Richard Farren Barber

This is a remarkable book that reminded me of Stephen King at his best. While the stories aren't at all similar, the style reminded me of "It"--especially in the crisp, vivid descriptions that help make the mundane terrifying. And like King, Barber bypasses cheap jump scares and lovingly detailed gore to get at deeper fears we can't easily resolve. You can turn the light on to banish the dark, but it's not so easy to get away from death, loss, and powerlessness.

If I had a criticism, it would be that some parts of the book felt underdeveloped. The conclusion in particular felt abrupt, and I think it could have used a few extra pages to help things draw to a more natural close. But I also have the impression things like this will improve as Barber's style continues to mature, and I look forward to seeing what he comes up with next. This was well worth the read.… (mere)

So, since I didn't read the synopsis before I requested this book, I wrongly assumed it was a zombie novella. Am I the only one that thinks that's what the cover conveys? That's on me, of course, but I went into The Sleeping Dead expecting something much different than what I was offered. This ended up being good in some ways, but bad in others. I'll explain below.

On the one hand, the actual premise of the book caught my attention once I figured out what was going on. It'd be fair to say that it's a plague of sorts. Out of the blue, a rash of suicides sweeps across our main character's city. Watching Jefferson battle the uncontrollable urge to end his life was sad and terrifying. The voices in his head were well done, even chilling at times. I'll admit it's a bit macabre, but I simply wanted to know if he lived through to the end.

The writing didn't sweep me up, but it was solid enough. The setting was simple, but effective to the overall story. Imagine a whole city that is completely silent. Empty of the normal, everyday sounds we come to accept as part of our lives. It was eerie, and helped a lot with the whole atmosphere of this read. Kudos to Barber for that, really. I felt the unease in my core.

My problem was that, since I was expecting a much quicker moving story, I wasn't ever fully committed to the premise of The Sleeping Dead. I was frustrated that nothing overly exciting happened to our main character. I was also equally frustrated that there was no concrete explanation of what was going on. For a novella, I'll give it a slight pass. I know there's not a ton of pages to fit everything into. Still, I felt like the ending wasn't all that satisfying. So, three stars go to The Sleeping Dead.… (mere)

Hey, guys, remember that M. Night Shamalamadingdong movie The Happening with Marky Mark of Funky Bunch fame? Remember how amazing that film was? Yeah, me neither.

Richard Farren Barber's THE SLEEPING DEAD seems to be based on that movie, wherein Mother Nature wipes out humanity by having the residents of her revolving rock off themselves. Take away the murderous telepathic flora and you're left with this disaster. Barber doesn't even bother alluding to the cause of this suicide epidemic. Instead, he decides to start strong then commence boring his readers to death... Perhaps that's why these people are choosing a permanent vacation; they read this book and took the easy way out, instead of waiting around to be bored to death.

As I mentioned above, Barber does start out strong. He drew me in with vivid descriptions of the man on the bus, as well as Malcolm Laine's descent into madness. Then, at the halfway point, Barber loses the magic. Up until the 50% point, it takes quite a while for people to completely lose their bacon and take a permanent vacation, but then people start turning instantaneously. Take Fairls for instance. After Laine takes the express elevator to the ground floor, Fairls continuously checks on Jackson. But when Jackson decides to leave because the authorities are taking too long, he finds Fairls bleeding to death due to Fairls trying to shave himself with a pair of scissors. Fairls showed no signs of changing, not like the bus rider and Laine. Then you have the ladies in the stairwell whose behaviors are not consistent with what Barber set up at the beginning, either. Why did Barber decide to ditch the cool-as-hell rocking symptom. That was creepy. Losing it kinda spoiled the book for me.

Last but certainly not least, I want you to look at that cover. See it? Do you have that image burned into your mind? Good. Now, doesn't that scream "This is a ZOMBIE BOOK!"? I'll go ahead and answer for you: Yes, Mr. Man, it does. Alas, there are no zom-zoms, and next to no action whatsoever. I kept waiting for something to happen. In fact, that's the only reason I finished the book. I felt assured that there would be a twist ending or some such, but in the end, I was left snoring.

Which brings me to the title. As a reader, you must take that title quite literally. In this book, a great deal of humanity simply gives up and falls asleep. They can be seen snoozing in large packs, like kindergartners after lunch. Which leaves me wondering: Who on Tom Cruise's green earth thinks that sleeping folk are scary? Moreover, what kind of threat is a group of slumbering manic depressives? Had the Lunesta moth flown by at some point I'd think I was reading a commercial for sleep aids.

In summation: THE SLEEPING DEAD starts out great, but quickly derails. Perhaps the conductor fell asleep too. Only read if you need a nap, or enjoy disappointment.

*I recieved this book for free in return for my honest review, which you have just read. Thank you to DarkFuse and NetGalley for allowing me the chance to express my opinion.*… (mere)

I always look forward to new releases from Darkfuse, so I was eager to get started on this new novella from Richard Farren Barber.

The story began with Jackson Smith on a crosstown bus on his way to a job interview. He notices some odd behaviors on city transit, but nothing the bus driver hasn't seen before. Before he can get to his interview, traffic comes to a standstill as there seems to be a jumper on the bridge separating Jackson from his destination.

Soon, there are other suicides and things quickly escalate. To this point the story was compelling, the pace was good, and I was curious to see what would happen, but then things got bogged down in the second half of the story as Jackson and another survivor, Susan, look for others among The Sleeping Dead, while doing their best to fight off urges to end their own lives.

I'm not quite sure why I didn't enjoy this novella more than I did. Maybe, it was just a case of bad timing with the death of Robin Williams by suicide occurring just before I read this story and then having so many characters taking their on lives in the book. It could also be that I found myself not caring about the characters or it might be the lack of any explanation as to why all this was happening.

The Sleeping Dead is available now from Darkfuse through Amazon.com and you can read it for FREE if you subscribe to Kindle Unlimited.… (mere)