Are You Sleeping by Kathleen Barber

Are You Sleeping by Galesburg native Kathleen Barber is a compulsively readable psychological thriller. It started a little slow for me but by chapter 5 I was fully engrossed.

Narrator Josie Buhrman has changed her name and is trying to escape from her family history. Her professor father was murdered 13 years earlier. After the conviction of the teenager next door for the murder, Josie’s mother fled to join a cult and Josie suffered a terrible break with her twin sister.

But Josie can no longer escape because a journalist has brought the crime back into the news. A series of podcasts challenges the guilty verdict, suggests someone else might be to blame, and stirs up family secrets. The podcasts catch the fancy of the public and become a social media sensation. Josie leaves her home in New York to travel to her hometown in Illinois to attend a family funeral and finds herself in the middle of the controversy. Josie’s hometown, Elm Park, is a lot like Galesburg. It’s a small city in the Midwest anchored by a liberal arts college.

Are You Sleeping is not a perfect book but I rate it a solid four stars. I would never have guessed it was Barber’s first book. The narrative flows smoothly and the plot makes you want to keep reading so you can find out what happened. Josie rather foolishly thinks she can keep her past from her partner, to a point that strained credulity for me. However, Barber’s secondary characters are flawed, fleshed out, and believable. Josie's cousin Ellen is particularly both likable and unlikable and convincing. The ending didn’t stun but I was in doubt about who murdered the professor almost until the end.

The title was a good one – it had me singing Frère Jacques in my head, which kept me thinking about and wanting to get back to the book. The plot line about the podcasts and their popularity on social media was extremely believable; it made me wonder about other people whose lives have been damaged by sensational reporting.

Galesburg readers who enjoy psychological thrillers and mysteries will want to get their hands on a copy of Are You Sleeping. The book can be purchased at Stone Alley Books & Collectibles.

 Author Kathleen Barber will be at the Galesburg Public Library on Thursday, September 14 at 7:00 pm to discuss, sell, and sign copies of her book. In addition, the Tuesday/Thursday Book Clubs will discuss Are You Sleeping on Tuesday, September 12 from 1:00-2:00 pm and Thursday, September 14, from 6:00-7:00 pm. All readers are welcome to join either discussion at the library.

Welcome to Night Vale: A Novel by Joseph Fink and Jefferey Cranor

Genre: Surrealist Humor

Release: October 20th

Publisher: Harper Perennial

Add on Goodreads

Night Vale fans rejoice! The Welcome to Night Vale novel is almost out, and it does not disappoint.

For those unfamiliar with the highly popular podcast, Welcome to Night Vale started three years ago as a story-based podcast set in the eerie desert town of Night Vale, where conspiracy theories are true and weird is the norm. Taking the form of a community radio show hosted by narrator Cecil, Welcome to Night Vale quickly became well known both for its surreal setting and humor as well as for its clever use of social commentary.

Welcome to Night Vale: A Novel effectively pays tribute to the eerie weirdness of the desert town many of us have become familiar with, incorporating characters and locations already well known to listeners of the podcast, while also providing a completely new story easily accessible to those of us who have never heard of federally mandated pizza or hidden cities under the bowling alley. The story revolves around two women who deal with living in Night Vale as a single mother and as a business owner (respectively) in very different ways. It tackles issues concerning age versus maturity, the right time to share difficult information with children, and uncertainty over identity, all with a delicate mix of weird humor and sincerity.

Unfortunately, the novel suffers a little from stretches of inaction which are only slightly relieved by the various absurdities of Night Vale. It did at certain points feel very much like an extended episode of the podcast, which while entertaining felt at times like the balance between telling the story and establishing the setting became awkwardly lopsided.

That being said, once the action picks up the reader is once again pulled eagerly through the strange world of Night Vale. Overall, Welcome to Night Vale: A Novel, though a little slow and clunky at times, proved just as entertaining, spooky, and timely in its treatment of social issues as the podcast it shares a name with. It makes a great introduction to the world of Night Vale to newcomers, and scratches at the itch we listeners always feel between long awaited episodes. A great read for those who enjoy Kafka, Mikhail Bulgakov, Haruki Murakami, H. P. Lovecraft, or Stephen King.