Book Review: “The Little Sleep / No Sleep Till Wonderland” by Paul Tremblay
The Little Sleep and No Sleep Till Wonderland Omnibus | Paul Tremblay
In The Little Sleep, we meet Mark Genevich, a narcoleptic PI, hired to identify a woman in a set of photos. The woman looks a lot like a particular reality TV star, who also happens to be the DA’s daughter. But Mark can’t remember who hired him, and he tries to uncover the truth while also reckoning with his memories of his father, battling with a body that can fall asleep at any moment.
In No Sleep Till Wonderland, Genevich starts group therapy. A new friend, Gus, seems determined to help Mark, and hires him to watch over a friend. But Mark ends up falling into something deep, and once more finds himself in a situation where reality and dreams crash, and he has to untangle everything.
These are reprinted versions of Paul Tremblay’s debut crime noir novels. I requested them as I absolutely loved Survivor Song, and though crime is a genre I rarely dip into, when I do I tend to enjoy it. However, after reading these, maybe ‘noir’ as such isn’t really totally for me? I’m not sure how much in common these have with other noir books, but for me, a lot of what made The Little Sleep an enjoyable read felt a bit tedious during the second.
But for a moment, let’s talk about character. Mark Genevich is a unique character. His narcolepsy means he’s not always totally aware of what is happening, and this creates some strange situations, especially for a PI. The first part of The Little Sleep is dedicated to Mark trying to establish who hired him, and the events escalate from there. In the sequel, Mark rescues a young boy from a fire, but can’t even be sure he did that, as the boy is pulled out of the building by one of the neighbours. He ends up caught in situations he can’t control, but throughout it all his voice remains strong, and Mark at times shows himself to be witty and occasionally smart. He views the world through a lens of fantasy, almost giving into the absurdity of dreams even when he’s fully awake.
By the time we get into No Sleep Till Wonderland, the constant metaphors and similes become grating. They work in some places, fall flat in others, and at points make it just a little difficult to actually tell what’s going on. Again, some places where that is in the story’s favour, and others where it just isn’t.
However, Tremblay’s writing talent is really on show here, and some of Mark’s observations are great uses of dark humour. There’s also a nice blending of the real/unreal when Mark is under huge stress, and the landscape seems to physically change around him. Some of the more ‘noir’ type tropes do land a little flat for me. Some of the women serve little purpose and shift into being more stereotype than not, but I know from Survivor Song that Tremblay does write women well, so I’d chalk that up to being more of an early work thing.
I enjoyed reading both books, but am glad I took a (short) break between the first and second before carrying on. However, by the end of No Sleep Till Wonderland, I was wishing things would maybe hurry up just a little – it felt like it had just maybe too many players crammed in, so wasn’t always easy to follow who was who. But as I said at the start, I’m not a huge crime person and ‘noir’, it seems, is a little not my thing, so if you do like noir or maybe are a Tremblay fan who hasn’t managed to read this yet, it’s worth a go.
Grade: C
Review by Elle Turpitt
Twitter & Instagram: @elleturpitt
I received this paperback from Titan Books for review consideration.