Puss Reboots: Blog: August 2024: The Sleepwalkers

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Advocate by Eddie Ahn
Big Frog, Little Pond by George Mendoza and Peter Parnall (Illustrator)
Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill: Volume 2 by Ren Eguchi, MASA (Illustrator), and Kevin Chen (Translator)
Christa Comes Out of Her Shell by Abbi Waxman, Jesse Vilinsky and Jonathan Todd Ross (Narrators)
City of Grit and Gold by Maud Macrory Powell
Clifford the Big Red Dog by Norman Bridwell
Closely Harbored Secrets by Bree Baker and Thérèse Plummer (Narrator)
A Cup of Flour, A Pinch of Death by Valerie Burns and Jasmin Walker (Narrator)
Death With All the Trimmings by Lucy Burdette and Laura Jennings (Narrator)
DON'T TOUCH THAT!: A Sci-Fi and Fantasy Parenting Anthology edited by Jaymee Goh
Hitting the Books by Jenn McKinlay and Allyson Ryan (Narrator)
It's Not Like It's a Secret by Misa Sugiura
Knot the Usual Suspects by Molly MacRae and Emily Durante (Narrator)
Missing White Woman by Kellye Garrett
Murder by the Bookend by Laura Gail Black and Susan Boyce (Narrator)
Puzzleheart by Jenn Reese
The Secret Language of Birds by Lynne Kelly
The Sleepwalkers by Scarlett Thomas
Spanish Dagger by Susan Wittig Albert
There Are No Ants in This Book by Rosemary Mosco and Anna Pirolli (Illustrator)
Tik-Tok by Candace Robinson and Amber R. Duell
Who's Got the Apple? by Jan Lööf, Ole Risom and Linda Hayward (Translators)
The World of Oz: A Fantastic Expedition Over the Rainbow by Allen Eyles

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July 2024 Summary

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The Sleepwalkers: 08/05/24

The Sleepwalkers by Scarlett Thomas (2024) continues my trend of reading thrillers or horror novels set in villas. So far it's not turning out to be a satisfying trend.

Evelyn and Richard, on the outs after a chaotic wedding come to a tiny Greek island for a honeymoon arranged by Richard's mother. The villa they're staying at was the site of a drowning by married couple the year before. Richard and Evelyn seem to be haunted now by the "sleepwalkers."

In previous books by Scarlett Thomas, there's always been something otherworldly at play. These events come into focus through the fixation of the main character that often involves programming, mathematics, cryptography or similar. This time, Evelyn is a mystery writer and her observations, while genre savvy don't bear fruit in a satisfying fashion.

What Sleepwalkers did is make me want to read two other books instead, Moon-Spinners by Mary Stewart and Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson (2018).

Three stars