While You Sleep

Zoe decides that she needs to be alone for a while to escape from a marriage that is deteriorating rapidly and to decide what she is going to do next. From her home in urban America she books a month in a recently renovated house on a remote Scottish island with a population of just 160 people. Unbeknown to her, the house is infamous locally – nearly 100 years ago a widow and her son died there in mysterious circumstances and only the previous year a local boy disappeared there without a trace while it was being done up. It soon becomes clear to Zoe that something is not right as her peace is disturbed by unidentified noises, weird dreams, visions and a series of other seemingly inexplicable phenomena. Most of the locals seem convinced that these are part and parcel of the superstitions surrounding the “McBride House” but Zoe takes a stalwart stance initially, determined to prove that there is a more mundane explanation. It doesn’t take long before she begins to wonder if she is losing her sanity.

I normally try to highlight the positive things about a book first, before mentioning the less favourable points. Sadly, in this particular instance, this is going to be quite difficult. However, there were definitely some interesting characters. I used to live on a remote Scottish island, albeit with a much smaller population than this one and islands do tend to collect a weird and wonderful mix of people, ranging from taciturn and hardy locals to more eccentric incomers looking to escape from mainland life – this book has them all. Some of the misconceptions about Scottish island life were also classic. The American tourist arrives expecting life to work pretty much as it does on the mainland and this could not be further from the truth - there are no car rental places, no policemen, no locked doors and no privacy. I also concede that the ending was absolutely terrifying, in a ghastly horror-movie sort of way and I was completely mesmerized. At this point in the narrative I couldn’t put the book down but can’t honestly say that I found it a very pleasant experience.

And so to the less favourable aspects of the book, and trust me there were quite a number of them. I like books to have a firm footing in reality and this wasn’t my cup of tea at all – plenty of supernatural mumbo-jumbo and psychic nonsense probably stemming from a deranged mind, with a lot of boring erotica added for no obvious reason except for the fact that “sex sells”. I also found that it became very repetitive and long-winded in places – many places actually. I gave it a second star purely because of the ending which was a vast improvement on the rest of the book (possibly only because I had managed to reach the end and had therefore nearly finished reading it, although I don’t think that was the only reason).

Basically this book wasn’t my cup of tea at all. Although I wouldn’t actively recommend it, I would point out that other people’s reviews were generally good so it is probably worth reading if you enjoy an eerie ghost story with an element of horror in it.

This thriller has a hauntingly beautiful setting on a remote Scottish island. It is not the only haunting in this fast paced novel. The main character being a mentally instable American visitor to an isolated holiday home adds further twists as you can never be certain what actually takes place or if it is her mind playing tricks. Added to the mix is that you do not find out about her mental state until the plot strands reolve.

Not to be read if you are easily spooked and alone in a strange, remote cottage...

Thank you to the reading agency for providing Macclesfield Library Reading Group with ten copies of While You Sleep by Stephanie Merritt. We found that this book lived up to its spooky premise and hooked us in to its fast paced unpredictable plot. Here are some of our thoughts:
“A fast paced creepy thriller guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat. Atmospheric, chilling and utterly believable.”
“A good exemplar of the genre if a bit formulaic, rescued by good writing.”
“A real page turner of a book chilling and intense with a good ending.”
“Beautifully written – poetic almost in parts. But it does not get top marks as I found the characters unrealistic. Too much happens too quickly and too relentlessly to the point I became blasé to the happenings of the story.”
“An if you like Gothic novel then this is a good read.”

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