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    Black Moon
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    Black Moon
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    Black Moon
    Audiobook9 hours

    Black Moon

    Written by Kenneth Calhoun

    Narrated by Neil Shah

    3/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Insomnia has claimed everyone Biggs knows. Even his beloved wife, Carolyn, succumbed before disappearing into the quickly collapsing world. Yet Biggs can still sleep, and dream, so he sets out to find her. He ventures out into a world ransacked by mass confusion and desperation, where he meets others struggling against the tide of sleeplessness. Chase and Jordan are devising a scheme to live off their drug-store lootings; Lila is a high school student wandering the streets in an owl mask; Felicia abandons the sanctuary of a sleep research center to try to protect her family and perhaps reunite with Chase, an ex-boyfriend. However, Biggs persists in his quest for Carolyn, finding a resolve and inner strength that he never knew he had.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDreamscape Media Audio
    Release dateMar 4, 2014
    ISBN9781629235905
    Unavailable
    Black Moon

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    Reviews for Black Moon

    3/5

    89 ratings12 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Great concept - it's an apocalyptic end-of-the-world scenario, but instead of reanimated corpses or disease, everyone develops incurable insomnia. The "sleepless" degenerate further and further into madness and tear apart the world around them. And if they find a sleeper... they go straight to primal rage (and that sleeper better run!).The book follows several individual characters who are trying to deal with the disaster as it unfolds. Some are looking for loved ones. Others are trying to figure out how to cure those afflicted. There are no big answers or explanations - it's really more of a set of conditions that you watch people react to and try to cope with. Each character's story feels like a different episode or short story, and without giving away too much there really aren't any happy endings. I didn't find myself connecting to any of the characters on an emotional level, but I was definitely engaged by the circumstances and the tragedy of the world the author created. He gives a good amount of detail to each person's backstory so that you get a sense of their past before the fall. What I found especially interesting were the stream-of-consciousness trips inside the minds of the sleepless as they clearly struggled to try to make sense of their world (and failed). Calhoun has some wonderfully poetic language at work here. Watching a couple try to figure out where they misplaced their baby was an especially well-written and compelling chapter. Overall I was more into the setup than the characters, but I'd recommend it for someone looking for something different in a pretty short read (277 pg).
    • 2/5
      2 1/2
      I read this book a lot faster than most, not because I thought it was great, but because I skimmed a number of areas. One of these was the dream scenes (probably a bad choice of books given sleep/insomnia is the subject). I have a personal dislike for dreams as part of a story, feeling that they are just nonsense filler or contrived way of explaining what is happening. I occasionally tell people about my dreams, but not to help them understand my life, just as a curiosity. Another easy area to skim was the scrambled dialogue of the insomniacs. It was a challenge to figure out what they were trying to say, but I wasn't up to it.
      I enjoyed the story for the most part but wished for more. A little more exploration into the reason for the insomnia epidemic. What about the brief appearance by Maria, who could make people sleep? Chase and Jordan becoming the guys running the sleep business? There were holes in places and too much time spent in others. It was an o.k, quick read.
    • 2/5
      I won this book through a giveaway on Read it Forward, a year ago, I think. I was so excited when I knew I won, because the synopsis sounded so interesting. When the book came, I tried reading it, and it didn't work out. A year later, I decided it was past time I read it.

      This is one of those books that I was not glad I finally read, unfortunately. Actually, I think it could be one of the few books I actually gave less than 3 stars for...

      Anyhoo, allow me to explain why I disliked it as much as I did...

      I was disappointed. When I place high expectations on a book, only to find it mediocre, I guess I would give it a low rating, wouldn't you?

      The story was a bit of a bore. And to be honest, I skimmed through most of the descriptions, and only stopped to read when I saw conversation, or something else that caught my eye. I felt that there was too much description and background (idk, a rough guess would be 90%)for my liking.

      The story also confused me slightly. Now you're probably all going to look at me and say, "duh. you skimmed." But...but, I'm a good skimmer, okay? I got what the story is about, but there were times when my little brain was confused, okay?

      The ending was also left a bit open ended, to me at least. I felt that there wasn't a satisfying conclusion. Usually by the end of the story, I'd close the book, thinking: well, that was interesting... But to be frank, I closed this book, thinking: well, on to the next book...

      The story itself wasn't bad, it was just lacking in some much needed excitement. I suppose it could have been a fantastic book, the potential was definitely there.
    • 3/5
      The book starts well, but it doesn't end well.
      Overall, liked the book, and I liked the spin on the apocalypse (what if nobody could sleep?). The author does a great job of putting you into this world where people cannot sleep. They hallucinate, they see things at the corner of their vision, and they all start sounding hauntingly poetic when they try to verbalize.
      There were a couple of things that were obstacles for me in the book. One of them is how the sleepless want to kill people who can sleep. I don't know why I had a hard time buying into this, but for me, it was difficult to accept. (However, I will add that some of the scenes of the sleepless trying to get at people who can sleep were very riveting.) Without getting into too much detail, I will say that the ending was problematic for me. I didn't feel the story had acceptably resolved the conflict, or at least the conflict as I perceived it.
      That being said, I would not discourage you from trying this book. It is a fast read and will open your mind to different things that can be done with apocalyptic scenarios.
    • 4/5
      "To sleep, perchance to dream - ay, there's the rub;
      For in that sleep of death what dreams may come"
      Shakespeare, Hamlet Act 3 scene 1
      Black Moon by Kenneth Calhoun is a highly recommended surreal story of a world plagued by insomnia. What happens when the person with the ability to sleep, and to dream, is the rare exception? Sleep deprivation causes hallucinations, a disconnect with the sensory world, and language centers in the brain can no longer keep your word usage in syntax. Certainly everyone has experienced at some point a time when they craved the restorative power of sleep, and desired the release of dreaming, perhaps to work out life's problems through the dreams. But we all know that you are also at your most vulnerable when sleeping, cut off from the world around you. What is even more dangerous in this changed world for those who can sleep is the murderous rage insomniacs feel when they see someone sleeping.

      In this dystopian world several characters try to hide their ability to sleep, while trying to get sleep even when they know they will be killed if found.
      The main character in Black Moon is Biggs, a sleeper. Biggs has watched the gradual disintegration of his wife, Carolyn, who is an insomniac. When she disappears, he sets off across a changed, dangerous urban landscape to find her as well as reflect on their life together.
      Lila Ferrell is a teen whose parents are insomniacs. When they become a threat to her life when she is sleeping, they send her off to the research center they have heard about.
      Chase, an oblivious college student, teams up with Justin, a former high school buddy who has been following the news, to steal sleeping pills.
      Felicia, Chase's former girlfriend, is a lab assistant at a sleep research center where they are trying to fight their own symptoms.

      Calhoun's writing is brilliant. Those who can sleep are also sleep deprived because sleeping is dangerous and he manages to capture the dreamlike fugue characters are wading through. I like the word hallucinatory used to describe Black Moon because he manages to evoke that feeling. His characters are traveling through a known world that has suddenly become an illusory deception. Real landmarks are there, but changed due to the restless wandering of the sleepless. Biggs is reflecting on a past and dreams he shared with Carolyn that may be delusive. What is real and true in a sleepless world where dreams are a rare anomaly? And is it sleep or our dreams that determine our humanity?

      Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Crown Publishing Group for review purposes.
    • 3/5
      People have stopped being able to sleep. When they find a "sleeper", someone who is still able to sleep, they become so angry, they kill him. Biggs is searching for his wife, Carolyn. Chase wants to reconnect with his girlfriend Felicia. Lila is forced to leave her parents when they discover she is a sleeper. The story is about their journeys through this dystopian setting. This book had the makings of a good story. Unfortunately, like some others I have read, it seems the author just got tired in the end, killed off many characters, and left the reader saying - Is that all? What about this? What about that? Why?
    • 4/5
      A nightmare Talking Heads song, but not without humor.
    • 5/5
      I would love to read an analysis of this book. It was fascinating. A way of writing zombie-esque situations without actually getting into the gross undead. Sleep deprivation as a disease was a brilliant concept. It was executed too, I though. I was unsure of a few things, like did people die as they noramlly would after a few days of no sleep, or did they simply carry on in the strange state of no sleep forever until they wasted away?

      What caused it?

      These may have been answered, and I just missed it. Still, loved this book. A great concept, a great execution, scary as balls, and so so very interesting. I liked that it moved between characters, but that not all characters had a happy ending, not everything was wrapped up, or treated dramatically. Sometimes, characters we came to care about (Chase/Felicia?) got an "oh, they're dead, that sucks" ending, but for some reason it really fit. These people were one out of many.

    • 3/5
      This is a zombie book.
      Ever heard of sleep deprivation turning you into a 'zombie'? It's not a metaphor here.

      A mysterious plague of sleeplessness has infected us. A few are not (or not yet?) affected, but even the immune are out of luck, because the insomnia doesn't only degrade the faculties, it causes the sleepless to become filled with violent, killing rage at the sight of a sleeper.

      We see this apocalypse through the eyes of a few different characters... Two young men, one of whom notices the creeping insomnia, and hopes to get a jump on survival by stockpiling sleeping pills. A young woman, whose position working at a sleep research lab might give her an advantage. A man who tries to cure his girlfriend through the placebo effect, then spends most of the book chasing after her after she goes missing. Some others...

      Calhoun's writing style and focus on the mundane aspects of his characters' lives may cause this book to be classified into the 'literature' section, but when it comes right down to it, the book is quite firmly in the 'zombie' genre. It reminded me a bit of Alden Bell's 'The Reapers Are The Angels.'

      I very much appreciated and enjoyed most of the book. I felt like the author set up a lot of interesting scenarios, introduced both heartbreak and black humor in an effective way. And then, it ended.

      Yep, nothing really wrapped up, open questions left hanging, dangling plotlines everywhere, and a thoroughly inconclusive and abrupt finale. It felt very unsatisfying.

      As far as I know, that's meant to be the end, too... no sequel planned.

      Read as this month's post-apocalyptic book club selection.
    • 3/5
      An interesting idea, but the execution left something to be desired.
    • 3/5
      A insomniac’s worst nightmare, so to speak, is an epidemic of chronic sleeplessness where sleeping pills just don’t work! That’s the scenario in Kenneth Calhoun’s debut novel, a dystopian world in which most people have suddenly stopped sleeping. No zombies, aliens or vampires herald this apocalypse, but the world ceases to function as sleep-deprived populations become dissociated, mad and ultimately violent: of course, there are a handful of those who are immune, and the book focuses on their plight. The insomniacs are enraged by the sight of anyone sleeping and tear them to pieces – parents rip babies apart, and lovers are driven to violent slaughter – so the challenge for sleepers is to find one of the increasingly rare safe places to sleep.We follow the disparate journeys of Biggs, searching for his wife Carolyn, Chase, looking for Felicia, his former girlfriend, Lila, whose insomniac parents threw her out lest they kill her in a sleepless fury, and others, whose stories come together at the conclusion of this rather bleak but well-written and thought-provoking book.
    • 5/5
      Inventive and thought-provoking, Black Moon had me wanting more but appreciating that the ending fit the theme. Kenneth Calhoun does a great job of weaving dream worlds into what may be reality and creates memorable characters who must navigate this frightening landscape.