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The Sleeping Sickness cover art

The Sleeping Sickness

By: European P. Douglas
Narrated by: James Daniel Burkdoll
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Summary

If you die in a dream, you die in real life - that used to be a myth!

Howell Warren hasn't seen another human face for over five years. If he did, that person could die at any time. This is the world of the "Sleeping Sickness".

As the world recovers from a devastating solar flare, society is just getting back on track when a strange phenomena begins. Violent dreams are coming true all over the world. Those featured in the dreams are killed in real life, showing terrible injuries like those in the dreams. No one is safe because no one can control their dreams.

The more worried people become, the more likely they are to have bad thoughts at night. It's only a matter of time before you kill someone. At least that was how it was until everyone started wearing masks and disguises, and people began to forget the faces of everyone they ever knew.

In this new world, the reemerging internet is filled with rumor and fear. Howell Warren hates living behind a mask. His new love, Catherine - many cities away - feels the same. Their one hope of a 'normal' life is to travel over dangerous, still mostly lawless terrain to make it to the city of Asitwas, a place where everyone lives as before and the only time people wear masks is at Halloween.

Can they manage to meet and cross hostile terrain to make their dreams come true. Or will the lawless world or the Sleeping Sickness get to them first?

If you liked A Quiet Place, The Silence, or Birdbox you'll love this speculative horror from E. P Douglas.

©2021 Rory McNeill (P)2022 Rory McNeill

What listeners say about The Sleeping Sickness

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What would you do?

Howell is going to meet his online girlfriend for the first time. They are heading for Asitwas a town where it is said that the Sleeping Sickness doesn't affect people and they can live normal lives without wearing masks. They both want this and head out to begin what they think will be wonderful lives together. However things do not go to plan. They immediately run into trouble and pick up loner Becky on the way, who they decide needs their help. Leaving the comfort of their town's, they don't realise just how lawless the outside world is and it literally becomes a struggle for them to survive.

I thought the book was pretty good and obviously was influenced by the recent pandemic. The story screams "Stranger Danger" making almost every action into a life or death decision. I felt the constant diary inserts interrupted the story quite a bit unwantedly, but it did do a good job of world building. The narrator did a great job and was a good fit for this book.

I was given this book for free of my own choosing and I voluntarily left this review.

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Baskerville Book Reviews

I groaned when I realized this was a plague story. I’m glad I kept listening though. It’s easily one of the most creatively fleshed out stories I’ve listened to or read.

In a world where dreaming about somebody can lead to them getting killed, everything is different. The world as a whole feels well thought out and planned, as readers would have a lot of questions as to how things work now.

People have to wear masks to protect their identity, people watch old movies where all of the actors are known to be dead already. Some try to commit suicide by having people dream of them. Easily the most interesting to me are the memory murderers. The people who kill anybody who has ever known them to prevent people from dreaming about them.

Easily the least interesting aspect of this book are the protagonists. Their journey is interesting, but as people, I couldn’t give less of a damn about them. The premise alone is what carried the book for me though. The premise could span an entire series set from the perspective of different people all over the world as their stories would all be easily different.

I didn’t take any notes on the narration, which is usually a good thing. If I couldn’t find anything to cumplain about, then the narration was overall decent at the very least.

NOTE: This copy was provided to me free of charge as a digital review copy. The opinions stated in this review are mine and mine alone, I was not paid or requested to give this book a certain rating, suggestion, or approval.

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An edge of your seat story!

This story is so well connected to what's happening in the real world that all I wanted to do was find out how it ended! Great conclusion to craziness and turmoil! Totally believable scenario! The narrator pulls the listener in and keeps you so intent that you just can't stop listening until the book is completely finished! Very intense!

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