![None Shall Sleep by Ellie Marney [book review]](https://i0.wp.com/www.owlbookworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Book-review-scaled-e1637518475664.jpg?fit=1256%2C628&ssl=1)
Title: None Shall Sleep
Author: Ellie Marney
Published: September 1, 2020
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Genre: YA Thriller
Pages: 400
Setting: Virginia
Welcome to Owl Book World! Today I’m writing a review for None Shall Sleep by Ellie Marney. This is a YA thriller that deals with serial killers.
None Shall sleep book summary:
None Shall sleep follows Emma Lewis and Travis Bell who are recruited for a program for the FBI. If they do well and do what they are supposed to do, then they will get perks out of it. But what’s in it for them?
When they make it to the Barracks, they are given a room and are told about what they will be doing. They quickly learn that they will be interviewing kids their age. The difference between themselves and those that they will be interviewing is that they are victims of being kidnapped and dealing with killers, while those they are interviewing are killers themselves.
Can the two of them manage to do the interviews after all they went through?
What I thought about None Shall Sleep:
Unfortunately, I have mixed feelings about None Shall Sleep. One thing is that I don’t get why this book is considered YA. I get that the main characters are eighteen, but they have already started college. If they were still in high school and haven’t graduated yet, then I could let calling this YA pass. When characters are out of high school is when I don’t consider it YA anymore! Hopefully, that’s not just me.
Make sure to read the rest of my review to find out the rest of the things I didn’t like and what I did end up liking!
The characters
The story follows Emma Lewis and Travis Bell. Emma was at one point kidnapped and Travis’ father was killed on duty by a teenager with no conscience. I actually kind of like the idea of people who went through tragedy being in some way able to help other victims. The only thing is that this doesn’t seem logical.
I get the premise that the two of them now know what to look for when it comes to psychopaths. They have been through it and it’s not hard for them to figure out the signs. So, that kind of is a cool idea. But! I do feel like they haven’t really had time to heal before they are called in to do this. What kind of person is willing to walk into a situation like this when they really haven’t recovered themselves? It’s something I can’t see two young people do.
Granted I get that some are stronger than others and can push themselves through a hard time for the good of society. It’s so hard for me to grasp that someone is so willing to do this when their wounds are so fresh.
To me, Travis is a bit more believable than Emma. His situation wasn’t as severe as Emma’s, and he seemed to have a lot harder time with doing the interview. Granted the person that they had to interview is the person who killed his dad. Knowing what he was and what he did you would have thought that Emma would have been a little more nervous and scared. She does experience this but while reading the book I kind of feel like she’s more confident than anything else. After what she went through you would think it would be the opposite.
I think Emma’s character could have been improved when dealing with the interviews instead of her getting stronger as she was doing them.
The plot
There are parts of the story that is a little bit slow and kind of lost my interest, which is why it ended up taking me longer than expected to finish the book. On top of that, there are parts that don’t seem that realistic. I kind of stated that previously. But overall, I did somewhat like the story because serial killers always seem to catch my interest. I don’t know why but I find them interesting even though I don’t condone what they do.
I am a little disappointed with who the bad guy ended up being, but the ending of the story was such as surprise. What happened in the last twenty percent of the book shocked me a little bit. Once you read the story, you’ll know what I’m talking about.
My rating for None Shall Sleep is a solid 3 out of 5 stars because I do feel like Emma’s character wasn’t believable in some aspects. On top of that, there are parts of the story that keeps me on edge, but I do think there are slower parts than anything.
Do you like books that revolve around serial killers?
If you like this review then you might also like my review for Blood Donor.
I love books that revolve around serial killers! But, I’m sorry this book disappointed you a bit. I get your point about how when characters are out of high school, the YA label doesn’t seem to be appropriate.
It’s always weird to me when books are considered YA when the character has graduated!