The premise is a good one. The character development isn’t the best. The main character is okay and I like that the story is told from multiple perspectives but the motivations of people are thin and surface-like. Especially the female characters.
It is told one day at a time. The symptoms of sleep deprivation don’t seem to affect most of the characters until day seven and eight which is just silly. I feel like the author should have tried it themselves before writing about it. There should have been more clumsy accidents on days two and three. More desperation more quickly.
They describe people first as completely altruistic and then suddenly completely animalistic. Yes most people are pretty selfish and on the edge of insanity on any given day of the week.
But there was no way to guess a characters’ next move because it was so haphazard.
The last few chapters were action packed but I mad myself read the thing to find out WHY it was happening and in the end, major characters are killed off and no explanation is provided.
I was really disappointed. ( )

I liked this book overall but there were times it lost interest and I found I skimmed through parts. Great ending. ( )

What an adventure. This author writes so eloquently. A small island where people suddenly cannot sleep. It reminded me of Needful Things by Stephen King, except there is no devil. People just slowly go crazy and have disillusions about others. It did take me awhile to read it, but it was completely worth it. Excellent for adults and teens. Also, would make a fantastic movie. :-) ( )

Who is the mysterious child, and is he responsible for the horror that has enveloped the town? No one really knows. When a child is found alone on the beach, unwilling or unable to speak or write, along with being dirty, a doctor resident of the town must decide what to do. When he receives word of this, the local doctor, Dr. Sam Carlson, calls the town chief of police to help him figure out what to do. The chief is reluctant to call Child Services and stick the child into the system, so he persuades the doctor to take the child home. The doctor reluctantly agrees, as he is grappling with his own problems: coping with a student, who was also a patient, who committed suicide. Still, this is a child in need…Soon thereafter, the whole island is unable to sleep, and the growing insomnia drives people to the doctor for help. They then decide the child is the root of the problem. However, there is not much help coming, and mob rule takes over before you know it. What can the doctor and chief do to save the child from the mobs—or can they even save the child?

The story is told from three perspectives: the chief of police’s, the doctor’s, and that of a teenage tourist, which made the book interesting because, you got different perspectives about the whole thing. The descriptions of the town’s actions, its residents and of those involved were interesting and spot-on. I enjoyed reading, waiting anxiously to see what would happen next and how or if it would all turn out okay. I am pretty much an insomniac, so I also related well to the story in that respect. Sleep deprivation can and will do strange things to the human body and psyche, as the book demonstrates. The book did start a bit slow for me, but it picked up soon enough. The situation, though horrifying, was a bit far-fetched, to say the least, but not really beyond the realms of possibility. The whole plot was definitely different, and not like the plots of books I normally read. If you have difficulty sleeping, you may want to pass on this one, but you also may want to jump right in as I did to see how it goes and what happens. I received this to read and review from Library Thing. ( )

Deprivation a new novel by Roy Frierich, describes an insomnia outbreak that occurs over the course of nine days on a small fictional island off the Atlantic coast. A trauma-stricken boy is found wandering the beach of Carratuck Island, where tourists and locals are busy starting their usual summer vacation rituals. Sam is the doctor in charge of the Urgent Care Center, and his typical caseload involves simple accidents and sun-related maladies. This perfectly suits the young physician who wishes to escape a past that includes the mysterious death of a patient in his care while he was still a practicing Psychiatrist. Most of his days are now spent on his boat, enjoying the temporary company of a local waitress and biking around greeting his fellow islanders. When the “Boy” is brought in, Sam enlists the Chief of Police to locate the parents so the child can be released from his care. Filthy, mute and obviously terrorized, the boy grips his hand-held game and gives no clues as to what has happened to reduce him to this state. The book introduces another storyline centering around Cort, the vacationing teen who was supposed to be employed as the boy’s babysitter. Instead, she has been spending her time hooking up with a local surfer, partying with friends and participating in a new social media game that involves pulling all-nighters. The Chief is a third main character, a man who feels solely responsible for keeping the peace but only on his own terms with minimal interference. Sam starts to notice that the people coming to his clinic are all suddenly complaining of the same malady- complete sleeplessness. As the situation continues unabated and some disturbing behavior emerges, Sam reaches out to the mainland for assistance. Is the insomnia due to a contagion of the viral, environmental variety or could it be caused by a mass-hysteria? Sam and the Chief struggle with their own physical limitations resulting from lack of rest as the island begins to devolve into chaos. Carratuck becomes a pressure-cooker of irrational beliefs and desperate acts, exposing the basic animal nature brought about when self-preservation becomes paramount. Freirich’s prose is a bit too elaborate and his phrasing and word choice are often repetitive—which can be distracting and irritating at times. Still, Deprivation does provide a unique perspective on how people react when unable to meet their basic needs and the resulting contagion of fear and paranoia. It is a timely book, published during a real pandemic that tests our own ability to cope with uncertainty and tested solidarity.

Thanks to the author, Meerkat Press and LibraryThing for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. ( )