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Sleepless: A Novel Audiobook
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(3.01) - 1,181 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
Every day, more and more people have been found to have contracted the illness. It reveals itself gradually, inhibiting sleep, eating away at one’s mind, birthing panic and confusion, until the final few months before death known as the suffering. The epidemic has swept the globe, and now infects one in ten people.
Straight-arrow cop Parker T. Haas is working undercover as a dealer in the black-market trade of Dreamer, the only known drug that offers relief for the sleepless. The drug is in small supply and impossibly high demand, and in his darker moments, Park admits to himself that his interest in it goes beyond the professional. His own wife, Rose, has been sleepless for months, and they haven’t yet found the courage to find out if their infant daughter is also sick. Though the stress at work and at home are weighing on him, Park presses on, feeling like he’s on the cusp of learning something crucial about the disease.
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"Yowza - Huston wrote that this book took alot out of him to write. I bet because it took just as much out of me to read it. It is very intense and while a departure from the usual Huston genre, the total immersion in the story, great characterization and noir style are all found. I could only read it in bits because I had to digest it but now that I'm finished -- I totally want to read it again."
— Coki (5 out of 5 stars)
Quotes
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“One of the most remarkable prose stylists to emerge from the noir tradition in this century.”
— Stephen King, #1 New York Times bestselling author -
“Why stop at adapting genre conventions when you can re-invent the whole genre? That seems to be Charlie Huston’s modus operandi in Sleepless, a traditional police procedural neatly tucked into a stunningly original work of speculative fiction.”
— New York Times -
“The use of dual readers—Mark Bramhall and Ray Porter, as Jasper and Park respectively—helps to identify the points of view. For the cop, a former Stanford professor struggling to care for his family and do his job, Porter employs an intelligent voice tinged by bitterness and anxiety. But it’s Bramhall who’s given the plum assignment: Jasper is cool, cynical, dryly humorous, and always in control, even when faced with overwhelming odds. He’s an actor’s dream, and Bramhall’s dry, bemused, and at times darkly humorous delivery is stunning.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred audio review) -
“A writer as skilled as Huston can make an apocalyptic story terrifyingly plausible.”
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review) -
“I like assassins possessed of style, exceptional lethality, and unusual self-awareness. Jasper has all that, and more. He’s the best fictional assassin I’ve come across in a long time.”
— Amazon.com -
“Huston’s impressive, challenging thriller…will gain him a whole new readership.”
— Publishers Weekly
Awards
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A Publishers Weekly Best Audiobook for the Year in Fiction
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A Crime Reads Pick of Books Set during Plagues, Contagions, and Outbreaks
Sleepless Listener Reviews
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Renato Lazzaroni, 4/24/2024
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" Not a subject I would call entertaining, but defiantly thought provoking.... far too possible to be entertaining! "
— Mary, 2/18/2014 -
" Takes place in a horrible, violence-filled LA where there is not even enough water. A strange new dreadful disease is affecting some of the population and everybody is using lots of drugs. I couldn't figure out who was who or what was going on so I quit after 75 pages. "
— Chris, 2/18/2014 -
" Written in an odd style. Couldn't tell if it really was stylish or just not well written. Just another apocalyptic disease story. "
— Ralph, 2/10/2014 -
" Not my cup of tea. "
— Courtney, 2/7/2014 -
" One of my favorite books of all time. Loved it "
— Nerissa, 2/3/2014 -
" I love Charlie Huston, but I just couldn't get into this book. I gave it more than 100 pages, but I just didn't care about any of the characters, and the overall subject matter didn't interest me. I will always try his new books because his Hank Thompson trilogy blew me away...amazing...but this book just didn't do it for me. "
— Kathy, 2/3/2014 -
" I am a huge fan of Charlie Huston and recommend his other books highly but this book was a bit of a problem to sort through. It is a good premise, one of my favorites in fact involving society's slow decline into an apocalyptic state brought about by the meddlesome actions of humans trying to make things better then trying to make a buck of their altruism only to bring about the end of the world, so i should have loved it. But it was kind of slow, kind of plodding and although i was keen on the set up and even got into the characters, always love Huston's protagonist, there was just not enough there there to make it a favorite. A good solid read but one that will leave you a little cold if you have read any of his other fantastic series. "
— Robin, 1/10/2014 -
" That`s how you do it! "
— Arie, 1/6/2014 -
" The book starts with an interesting premise, but the ending falls flat. Also, a bit hard to get used to the two different writing styles used for one character. This is a case the story would make a better movie than book. "
— Eric, 1/2/2014 -
" Another excellent read from Charlie Huston :) "
— Simon, 12/7/2013 -
" VERY disappointed. Not the style that I like from Charlie. "
— Steve, 6/17/2013 -
" Seems like a good premise. I like the author, but didn't like this book. Skimmed it mostly. "
— Brian, 3/7/2013 -
" This book really had me going. Kept me turning pages, especially when I got close to the end, wanting to finish, but not wanting it to end. "
— Rick, 1/3/2013 -
" I was about to give up on this, as it takes a while to get going, but I am so glad I persevered. It is a complex book, and the payoff is wonderful. It is an SF thriller, if it needs a label, and I think those who liked Nureomancer will appreciate this. I will be looking up the author's other work. "
— Jo-Anne, 11/15/2012 -
" Loved this book. Noir thriller with zombie undertones and a fantastic anti-hero. It's difficult to discern the two main characters at first, but worth hanging in there. "
— Sacha, 4/16/2012 -
" What a crazy story about insomnia. "
— Byron, 11/19/2011 -
" The zombie apocalypse in the city of quartz "
— Codered, 10/17/2011 -
" Dystopic present. I found myself thinking a lot about the story even when I wasn't reading it. The the alternating 'voice' is disorienting at first, purposefully. "
— Deb, 9/8/2011 -
" Charlie Huston doing a sci-fi, almost post apocalyptic novel was cool. "
— Andrew, 5/14/2011 -
" Hard to live up to the first book, but absolutely it was still incredibly hard to put down. "
— Andrew, 3/21/2011 -
" Love Charlie Huston's Joe Pitt series, and this isn't a knock on these books, but I just couldn't get into this so close to have read the five books of the Vampyre series (which I highly recommend) "
— Jerseytodd, 11/28/2010 -
" At the start I was still comparing Hank to Joe Pitt. Somewhere along the way I got swept up and Hank became his own man. The only downside was all the football talk "
— Jennifer, 10/26/2010 -
" still a bit violent, but a good page-turner. "
— Tatiana, 10/3/2010 -
" Interesting main character, but a really high body count as Hank Thompson tries to protect his parents by using various bad guys and low-lifes to find and return stolen money. "
— Nkm, 8/21/2010
About Charlie Huston
Charlie Huston is the bestselling author of The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death; The Shotgun Rule; the Henry Thompson trilogy, which includes the Edgar Award–nominated Six Bad Things; and the Joe Pitt Casebooks. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, the actress Virginia Louise Smith.
About the Narrators
Ray Porter has garnered two Audie nominations as well as several Earphones Awards and enthusiastic reviews for his sparkling narration of audiobooks. A fifteen-year veteran of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, he has also appeared in numerous films and television shows.
Mark Bramhall has won the prestigious Audie Award for best narration, more than thirty AudioFile Earphones Awards, and has repeatedly been named by AudioFile magazine and Publishers Weekly among their “Best Voices of the Year.” He is also an award-winning actor whose acting credits include off-Broadway, regional, and many Los Angeles venues as well as television, animation, and feature films. He has taught and directed at the American Academy of Dramatic Art.