"Whenever there existed something new, inexplicable, or plain different, their instinct was to fear and vilify it."
Set in 2043, The Sleepless introduces us to a future where 25% of the planet no longer sleeps. Sleeplessness is acquired through an idiopathic nature, the UN even blames synthetically made coffee, but no one is certain how the sleeplessness evolved. Enter Jaime Vega, a sleepless investigative journalist, that finds his mentor and CEO of the company dead in his office. The police are ruling it a suicide, but before they could arrive, Jaime took a scan of the entire scene because something feels off. The Sleepless is a fun, sci-fi mystery that unravels slowly. We loved the uniqueness of the dystopian future without making it too outlandish. However, the writing became repetitive describing tech, origin of the sleeplessness, and with the timeline bouncing between Jaime’s back story and the current mystery, the plot stalled on occasion. Despite this, we enjoyed the writing style and loved the author’s use of personal experience to create a well developed Filipino, bisexual protagonist. If you like futuristic sci-fi mysteries, add this one to your TBR!