Hello everyone and welcome to a brand new edition of Lil Red’s Book Club! In a spoiler free setting, as always, we will be discussing a fun mystery by Allison Winn Scotch called The Insomniacs. Although this book lacked the dishy, often violent twists of my usual mystery thrillers, it more than made up for it in charm, humor, and a cast of characters that are impossible not to love. The Insomniacs is a quick read and I truly think that anyone will find something that they enjoy in it. I sure did! Before we begin, I will be placing a trigger warning on The Insomniacs for abuse in a cult setting. You ready? Let’s go!

Julian, Zeke, Sybil, and Betty couldn’t be more different from each other. Julian is a retired man in his sixties, Zeke is a professional baseball player, Sybil is a middle aged empty nester, and Betty is a young twenty something just trying to find her way. However, they all have one thing in common – they are each full blown insomniacs. To pass the time at night, Julian, Zeke, and Sybil joined an insomniacs message board to chat with other people who run on no sleep. They formed a connection, learned they were close to each other in New York City, and decided to turn their communications online into a real life meeting.

As per Julian’s suggestion, the trio meets at a diner late at night where Betty is working the night shift as a waitress. They invite her into their group and the trio turns into a quartet that very night. As The Insomniacs continue to gather, they all agree that their lack of sleep is caused by problems in their lives that seem unsolvable. So they put their heads together and try to improve their issues with new approaches. Although they are pretty lousy at problem solving, the group enjoys each other’s company and text constantly, have holiday get togethers, and plenty of random pop bys.

The Insomniacs have, indeed, found their people but that is all about to come crumbling down. Gentle curmudgeon, Julian, has been killed in a hit and run and Betty is nowhere to be found. The quartet has dropped to two in a matter of hours and it is up to Zeke and Sybil to uncover what happened to Julian and find Betty. True crime enthusiast, Sybil takes the reigns on their investigation only to find that her and Zeke had no clue who their friends were in the first place. Betty hasn’t been seen for weeks and they believe that their time to bring her home safely is running out. Will Sybil and Zeke crack the case? And just who were Betty and Julian? Read The Insomniacs to find out!

I absolutely love an unlikely friendship book so, of course, I delighted in The Insomniacs. There is something that’s so exciting to me about perfect strangers coming together, getting to know each other, and then being thrown into a crazy adventure. And it doesn’t get much crazier than two people trying to solve a murder and a missing person case! The Insomniacs was a fluff read and I fully admit that. It was, honestly, so far fetched that it almost bordered on being silly. But did I keep turning the pages? Yes, yes, and YES and I finished it in three sittings because it was just fun.

Allison Winn Scotch crafted this book with striking imagery, hilarious one liners, and just enough twists and turns to keep you guessing. Where her writing shined the most was in her creation of the sleepless characters because they seemed so accessible. I could find similarities between myself or people I know in Zeke, Julian, Sybil, and Betty and each of them felt like friends rather than made up people in a story. I shared in their laughs, frustration, sorrows, and success and it hit hard despite all of the fluff. I am confident that anyone who reads The Insomniacs will see themselves in this rag tag friend group too!

Overall, I am going to rate The Insomniacs with an eight out of ten stars. This is not a book that I would normally pick out for myself but I am sure glad that I read it!

What are you currently reading? What should I read next? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah