Are You Awake?

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I really wanted to love this book. It was a decent mystery, but everything else just fell flat for me. I am a huge fan of McGowan and will continue to read her books even though this one wasn't my favorite. I am hoping that others will enjoy it more than I did. Having read Claire McGowan books before I was thrilled to get the chance to read her latest offing. Mary hasn't slept in what feels like years. Her two young children never let her rest, and so one exhausting night, in the middle of a London heatwave, she escapes to a nearby park for some air. My interest considerably diminished after completing half of it. I had expected something better. Although I understood a mother's fatigue, the plot went in a direction I could not relate to.

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. Mary is a mother of two children under the age of two. She feels like she hasn’t slept at all since her second was born. 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. But neither of them are prepared for the storm they unleash in the wake of their digging. Can they succeed where the police have failed? Will they find Samantha and uncover the truth before it's too late? For all of them? 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.Horrified by what they have seen Tim and Mary form a bond and work together to uncover what has happened. I read this book in one sitting . Im ashamed to admit it but I’ll own it, i didnt even shower today! I just couldn’t spare 5 minutes away from this book. I was completely consumed and nothing was going to get in my way. 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?

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. So sadly just a 3 star read for me I really wanted to like it more it had some funny moments and I think that’s what kept me reading till the end.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. One night while they are both up, they see something in a window of an abandoned house. It looks violent. Over the next couple of days, they both become aware of a missing girl and wonder if that was who they saw. They meet in the park and discover they saw the same thing. After doing research, they discover this missing woman isn't the first one in the area.

After the past two unprecedented heat-wave summers here in the Pacific Northwest, I understand Mary’s predicament. Trying to escape the heat became an obsession, to the point where I wasn’t thinking rationally. Although I don't suffer from PTSD, I’m a worrier and often have difficulty getting to sleep because my mind wants to revisit every single negative situation I can imagine. Mixing this with having been prepped as a witness for a trial, I understand the controversy over eye-witness reliance. All of these allowed me to become part of the story while still maintaining some objectivity. There definitely were more intriguing plot lines in this story and they were all woven together so well. Character development was excellent! I like the characters in this book. It's told from Mary and Tim's POV as you get to know each. I was a bit disappointed in the ending though. To me it seemed to just happen and then that was that. No real closure maybe. Or explanation. Something was just missing. What happens when people aren’t what they seem? Well, I’ll tell you, you put on your big girl panties and you handle it.

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

I loved Ms McGowan's book THE PUSH. It was edge of your seat thrills. This one was good but not great. It had some things that I love and others that just didn't do it for me. 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?