It sounds like it would be a downer, and it is indeed horrific and very depressing in parts, but it’s also gripping, active, exciting, sometimes very funny, loving, and hopeful.
The main protagonist is pretty sympathetic to a nerdy pedant like me, with many other interesting characters; the worldbuilding is fascinating in its gradually broadening revelations; and the plot engages attention along multiple axes.
Don’t Sleep with the Dead … delivers some prose that make me sigh with delight and envy, as well as some passages that are harrowing with their intensity and dread.
I found the focused self-control and resilience of the protagonist inspiring, and I was rewarded with a very satisfying conclusion. This is a novella with a compelling character and some really interesting ideas, and I will definitely be looking for more from Thompson.
“After all, it’s so much easier and pleasanter to think that everything must be fine, and it’s one’s perceptions that are skewed, rather than the situation; surely, if something were wrong, one of The Adults would step in and fix it.”
It was an engrossing read; the characters continue to be fully engaging and the protagonists sympathetic (even though not always in agreement with each other), and the rich worldbuilding continues with interdepartmental squabbling providing insights into the politics.
