Sleep Over
An Oral History of the Apocalypse
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4.8 • 4 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
For fans of the oral history genre phenomenon World War Z, an inventive new spin on the apocalypse featuring a worldwide plague of insomnia.
Remember what it’s like to go an entire night without sleep?
What if sleep didn’t come the following night? Or the night after? What might happen if you, your friends, your family, your coworkers, and the strangers you pass on the street, all slowly began to realize that rest might not ever come again?
How slowly might the world fall apart? How long would it take for a society without sleep to descend into chaos?
Sleep Over is a collection of waking nightmares, a scrapbook collection of haunting and poignant stories from those trapped in a world where the pillars of society are crumbling, and madness is slowly descending on a planet without rest.
Online vigilantism transforms social media into a blame game with deadly consequences.
A freelance journalist grapples with the ethics of turning in footage of mass suicide.
Scientists turn to horrifying experiments as they grow more desperate in their race for a cure.
In Sleep Over, these stories are just the beginning. Before the Longest Day, the world record was eleven days without sleep. It turns out many of us will be forced to go much longer.
Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Bell's intriguing themed debut collection, a plague of insomnia instantaneously grips the world and is chronicled via accounts from those who survive. The linked stories span the globe and the human spectrum, made even scarier by their relatability. Some accounts are poignant, highlighting heroism and self-sacrifice in the midst of destruction and carnage, and some are feverish accounts of those succumbing to sleep deprivation. Particularly harrowing is the story told by a pediatric nurse about exhausted pregnant women going into premature labor, almost always resulting in the death of both mother and child. Another reveals the high-wire act of a power company trying to keep the power on for residences that are now in use 24/7. In a chilling tale, a cop discovers the killing room of a man who's taking full advantage of his neighbors' new vulnerability. Despite the grim elements, human resilience and compassion are the overwhelming themes of this well-written collection, and the coda is full of hope.
