seriously, how did he not see how tired his wife was? But do we care for them? I didn't really connect with either. I can relate to being a sleep deprived mother but that was it. The characters are real and flawed people. Yes they each have problems of their own, but you can't help but like them for what they are trying to do.Claire McGowan grew up in a small village in Northern Ireland. After a degree in English and French from Oxford University she moved to London and worked in the charity sector. She is currently the Director of the Crime Writers’ Association.