Are You Awake?

Product Information

A few things I did NOT like about this book, please note that this is my opinion based on things to which I relate to and feel targeted with: It’s like, I started thinking that the title, ‘Are you awake?’, was actually just a question being asked to the reader because…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. I probably stepped away from this book a dozen times because nothing was happening. Mary's two young children won't let her sleep; Tim, a journalist, just can't, following recent trauma. When these two sleepless people witness something concerning in the dead of night, perhaps linked to a recent crime, the unlikely pair - both experiencing their own form of desperation - come together to investigate. After getting skepticism and no help whatsoever from the police, these two barely functioning adults decide the best course of action is to amateur sleuth this thing in the most ill-advised ways possible that get them in trouble over and over again, because that's what intelligent adults do. 🤦‍♀️ 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.

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. They inform the police but don't get far. Both believe that a missing woman may have been the victim in the incident they both witnessed. They decide to do their own detective work when they get nowhere with the police. This was an interesting premise for a novel, with 2 unreliable narrators. Can you really believe the words of 2 sleep deprived people? My biggest gripe with this book was Mary. As a MC, she is a lawyer but she seems to have no grasp of the law at all. Unfortunately this leaves a gaping personality/character flaw that ruins some of the book. I enjoyed Claire McGowan's other books and will continue to look forward to her future books but this one just was not as good a read as her previous books. Mary is supposedly a brilliant lawyer, although on maternity leave. However, she makes terrible decision after terrible decision that someone that smart would unlikely make. She’s also irresponsible in putting her children in danger at times, although she does cop to it eventually. While I enjoyed some of the OTT moments, I feel like it would’ve worked better if the book was aiming to be a darkly comedic mystery. The ending was pretty ridiculous and implausible, but that’s nothing new.Reminded me a bit of Insomnia by Sarah Pinborough, which I also gave the same star rating to, which would make sense due to the similarities with the main characters in both books. Honestly, it started out pretty intriguing, but soon turns into just a chaotic day in the life of Mary. She is a mom who apparently hasn't read this book because she can't sleep! Tim, is her neighbor who was a former journalist and suffers from PSTD. Are you awake? Well I had trouble staying awake reading this…I put this book down a lot and had a hard time finishing it. This just wasn’t the book for me. I didn’t find it exciting enough to hold my interest. The characters themself are interesting but just not enough to carry the book. I do like Claire McGowan's books, but this took a while to grab hold of me. It settles down into what feels like quite an old-fashioned adventure whereby Mary and Tim, finding the police less than helpful, set about their own amateur investigation into the disappearance of a nineteen-year-old girl, Samantha. There are plenty of twists and turns along the way and ultimately it's all a bit far-fetched, but enjoyable enough.

Two strangers meet in the middle of the night in a park in London: Mary, who has a baby and a toddler who keep her awake most nights and Tim, who hasn't slept since a nightmarish experience has left him traumatized. They both think they've seen a girl in an abandoned building; could it possibly be the girl the police is looking for?What I will say I liked how she portrayed Mary, and the feelings she has about being a new mum struggling with her new role in life, I feel she captured that perfectly and did not go down the easy route of PND instead showing how you can have these feelings without it being something deeper, she actually showed a bit humour in this which made Mary less 2D than the other blah characters. Also liked the slight cosy crime feel I got from both Mary and Tim with their amateur detection though am not sure if the author meant them to read like that I suspect not. Mary wound me up with how she was with her children. She didn’t even sound like she wanted them, was the author hinting at PPD? If so, it was way too subtle and came across instead as Mary just moaning constantly. I have chosen not to have kids as I like my sleep, my time and everything that comes with not having kids. This is a choice; Mary chose to have not just 1 but 2 kids very close together in age. I just found her winding me up constantly! 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. There is no secret I absolutely adore Claire McGowan. I have bookstagram to thank for the introduction. After seeing just about EVERYONE post about Are You Awake, I knew I had to make this one a priority. I pushed aside my Christmas themed books and took a dive right in. There are some books that you have to keep reading (or listening to) because they’re so well written and plotted that you are drawn in and have to know what happens next. Then, there are books like this one that are so ridiculous and inconceivable that you only continue to invest your time in them, simply to find out how much more unbelievable they can get. This is the latter.

Mary has two young children and is awake through the night, not remembering the last time she fully slept. Tim is a journalist suffering from guilt and horrific memories of an accident - leaving him unable to sleep, suffering from insomnia. One night, both Mary and Tim look out to a house across from them, and witness violence through the window. A house that already has a past history of a brutal murder. Working together to try and find out what they saw, they'll head further and further into danger. A danger that might not allow them both out alive. Convinced the “missing woman” who has been all over the news is being held captive there, they team up to investigate after the local Police, don’t feel that the tip they call in is credible enough to even visit the property in question. We have theses two characters both who are sleep deprived for different reasons trying to solve the mystery of a missing girl after they both are sure they saw her in the attic room of a house across from them which leads them getting into all kinds of trouble, I liked this idea but I didn’t find it terribly believable.In this book we meet Mary who is a mother to two young children. Who is feeling like she has had enough. She hasn't slept in what feels like two years and really needs a break. So one night in the middle Mary decides to escape to the park for some much needed air.

AFOJFOJFOJ WHYYY!! ??? I absolutely loved Claire McGowan's writing in I Know You and What You Did, so naturally I was pumped af to grab her latest off NetGalley. The start was promising with Mary's raw af account of being a mom of two young kids with a bum ass husband. Her daughter, Audrey, was the uncontested star of this book—which is why I gave this two stars instead of one. All the remarks about the middle east. Yes there are war zones in some places in the middle east, but it is not all that it is. And this book is full of micro-aggressions that I felt personally as an Arab. One night Mary and Tim, who can't sleep due to PTSD, see something in a house across the park. The pair combine their efforts to find out more and the unlikely duo turn into amateur sleuths.As I read on though, some things really got to me. Mary is supposedly an attorney, but she asks the simplest questions about crime and evidence. Also, Mary’s husband is actually kind of the worst and I just could not stand reading about how terribly unhelpful he was. I actually wanted to slap the man through the book. What a dud. The tension was there at parts but not entirely throughout. There were various unrealistic events that I could just not wrap my brain around. Mary and Tim are both sleepless for different reasons and witness a murder. The premise was exciting and I wanted this to be great but it didn’t land. The twists felt predictable and then a little silly.. Nothing really landed right. Mary and Tim are neighbours who get caught up in finding a missing girl, Samantha. They both see something in a house across the park, that pretty much seem like violence.