THE SLEEPWALKER Chris Bohjalian MY RATING ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️▫️ PUBLISHER Penguin Random House Audio PUBLISHED January 10, 2017
SUMMARY Annalee Ahlberg suffers from parasomnia, she’s a sleepwalker. She is also an architect, living in rural Vermont in a beautiful red Victorian home right beside the Gale River. She has a history of having been rescued from dangerous activities by her family in the middle of the night while sleepwalking. Most of the time her husband is right there beside her at night. One morning her daughters, Lianna, 21, and Paige, 12, wake up to find that their mother is missing from her bed. Their father, Warren, was not there that night. He was out of town at a conference in Iowa.
A detective from Waterbury Vermont, Gavin Rikert, a friend of Annalee’s, inserts himself into the case. Is that even ethical? What exactly was his relationship with Annalee?
Much of the story’s focus is on the family’s attempt to handle the emotions associated with their missing wife and mother. Warren, a college English professor buries himself in alcohol and work, mentoring several cute young coeds. Lianna withdraws from college in order to take care of her dad and her younger sister. She smokes pot and drinks to dull the pain and gets involved in a secret relationship. Paige, misses her mom so much she swims the river to try to find her. Her grades start to suffer and she begins withdrawing from her favorite after school activities.
What really happened what to Annalee that night? Will this family recover from the grief if there’s no closure? What are the police doing to find her?
REVIEW I love books that truly surprise you at the end. The Sleepwalker most certainly did that for me. It’s a well written book with a unique and original story about parasomnia. Parasomnia includes sleepwalking, nightmares, sleep aggression, sleep-related eating disorders and sleep behavior disorders. Before reading this book I had very little insight into sleep disorders so I found this book to be both educational and interesting. Another huge plus for the book for me!
The story is interestingly told from the perspective of the 21-year-old daughter Lianna. (Love Love Love the names Annalee and Lianna) Lianna attempts to find out what might’ve happened to her mother by talking to various friends and family. Even with all the questions Lianna asks it is hard to figure out who and what to believe, making the book a page-turner.
I listened to the audio version of this book and found the main narrator, Cady McClain to be very good. The second narrator, of short thoughts between chapters could have been better. This was the first Chris Bohjalian book I had ever read, but certainly not the last. I am definitely interested in reading more from him. What a great storyteller!
