This is one of the 3 books that I have finished the past week. (This is what happens when you are having too much free time on your hands and feeling anti-social. Heh.) In fact, I just completed The House of Sleep last nite and my mind was still buzzing when I went to bed.

An interesting read, I would say. Funny in a sinister way and the storyline keeps you guessing at every turn, surprising you with each relevation. The chapters alternate between the past and present and I loved how they seemed to blend almost seamlessly.

I found myself caught up in the lives of the 4 friends, especially Sarah's, in their love lives and how their sleeping disorders affected the way they turned out. There's Sarah, the narcoleptic female lead with dreams so real that she can't tell them from reality, thus leading to many misunderstandings arising from her condition. Robert, the college friend besotted with Sarah, whose life changed dramatically due to one of Sarah's dreams. Terry, the freelance journalist, who barely sleeps a wink nightly and gregory, the eccentric ex-boyfriend of Sarah's with weird fetishes. Somehow, the characters are richly built-up and their fates entwined in such a way that as you read on, you hear everything clicking into place in your mind.

I learnt quite a bit about sleeping disorders too. Finally! There's new knowledge occupying a spot of my grey matter. Thus yest nite, while I was entering Stage 1 sleep, a random thought led me to the discovery about a distant cousin of mine, whom I now suspect might also be narcoleptic. She used to fall asleep in class regularly, even if she had sufficient sleep at night. And I heard she even dozed off while in the midst of her 'O' levels English exam a couple of years back. Hmm. Likely yeah?