"Sleeping with Friends"

Sleeping with Friends by Emily Schultz

Amazon First Reads

Pages: 206 Genre: psychological thriller (mystery)

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Mia Sinclair-Kroner woke up from a coma with no memory of what happened to her — or anything before that. Her college friends come together with her sister for a "Remembering Party," hopefully to remind her who she is. Except there's also still uncertainty about the circumstances around her accident, including if it actually was an accident. And it turns out everyone — her old friends, her sister, her rich husband, and his 17-year-old son — has got something to hide.

This was a fun take on a locked-room mystery. I enjoyed it more than I expected to, although I will also be the first to admit that it wasn't exceptional or perfectly-executed.

The story is told from three points of view (Mia and two of her friends) that all have very distinct personalities. I enjoyed hopping between the three perspectives, even though I could not stand one of them, and I think they all contributed nicely to the story. I also enjoyed the way the story came together through flashbacks. It's a stylistic choice that not everyone will enjoy, but I thought it worked because of Mia's condition. Since she is also putting together history through a series of flashbacks that add context to things, it worked for me. Basically, it won't be everyone's cup of tea, but it felt intentional, and Sleeping with Friends did it well.

On a similar note, I did enjoy all the characters. It seemed like Schultz definitely had favorites, though, as some were significantly more developed than others. Agnes (one of the characters we get a direct POV for), for example, was a clear favorite, as she often took over the story. Victor (the most illusive member of the friend group) on the other hand was often sidelined. While the friend group often fell into specific roles, all of the characters had interesting foundations and should've been built out more. As it was, I thought the constant accusing worked to reframe the characters good and bad traits to make the person themselves seem either fully good or bad.

They also didn't seem to develop much, although I didn't mind that. While it went against the vibes that Schultz seemed to be going for, it worked for me since most locked-room mysteries aren't exactly known for their stellar character development.

The setting of the locked-room "Remembering Party" was Sleeping with Friends' biggest asset. It was an incredibly unique setting that lent itself well to interpersonal conflict as well as large-scale dramatic callouts. I do wish there had been more of a clear tonal shift, though. We could see the Party go from playful curiosity to damaging accusations, but there should've been a true catalyst for that shift.

One of the biggest issues I had with this book was the way Schultz had a tendency to rush through important revelations. Schultz needed to let accusations and suspicions breathe a little bit more to let them really settle with the reader. This would've allowed more room for personal theories, as well as more distrust within the group. Uncertainty is a tool in this style of book that I wish Schultz had taken more advantage of.

The other major problem I noticed was that Mia, at a certain point, started to take way too much of a backseat to her own story. Remembering her life through movies was an interesting aspect, but it was often overshadowed by people solving the mystery the old-fashioned way. Putting Mia more front and center would've helped refocus the story being about who she is and what happened to her, rather than the friend group as a whole.

Overall, I liked reading this book. I got really invested in the characters, even the ones I didn't particularly like, and was interested the whole way through to see what happened to Mia. It would probably be better for Millennials who are more into movies than I am (as most of the references went over my head), but it was a fun and easy read.

You can click here to see some of my thoughts while I reading. Most of them have to be marked as spoilers, unfortunately, but it is what it is.