Review: None Shall Sleep & Some Shall Break
Welcome to the world of psychological crime thrillers! I thought I’d slowly enter into this new genre by starting off with this Y/A read, thinking it would be rather tamed and not too intense, and while the writing was easy to read and the characters were young, the intensity was high!
I actually started reading these out of order, not realisng that Some Shall Break was the sequel to None Shall Sleep! Thankfully Amazon next day delivery helped me out. But I still want to review these two together as I liked reading them back to back.
A quick summary: In 1982, the FBI recruits two teenagers - Emma Lewis, a survivor of a serial killer, and Travis Bell, a US Marshal candidate - to interview convicted juvenile killers and provide insights and advice on cold cases. Emma and Travis become friends and gain valuable information from the juvenile murderers, which even the FBI couldn't discover. However, when they are called in to give advice on an active case involving a serial killer who exclusively targets teenagers, things start to go downhill. With time running out, they have no choice but to seek help from Simon Gutmunsson, a notorious teenage sociopath who is currently behind bars.
Emma becomes a sort of go-between with Simon and the FBI team, much to Travis’s protests, because Simon is a master manipulator who seems to know a lot more about what is going on than he lets up.
Get ready to be frightened and intrigued by None Shall Sleep, and Some Shall Break. Both stories delve into the terrifying creatures that lurk within us and around us and will keep you up at night thinking about it. It was on the more predictable side — both stories were, but I think that comes with a lot of Y/A novels as they tend to sew seeds throughout, and if you’re a rather deep reader like I am, you will pick up on all the hints.
That being said, I think Ellie Marney did a great job keeping me captivated enough to keep reading and wondering if my predictions were right.
I appreciated the way Marney tackled the lingering effects of trauma — especially in Some Shall Break, through Emma and her experiences. I felt it was a pretty authentic way of dealing with the repercussions of going through things so harrowing. Marney’s way of creating time and place was also great, everywhere Emma and Travis went I was there with them, whether in the cold and sterile FBI basement or the chilling and creepy old jail with Simon.
There is definitely room for a third installment to this series, and I hope we do get it!
I am now a big fan of psychological crime thrillers thanks to these books, so I’m so happy I found them.
Rating: **** (4.5/5)
