The sleepwalker a novel

I have loved Chris Bohjalian since I first read Trans-Sister Radio almost 17 years ago. I've never forgotten that book and have always made sure to get each one as quickly as they are published, signed whenever possible! The Sleepwalker doesn't disappoint. I started it this evening and just

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completed it before midnight. I wish I could have made it last longer but then again, I absolutely love when I can't put a book down. Annalee Ahlberg disappears the night that her husband is at a conference in another state. They fear the worst since she suffers from parasomnia or sleepwalking. This affliction affects her in bizarre ways as we start to find out as the story continues. Her oldest daughter, Lianna starts seeing one of the detectives who seems to know more than normal about her mother. Chris Bohjalian has done an amazing job conjuring this story about the very strange world of parasomnia. Highly recommended!

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A woman, a mother goes missing, her two daughters, her husband have no idea what has happened to her, but she is a sleepwalker. A woman who has many times gotten up in the night, done strange things, had been in dangerous situations before. All fear the worst.

So we enter into the world of the

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sleepwalker, a world I knew absolutely nothing about. Have never sleepwalker nor has anyone close to me, so this was all new. I was shocked, the different forms, the types of sleepwalking are so extensive. The first two thirds of the book centers on the search, the wondering about what happened to their mother, trying to adjust to life without her, it was slow, at times I was bored. There are things that happen but thought it dragged on a bit too long. In between chapters their are anonymous thoughts written by a sleepwalker but we don't know by whom they are written. The last third of the book picks up the pace, becomes interesting, and even if we are pretty sure we know what happened, the ending was still a surprise.

I applaud this author, he branches out, giving us many different types of novels, mysteries, historical, young adult, he has given us them all. Some are more successful with me than others, this for me is firmly in the middle. They are all well written, many times as in this story, tackles issues I knew nothing about. I never think twice about reading his books, they are surprises, I never know exactly what I will get. Looking forward to seeing what he gives me next time around.

ARC from Netgalley.

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Annalee Ahlberg walks in her sleep and one night she leaves her bed and disappears. Once her daughter, Lianna, found her mother asleep, naked and ready to jump into the river so it’s feared that Annalee has done this again and drowned. As the search for Annalee continues, Lianna is drawn to Det.

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Gavin Rickert who is investigating the disappearance. But it unsettles her to learn how much Det. Rickert knows about her mother.

This is much more than a mystery. It’s an in depth character study about a sleepwalker and the effect of her parasomnia on her loved ones. The author does a beautiful job of fleshing out the older daughter, Lianna, and her little sister, Paige. Although the book is being advertised as a thriller, it’s a slow paced book and quite a deep one. I had a few sleepwalking episodes myself many years ago and know how frightening it can be. Mr. Bohjalian has created a book that allows you to live in the midst of a family dealing with all the guilt, fear and anxiety that parasomnia can cause. He’s a master story teller and never disappoints.

And the ending? The ending completely tore my heart apart.

This book was given to me by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review. Recommended.

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I will have to write a better review later.

We venture into the world of sleepwalking and its different varieties. Layers of family secrets which we slowly pull back one by one until we finally find out what happened to Annalee. I did guess what happened but it did not detract from the story at

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all. I also learned things I never knew about sleepwalking. I love how Chris Bohjalian doesn't repeat himself and always gives us a new and fresh book. This one comes out on January 10 and will be one I recommend highly to my library customers.

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The Sleepwalker by Chris Bohjalian

First I must acknowledge I received this book in exchange for an honest review.

Next…Wow! I have never read anything by Chris Bohjalian but after reading The Sleepwalker I can’t wait to read more of his works. Author Harlan Coben says “The Sleepwalker is more

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than a mystery: it’s a beautiful wrenching novel of family secrets and the engimas that link husbands and wives and lovers.”

What happens when one sleep walks? What is one capable of doing while sleepwalking? I learned quite a bit about the act of sleepwalking and the people who sleepwalk from the research that Mr. Bohjalian did to write this story. What do the family members of the sleepwalker go through? What do they have to do to help keep their sleepwalker safe?

Sleepwalker Annalee Ahlberg goes missing. Did she sleepwalk? Did she drown? Was she murdered? Her children are devastated at the possibilities. One daughter, Paige, insists on discovering what happened to her other. The older daughter, Lianna, not quite so much yet she is the one who sets out to solve the mysteries surrounding what has happened to Annalee. What of the husband Warren? Does he feel guilty because he was out of town when it happened? (Annalee’s sleepwalking always happened when Warren was not in town.) How does the detective on the case who knew Annalee play into all that is happening?

Spoiler Alert – You will NEVER expect the ending. When I got there my immediate reaction was one of “Oh My.”

Run, don’t walk, to your nearest library, book store or Amazon and get your copy of The Sleepwalker by Chris Bohjalian. You will be glad you did.
December 29, 2016

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What if your mother sleepwalked out of your house one night and disappeared? When Annalee Ahlberg disappears, her college age daughter Lianna is guilt ridden; she heard nothing when Annalee left the house. Lianna is drawn to the detective assigned to the case, a sleepwalker who knew her mother from

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time at a sleep clinic; her younger sister, Paige, may be sleepwalking too; and what about the neighbors who may have known more than they are saying? When all is revealed, I thought I should have seen that coming, but I didn’t. A well-told tale displaying Bohjalian’s thorough research and story-telling skills.

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A mother who sleepwalks disappears one night, and her family is left wondering, waiting: what happened? Unfortunately, this was almost the same question that plagued me for most of the book- it was does something happen?

Don’t get me wrong- the characterization is lovely, the prose is thoughtful.

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The female characters feel real and whole and human; the grief was physical and mind-twisting and always there, as grief is in real life. You can’t help but feel for these characters, and the final truth of it all was heartbreaking. My difficulty was that the realism was almost too intense- the slowness, the waiting for answers, for closure. I don’t know if I was expecting something faster paced, more frenetic and shocking, but this is not an edge of your seat thriller or whodunit. Be prepared for a leisurely immersion in a family full of both love and all the ways that people fail themselves and each other. And while there is a mystery to be solved, and the clues are there, what happened to Annalee never feels like the most important question. It’s what happens to everyone else. A good book, just one I had trouble getting into.

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Chris Bohjalian is one of those authors that I can rely on to give me a story that will draw me in and at some point leave me shocked and surprised. This book was no exception. The disappearance of Annalee Ahlberg had me guessing and wondering throughout the book.

Readers follow Annalee's daughter,

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Lianna, as she and her family struggle with Annalee's disappearance. Annalee had previously been prone to sleepwalking when her husband was away and they fear that her sleepwalking has lead her to danger.

At first I did like Lianna but as she continued to make questionable decisions throughout the less I started to like her. I was very suspicious of her relationship with Gavin and never really approved of it.

The plot seemed to drag a bit in the middle but the surprise at the end made up for that. I spent most of the book trying to figure out what happened and I am happy to say that I didn't figure it out.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the galley.

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Excellent book. Interesting story and issue

Thank you to the publisher, Doubleday, via Netgalley, for an e-Uncorrected Proof in exchange for my honest review.

Chris Bohjalian is a new author for me and after reading his latest novel, I know I would enjoy his other books. He is an author who does his homework and tremendous research when the

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subject is as complicated as sleepwalking. I knew very little about it and now I certainly feel more knowledgeable.

The setting is fall in Vermont. Two daughters, Lianna and Paige, and their father are grieving the loss of their mother and wife who disappeared one night. Since she was a sleepwalker, they can only assume she was sleepwalking when she went missing. Lianna is a 21-year-old college student and Paige is in middle school. Throughout the novel, Mr. Bojalian is a master at relating the female viewpoint through his protagonist, Lianna. This was impressive as was the Vermont setting and the surprise ending I didn't see coming.

This is definitely a mystery but I don't think of it as a thriller. It's worth the read and you'll learn about sleepwalking in the process.

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Annalee is a wife and a mother. She suffers from parasomnia or sleepwalking. One evening she just disappears. She was sleepwalking and never returned home. Her family's life has been turned upside down. Lianna refuses to go back to college. Paige is constantly searching for her mother. And Warren

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has turned into a lush. What happened to Annalee? Was she murdered? Did she run away with another man?

There are so many things to say about this novel. It is unique, intriguing and beyond interesting. The author creates an intricate web within this story. Annalee's disappearance, Annalee's miscarriages, Lianna's relationship with the detective, the parasomnia traits in the family, just to name a few.

I was so wrapped up in the story and the characters I never saw the twist coming. And Mr. Bohjalian always has a twist. This novel does not move as fast as some reads. The intricacies of the story and the characters are pretty complex. It is not a book you can skim. You WILL miss something.

Kudos to the author for originality. The sleepwalking premise is enthralling. Basically because I knew so little about it and I learned a lot as I was reading. Lots of research went into this story and it is so well thought out and displayed. Impressive, very impressive.

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Chris Bohjalian chooses fascinating topics for his novels, and then pulls the reader into these worlds that one gets lost in for a few hours. His 2012 novel, The Sandcastle Girls, about the 1915 Armenian genocide in Syria, a story that sadly resonates too much today, is a novel I frequently

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recommend to shoppers at the Book Cellar where I volunteer.

A Light In The Ruins takes us to Italy during WWII, with a family caught up in the crosshairs of war. His novels set in contemporary times, like the brilliant The Double Bind, which deals with a young woman violently attacked on bike ride, and The Guest Room, about a bachelor party host who gets involved with a young woman forced into sexual slavery, have twists that leave you gasping.

Bohjalian's newest novel, The Sleepwalker, takes on a topic not frequently dealt with in fiction. A woman prone to sleepwalking disappears from her home while her husband is out of town. Her two daughters, college-aged Lianna and 12-year-old swimmer Paige, were home that evening and heard nothing.

As searchers look for Annalee Ahlberg's body in the nearby river, we slowly find out more about her life. She only sleepwalks when her husband is out-of-town, but why that is remains a mystery. The girls, particularly Lianna, feel guilty about what happened.

The Ahlberg family is falling apart. Dad Warren retreats into his job as a professor at the local college and drinks himself into oblivion at night. Lianna takes a leave of absence from college, smokes weed all day, and gets side jobs as a magician while caring for her sister Paige.

One of the police officers on the investigation becomes involved with Lianna. She discovers that he and her mother met at a clinic that deals with sleep disorders and they became a kind of two-person support group. But was that all they were to each other?

The Sleepwalker has a very eerie quality to it, and as Bohjalian slowly unwinds more information about Annalee's disorder and her relationship with her husband and the cop, an uneasy feeling overcomes the reader.

There is a shocking twist at the end, but upon reflection, Bohjalian gives a few clues that could be picked up on by a careful reader. The Sleepwalker would make a fabulous movie, as it has a very cinematic element to it. The characters are intriguing, the story moves briskly, and watching this family fall apart is heartbreaking.

I highly recommend The Sleepwalker, both for fans of mysteries and of family stories. If you read Celeste Ng's Everything I Never Told You, you'll want to put The Sleepwalker on your list.

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This is the 16th book that I've read by this author and always enjoy them!
This one is about a woman (a mother & wife) who sleepwalks and one night just disappears. The oldest daughter, 21-yrs-old, tells the tale of trying to discover what has happened to her mother and why. It was very interesting

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-- I learned some new things about sleepwalking! And it was mysterious, even to the last sentence! I like that! And I would recommend this book :)

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Chris Bohjalian never disappoints. With THE SLEEPWALKER, he has again written a novel that is both plot- and character-driven, heavier on character. He gives the reader a can’t-put-it-down engaging story and examines its main characters as we, along with the narrator, try to figure out what

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happened to a missing wife and mother, Annalee.

THE SLEEPWALKER is told from the viewpoint of Lianna, one of Annalee’s daughters, years after the incident. When Lianna’s college professor father goes to a conference for the weekend, she and her younger sister wake one morning to discover their mother is not in the house. Immediately, they (and soon most everyone else) suspect that their mother had wandered off while she was asleep. Annalee has a history of sleepwalking.

In the remainder of THE SLEEPWALKER, Lianna observes the main characters. While her father and sister seem to be sure Annalee had died after sleepwalking, Lianna only suspects this. She becomes involved with a detective on the case, Gavin, and wonders about his involvement with her mother even while Lianna is more and more attracted to him.

Adding to the mystery are the italicized lines between chapters. Who writes them? Although Lianna narrates this story, those paragraphs are obviously special clues.

Perhaps some readers will not like the relationship between Lianna and Gavin. She is only 21 while he is 33. That age difference would have been illegal if they were a little younger, and you might think he would have considered her off limits. So maybe the story would work a little better if she was older. But maybe not; this way we can be suspicious of his guilt and his intentions.

Bohjalian’s THE SLEEPWALKER is another winner.

I won this book from luxuryreading.com.

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The Sleepwalker, Chris Bohjalian, author; narrators, Candy McClain, Grace Experience
The novel is told mostly through the voice of Lianna Ahlberg, but occasionally, another younger voice interjects with questions, concerns or explanations. I disliked several characters and I don’t know if it was

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the way the narrator portrayed them or if they were simply over developed, making them seem like caricatures rather than actual individuals.
Annalee and Warren Ahlberg lived in Bartlett, Vermont, with their two children, Paige and Lianna. Nine years separated the girls because of their mother’s frequent miscarriages. Paige was twelve and Lianna was twenty-one. She was about to enter her senior year in college.
Warren was a professor at Middlebury College and Annalee was an architect with an office in Middlebury. From outward appearances they were a typical happy family. Annalee was devoted to her children, and the couple seemed devoted to each other, but Annalee had a unique problem. She suffered from parasomnia or somnambulism or what is better known as sleepwalking. Lianna had, on occasion, discovered her mother in this state. One time, she actually found her on a bridge and may have saved her life. Annalee was unaware of what she did when she went for a walk in her sleep. Somnambulists had been known to drive in their sleep. Their eyes would be open, they would appear conscious, but they were in a sleep state and were not aware of the presence of others. They might go out naked, or take off their clothes at some point later on. They might have sex in their sleep. Sometimes, they would go out searching for sex while sleeping. They were unaware and often ashamed of this behavior. There were sleep clinics which attempted to treat this disorder which appeared to be genetic and could, therefore, be passed on to progeny.
Because Annalee only seemed to walk in her sleep when her husband, Warren, was traveling, he had stopped making business trips until he felt she was stable and no longer would be in danger of walking in her sleep and possibly coming to harm. When he felt it was safe, he decided to attend a conference, and on that first night when he was gone and the girls watched over their mother, something went wrong. When Paige woke up in the morning, she discovered her mother was gone. She rushed to tell Lianna. They both searched for her but did not find her. They called 911, but they were rebuffed by a responder who said they should call back because the shift was ending shortly. When they reached their dad, he told them how to proceed and the police eventually arrived. One of the detectives was a man called Gavin Rikert. Coincidentally, he also had a sleep disorder, and he and Annalee had become friends when they were both in the sleep clinic at the same time. Even though Annalee was a good deal older, they bonded because of their mutual problem. When he began to interrogate the family, he was kind and Lianna was attracted to him. It was largely through this relationship that the mystery of Annalee’s disappearance was explored.
Regarding the novel, I didn’t think the vulgar moments were necessary. I also thought that there were a lot of side themes which didn’t seem that relevant to the thread of the story. Lianna was a bit shallow and self-indulgent when it came to snooping into the affairs and private records of others. She seemed immature on the one hand and overly promiscuous on the other. Her rude, often insolent and arrogant behavior made the relationship with a more adult and older Gavin, seem less plausible to me. At 33, he was about a dozen years older. Why would a “grown-up” tolerate the tantrums of an immature young woman, even one who is trying to find out what happened to her mother, a mother who had also been his friend? Paige was a bit over characterized as a sarcastic near-teenager. Warren Ahlberg seemed a bit too distant at times, not involved enough with helping the girls cope with the mystery of their missing mother as a parent normally would, even if they were suffering as well.
While I enjoyed the book, because of the information on somnambulism, and it was obvious that the author did a great deal of research for the book, I found some of the story disjointed. Still, as with all of Bohjalian’s books, there were secrets, lies, twists, misdirection and surprises which held my interest. I never expected the ending, but it left me with unanswered questions that arose from what I thought were holes in the narrative that remained unfilled.

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Annalee Ahlberg disappears one night while sleepwalking, thereby throwing her family into chaos and despair. A totally different type of suspense novel based on a little explored illness, parasomnia. Lianna Ahlberg is determined to get to the bottom of her mom's death but at what cost to herself

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and her family?

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I really enjoyed this book. Stayed up late to finish it because it was bothering me not knowing how it would end! The plot twist caught me by surprise. When the mother of the family goes missing one night, her family fears that she drowned while sleepwalking, which she is known to do when her

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husband is away. Her family lives in limbo for many weeks not knowing what happened to her. Meanwhile, her oldest daughter stays home from her senior year of college to care for her younger sister and find out what she can about her mother's past. Great read.

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Interesting and kept one's attention throughout.
Look forward to reading other works by Bohjalian.

If one were to just look at the title, it is easy to dismiss The Sleepwalker as a frivolous story. After all, a sleepwalker immediately conjures images of kids wandering the hallways in their pajamas or doing something equally silly in their sleep. However, Mr. Bohjalian shows just how dangerous

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and disruptive sleep disorders, like sleepwalking or its darker cousin parasomnia, are to patients and family alike, no matter what age. What he shows is a much darker world in which nighttime is synonymous with anxiety and sleep becomes fraught with danger. Just how much danger becomes apparent as Lianna searches for and obtains answers to her mother’s final hours.

Mr. Bohjalian captures human emotions so well, which is one of the reasons why his stories are so powerful. Lianna’s grief and confusion are palpable, making it easy to lose yourself in her pain and fears. Better yet, her feelings and reactions are great reminders of just how young she is. Mr. Bohjalian does not try to make her older or wiser than her years but maintains her character as an inexperienced twenty-one year old still trying to figure out who she is and what she wants to do with her life. Her struggles to fill the hole left by her mother make her even more realistic. She triggers your sympathies and makes you ache at all she has to suffer.

Chris Bohjalian has done it again. With The Sleepwalker, he sheds light on the odd but terrifying disorder of parasomnia incorporated into the bones of a taut and intense murder mystery and poignant burgeoning romance. Informative as well as entertaining, his latest novel has a little something for all readers and is a novel that all will love.

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The things people are capable of when they are asleep, wow. I can definitely say that I learned a lot about sleepwalking (and parasomnia), more than I ever knew existed.

Also, while I have had Midwives on my TBR list for...ever, this is my first Chris Bohjalian book. He didn't let me down either.

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I'm always impressed when an author can see things from many points of view whether they are male or female. Mr. Bohjalian did that. The book was easy to read and while nothing super suspenseful was happening, it still managed to hold my attention.

The book was straight up mystery. What happened to Annalee Ahlberg? She was a known sleepwalker who disappeared from her bed one night. Her husband, Warren, and two daughters, Lianna and Paige, are left devastated when the police turn up nothing but a piece of fabric from Annalee's night shirt leaving everyone to think the worst. But Lianna is not satisfied and she connects with one of the detectives to try and figure out what happened to her mother.

I'm intrigued that this is Sleepwalker, #1 - I have no idea where they will go with book #2 but I do have an idea.

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This was my first Bohjalian book and man I have been missing out. Such a tale he weaved. It had me guessing and changing my views throughout. I did figure out who did it 3/4 of the way through but not the how. That was saved until the end. I will definitely be reading more of his books.

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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5 big ones!!

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Lianna's mother, an attractive professional who suffers from sleepwalking, especially when her college professor husband is out of town, is lost. When Lianna woke one morning, she discovered that her mother was no where in the house and the car was not gone. When the police were contacted, a search

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of the nearby woods yielded only a torn piece of her nightgown in a shrub. The family is hoping against hope that she will be found; however, they fear that she might have fallen in a nearby river.

As with most of Chris Bohjalian's novel, you never know what you will discover within the covers. He has been successful in writing in several genres. He generally has a twist at the end of his novels that you didn't expect. This novel is no different. The novel not only introduces the reader to the problem of adult sleepwalking, a sleep disorder more frequently observed in children, but also sleep sex. Although the plot of the novel is discovering what happened to Annalee Ahlberg, the reader won't find out the truth until a number of family secrets are reveals. As I have discovered with all Bohjalian books, this one is a great read.

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THE SLEEPWALKER
Chris Bohjalian

MY RATING ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️▫️
PUBLISHER Penguin Random House Audio
PUBLISHED January 10, 2017

SUMMARY
Annalee Ahlberg suffers from parasomnia, she's a sleepwalker. She is also an architect, living in rural Vermont in a beautiful red Victorian home right beside

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the Gale River. She has a history of having been rescued from dangerous activities by her family in the middle of the night while sleepwalking. Most of the time her husband is right there beside her at night. One morning her daughters, Lianna, 21, and Paige, 12, wake up to find that their mother is missing from her bed. Their father, Warren, was not there that night. He was out of town at a conference in Iowa.

A detective from Waterbury Vermont, Gavin Rikert, a friend of Annalee's, inserts himself into the case. Is that even ethical? What exactly was his relationship with Annalee?

Much of the story's focus is on the family's attempt to handle the emotions associated with their missing wife and mother. Warren, a college English professor buries himself in alcohol and work, mentoring several cute young coeds. Lianna withdraws from college in order to take care of her dad and her younger sister. She smokes pot and drinks to dull the pain and gets involved in a secret relationship. Paige, misses her mom so much she swim the river to try to find her. Her grades start to suffer and she begins withdrawing from her favorite after school activities.

What really happened what to Annalee that night? Will this family recover from the grief if there's no closure? What are the police doing to find her?

REVIEW
I love books that truly surprise you at the end. The Sleepwalker most certainly did that for me. It's a well written book with a unique and original story about parasomnia. Parasomnia includes sleepwalking, nightmares, sleep aggression, sleep-related eating disorders and sleep behavior disorders. Before reading this book I had very little insight into sleep disorders so I found this book to be both educational and interesting. Another huge plus for the book for me!

The story is interestingly told from the perspective of the 21-year-old daughter Lianna. (Love Love Love the names Annalee and Lianna) Lianna attempts to find out what might've happened to her mother by talking to various friends and family. Even with all the questions Lianna asks it is hard to figure out who and what to believe, making the book a page-turner.

I listened to the audio version of this book and found the main narrator, Cady McClain to be very good. The second narrator, of short thoughts between chapters could have been better. This was the first Chris Bohjalian book I had ever read, but certainly not the last. I am definitely interested in reading more from him. What a great storyteller!

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This story about sleepwalking is fairly good, yet a bit flat. I prefer a book with more memorable characters and better use of language.