Nod - Adrian Barnes

Dawn breaks and no one in the world has slept the night before. Or almost no one. A few people, perhaps one in ten thousand, can still sleep, and they’ve all shared the same mysterious dream. A handful of silent children can still sleep as well, but what they’re dreaming remains a mystery. Global panic ensues. A medical fact: after six days of absolute sleep deprivation, psychosis sets in. After four weeks, the body dies. In the interim, a bizarre new world arises and swallows the old one whole. A world called Nod.

Blurb taken from Goodreads.

*

I picked Nod up in a bookshop a few months ago. I never normally just pick up books I see, as I have so many unread books already on my shelves, and I also get a heap of recommendations that I try and pursue. I just happened to be browsing, and this sounded really interesting, so I bought it.

It's a very interesting concept, about a world where most people cannot sleep, and so enter a state of psychosis. I thought it had the potential to be very unique, and the first few chapters kept my expectations high. After that, when I reached about the middle of the book, I started to lose interest. It felt a little too zombie cult, which isn't really something that I'm too interested in reading about. 

I did enjoy the book, and I appreciated the ending a lot. It just felt like there wasn't really anywhere for the story to go to develop, and truthfully, it just wasn't really my thing.

Rating: ✫✫✫

SPOILER ALERT

The Story

The reason I picked this book up in the first place is because the concept of this world sounded really unique. For any of you who have seen it, it made me think a little of the episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer "Hush", where the whole of Sunnydale loses their voices, and the Gentleman come in to wreak havoc. The idea that only a select few people in the whole world retain their ability to sleep is one that has a lot of mileage, and I was really excited to see what would come of the story.

I think my problem with the book was that nothing really seemed to come of the story. I really liked that the book was structured in a diary form, with the main character Paul making note of what happened each day. We're introduced to the idea that after a certain number of days, psychosis will set in for all those who cannot sleep, and they will eventually die, and the diary format kept this in the forefront of my mind throughout. The first few days very clearly outlined what was happening for Paul, who could sleep, and his partner Tanya, who could not, and the bar was set for absolute mayhem and trauma to come. Once this is established, however, the story kind of went nowhere in my eyes. We have Charles, who takes over the 'Awakened' in a crazy power move which I'm still not sure I understand. Paul interacts with all sorts of other people in his attempts to save a young girl called Zoe, who he has absolutely no connection with. And then all of a sudden, we reach the end. 

It just felt like nothing was ever explained. We never find out why this is happening, and we never see anybody actually die except Tanya, which wasn't a natural death. We also never find out how the story concludes. We are just as much in the dark at the end of the book, and it just felt so strange. I did, however, think the ending was interesting. Paul is finally calm, and the narrative cuts off halfway through a sentence, indicating that he has fallen asleep for good. I thought that was a beautiful choice of an ending; the peace after a world of chaos and hardship. Combined with the essay by the same author contained at the end of the book, it struck a real chord about life and death.

The Verdict

It just felt a bit odd and not quite right to me. I think maybe this isn't helped by the fact that I'm not a massive fan of genres like this; the horror, zombie-esque type of story. I find it a little dull, as I find there is only so much you can do with that kind of content. If I enjoyed that genre more, I think this would have been more of a hit for me.