Review of None Shall Sleep

None Shall Sleep is the YA thriller you never knew you needed. If you love true crime, truly scary villains and lots of twists and turns, you’ve got to grab this one and check out my review of None Shall Sleep below!

As an Amazon Affiliate I may earn from qualifying purchases.

None Shall Sleep by Ellie Marney

To be published on September 1, 2020 by Little, Brown BFYR. Thanks to the publisher for providing an advance copy for review.

Plot Summary of None Shall Sleep by Ellie Marney

In 1982, two teenagers—serial killer survivor Emma Lewis and US Marshal candidate Travis Bell—are recruited by the FBI to interview convicted juvenile killers and provide insight and advice on cold cases. From the start, Emma and Travis develop a quick friendship, gaining information from juvenile murderers that even the FBI can’t crack. But when the team is called in to give advice on an active case—a serial killer who exclusively hunts teenagers—things begin to unravel. Working against the clock, they must turn to one of the country’s most notorious incarcerated murderers for help: teenage sociopath Simon Gutmunsson. Despite Travis’s objections, Emma becomes the conduit between Simon and the FBI team. But while Simon seems to be giving them the information they need to save lives, he’s an expert manipulator playing a very long game…and he has his sights set on Emma.

Review of None Shall Sleep

If you’ve read Ellie Marney’s Every Breath series (a Sherlock Holmes-inspired YA thriller series) you will know that she’s an amazing writer who can really bring it in the thrills and suspense. I was SO excited to read this one, I can’t even tell you.

And spoiler: I LOVED it! What did I love? I’ll tell you:

Credible teen YA Thriller Characters

YA thrillers, especially police procedurals, often have credibility issues. This book had none of the “my father happens to be the sheriff” or “a high school internship at Quantico is SO totally a thing” or “I’m a hacker who can peek at secret government records” stuff going on.

The recruitment of Emma and Travis, while unusual, was completely credible to me. They had enough real responsibility and did enough sneaking around behind the scenes to make it all work for me.

ALL The Silence of the Lambs vibes.

I watched the movie and read the book (back when I was braver) and I think the heart of that story is the cat and mouse relationship between Clarice and Hannibal. This book had a very similar vibe in which Emma, so strong and yet so vulnerable, matches wits with a truly creepy killer behind bars.

ALL of the twists and turns

I love trying to guess where a thriller is going. I had my theories about this one and I was WRONG. Which I kind of love. But this book kept me on pins and needles the entire time. It was so good!

ALL of the 80s vibes

Okay, well, I could have used even more. Maybe because I actually remember the 80s, it all felt normal to me: no cell phones. No social media. Every so often, the book would remind me that yeah, we are only in the 80s in this book by mentioning that a certain song was playing on the radio, and I’d go, oh yeah. But it was still great to be back in the 80s. Because 2020 is horrible.

My verdict? Grab None Shall Sleep ASAP!

And … drumroll… book two is here as of June 2023!

Some Shall Break by Ellie Marney, published June 6 2023! Check out my review here!

If you are looking for other YA mysteries and thrillers, check out my Definitive Guide to YA Mysteries. And I’ve got a fun new feature coming soon, so if you love books like this, be sure to keep an eye out. You can subscribe to my weekly emails here.