Are You Awake? - Claire McGowan

Reading Challenge Category: Free ARC from NetGalley

Official Blurb:

With two young children, Mary hasn’t slept in what feels like years. For his part, Tim never feels safe enough to sleep. And so one hot, exhausting night, the two strangers meet while seeking solace in a nearby park. There, they witness something horrific: a violent attack in the window of a neighbouring house.
Bonded by what they’ve seen, Tim and Mary are desperate to find answers. And when they see news reports of a missing woman who was last seen walking alone not far from them, the pair are convinced it’s her they saw being attacked—no matter what the police say.
But with her marriage under strain and the police on their tail, Mary begins to doubt her own mind…and Tim’s. And as the pair are drawn into a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse, the culprit appears to be even closer to home than they thought. Have they got it all wrong, or is something even more sinister going on?

My Thoughts:

So considering no one slept in this book, it was a very sleepy read.
I kept really wanting something exciting and gripping to happen, but it didn’t; it was very disappointing.
Mary and Tim decide to become amateur detectives when they think they see a missing girl in an abandoned house. Their suspicions are all based on not very much, and they put their lives in danger because they can’t sleep and are bored.
Mary wound me up with how she was with her children. She didn’t even sound like she wanted them, was the author hinting at PPD? If so, it was way too subtle and came across instead as Mary just moaning constantly. I have chosen not to have kids as I like my sleep, my time and everything that comes with not having kids. This is a choice; Mary chose to have not just 1 but 2 kids very close together in age. I just found her winding me up constantly!
The author had tried to make Tim interesting with his background in journalism and jet-setting around the world, but he too came across as boring. There was just nothing likeable about him; I found myself not even caring what had happened in his past to make him the recluse he is today.
As for the investigation, Mary and Tim weren’t very good at it, they just kept stumbling across situations, and it was frustrating that the police were doing nothing. As for the conclusion and what had happened to Samantha, this just fell flat and certainly wasn’t worth persevering with the book for.
So, overall, the book was unsatisfying, mediocre and just bored me. I have liked this author’s work in the past, but this one just didn’t do much for me, I’m afraid.