are you sleeping // kathleen barber

published: 2017
pages: 292 (but 280 realistically) 

ISBN: 978-1-5011-5770-7 (ebook)

read: 11/27-30/2017

rating: AHHHHHHHH!!!!!! (but the good kind!!!!) 

book: 31 of 29 for 2017. I AM DONE!

SYNOPSIS

The only thing more dangerous than a lie...is the truth.

Josie Buhrman has spent the last ten years trying to escape her family’s reputation and with good reason. After her father's murder thirteen years prior, her mother ran away to join a cult and her twin sister Lanie, once Josie’s closest friend and confidant, betrayed her in an unimaginable way. Now, Josie has finally put down roots in New York, settling into domestic life with her partner Caleb, and that’s where she intends to stay.

The only problem is that she has lied to Caleb about every detail of her past—starting with her last name.

When investigative reporter Poppy Parnell sets off a media firestorm with a mega-hit podcast that reopens the long-closed case of Josie’s father’s murder, Josie’s world begins to unravel. Meanwhile, the unexpected death of Josie’s long-absent mother forces her to return to her Midwestern hometown where she must confront the demons from her past—and the lies on which she has staked her future.

MY THOUGHTS

ahhhhh!!!!

this book!!!

i bought this book because it was on sale as an ebook and because the cover is kinda simple BUT I LOVED IT! and because it came very well recommended off of some bookstagrammer that if I'm being honest, i don't know why i follow because i'm not a scary, thriller, suspense reader. (with the exception of Dean Koontz!) 

i bought it awhile ago but i didn't start reading it until i was waiting in line to get into the Moroccan room to see Justin Nozuka (he's bae AF and has an amazing voice. look him up!) .....and then when the opening act wasn't really cutting it for me, in the middle of the floor, i was reading the book once again. (not my first time!)

I 

WAS 

HOOKED!!!!

and i was only like 30 pages in at that point.

the concert was amazing, i went home and tried to read a bit more. 

THIS FREAKING BOOK!!!!!!!!

it had me HOOKED!!!

i couldn't get enough of it. 

any time i was away from it, i was craving more of the story.

i wanted to know who did it! why'd they do it!

it had me all over the place. 

i thought maybe their mom had done it. 

or Warren's mom. 

or Lanie. 

or even Jo. 

heck, for a quick second, i thought i had done it!!!!!

U G H !!!!!

SO GOOD!!!!

this book had me everywhere!!!!

emotionally, spiritually, every other -ally you can possibly think of!

I LOVED ITTT!!!!

but i will admit the one thing that i disliked was Poppy. 

i get that she's kinda the reason why they're back in the "media" or why their story even got picked up or whatever and she's the reason why the truth eventually came out, but she irked me. and it wasn't so much her it's what she did/how she acted. 

but i guess that's what happens when you're a huge media presence. 

you get to do as you please. 

.....showing up to their home and just storming in like you own the place...UGH. 

other than that, i freaking loved this story. 

maybe it was kinda obvious who did it, maybe i chose not to read into it, alls i know is when i thought i found out who it was, BOOM!, it was shocking to me to know that i had no idea at all to begin with. lol. 

and i mean, what i love about it is that if i think about it now, i mean it was so obvious. 

i definitely recommend this book! 

it's a quick read and it easily captures you.

and it might be a little far-fetched (but i mean, you never know now a days) but its still good!  

BUT...if you don't like it, i owe you a donut!

i promise. 

spoilers below as always. 

thanks for reading! 

#lesreads on IG

SPOILERS

JO has been on the "run" for about 5 years (i think...its been a while so i forgot) when all of a sudden, the death of her father has been turned into a hot topic because of a podcast ran by Poppy. 

she's now living in New York with her boyfriend (who is away on assignment) when everything starts falling apart. 

she hears some kids talking about her father while shes on the train and when she gets home she's all in a daze looking it up. 

and that's when things start to fall apart. 

that explains the mysterious phone call she gets. 

days pass and the podcast is a big hit. 

everyone is into it. 

then her mother commits suicide. 

her boyfriend (forgot his name) comes back from his trip. 

her cousin Ellen calls her to tell her about the funeral which she refuses to go to but eventually does. her boyfriend all dazed and confused because of the time change, lets her go by herself telling her to call him if she needs anything. 

the lie she told him was that it was her aunt that passed away. (she told him her parents passed away a long time ago). 

so she goes home, her sister comes back in the picture (everyone strongly dislikes her) and everything just continues to fall apart. 

her sister was there the night that their father was murdered. 

she went downstairs to get something to drink when she walked in on the murdered shooting her father. 

after seeing that, she ran back upstairs and hid with Jo in the closet. 

because she witnessed the murder, she thought that it was her neighbor that had killed her father. 

and because he was some angsty teen who hadn't been home that night, they believed her that he had done it (even though she had changed her story right before).

so life happens, she becomes a "rebel" drugs and all and Jo leaves. 

yada, yada, yada...

Poppy re-opens the case, their mother commits suicide and at the end of it all, it turns out that it was the mother that committed the murder. 

although, its because she wrote it on the margin on a page in a book that they find out. 

Poppy legit goes to their aunt's house to show them the proof instead of turning it over to the authorities. 

like, ugh. 

but anyway, at this point, I've been trying to finish this post and I'm just over it so that's all ill say. 

but i will say, Read the damn book!!!!

ahh!!!