Insomnia

By Stephen King

Nightmares come to life for Ralph Roberts. Up all night, he's seeing some pretty strange things. No wonder he can't get back to sleep. Readers won't be able to either.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Release date: Sep 1, 1995
• ISBN: 9781101138007

Stephen King

Stephen King is the author of more than sixty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes the short story collection You Like It Darker, Holly, Fairy Tale, Billy Summers, If It Bleeds, The Institute, Elevation, The Outsider, Sleeping Beauties (cowritten with his son Owen King), and the Bill Hodges trilogy: End of Watch, Finders Keepers, and Mr. Mercedes (an Edgar Award winner for Best Novel and a television series streaming on Peacock). His novel 11/22/63 was named a top ten book of 2011 by The New York Times Book Review and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller. His epic works The Dark Tower, It, Pet Sematary, Doctor Sleep, and Firestarter are the basis for major motion pictures, with It now the highest-grossing horror film of all time. He is the recipient of the 2020 Audio Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2018 PEN America Literary Service Award, the 2014 National Medal of Arts, and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King. 

Reviews for Insomnia

[regularguy5mb · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Ralph Roberts just wants one good night of sleep before it kills him... or drives him insane... and at this point, he's not sure which of those is worse.In Insomnia, we are treated to a look at the cosmic forces at play in Stephen King's multiverse. With events that tie directly to Roland's quest for the Dark Tower and the potential success of that quest, we are introduced to the Purpose, the Random, and finally come face to face with the Crimson King himself.A cosmic chess game is played out in the small town of Derry, Maine, where only 8 years ago the most malevolent force of all was finally banished. Now other forces are at work, and the fate of King's multiverse hinges on how this particular fight turns out.Little bald doctors, insomniac retirees, the colors at play on levels beyond normal sight, and one madman with a mission; sounds like a real barnstormer... er, burner, barn burner.I do have to say that I really enjoyed this one. It had me champing at the bit to see what would happen next.

[skraft001 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Great ending. Very long book and you began to wonder after the first part of it how it can go on -- but King weaved in a wholly different theme when bringing the auras and Clotho and Lachesis into the plot. Sometimes it got pretty bizarre, but smoothed out nicely in the last 50 pages or so.

[carol420 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Our hero, an old man with a dying wife, begins loosing sleep and (he thinks) hallucinating. He can see auras around people, fields of light that change according to their mood and health and terminate in a long "balloon-string," their soul. And if that's not strange enough, he starts seeing three little bald men dressed as surgeons, who go around snipping people's strings. ( I could not make this up).

On the whole, while I personally have some affection for this book, I can't give it my unconditional recommendation. Steven King has written many great pieces that anybody can read (Desperation, Hearts in Atlantis), but this is not one of them. While King fans will find a lot to like, anybody who's not already fimrly entrenched as a King enthusiast should probably stick to one of his more accessible books.

[santhony_35 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Good King.

[lukerik-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A real fantasy in the wider sense rather that strictly horror, with some great special effects. There's no real intellectual content, it's just Story and fittingly I did lose quite a bit of sleep as I was up until 4am compulsively reading it. It ties in to a number of King's other novels, mostly The Dark Tower series. You don't have to have read that to enjoy this and it might actually be better if you haven't as you get a sense of metaphysical mysteriousity. Highly recommended to the newcomer and established fan alike.

[kefeeney-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I read this in 1995 and thought that I remembered the plot, but after almost 20 years, this book was new to me. It was wonderful in the suspense-filled, philosophical, fantastical, and horror-tinged way that only the best Stephen King books can be. The first time I read it my head was riled by The Random and The Purpose for days afterward, not so this time as life experience can certainly work it's cynical ways with you. I had a good cry at the end for the main character who was a really great guy in the average, everyday sort of hero way. Great read. Now I've got to read the Dark Tower series. Can't put it off any longer.

[wispywillow · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The good:
- I love that the protagonist is a man in his early 70s. There are far too few older protagonists out there
- the first several chapters were creepy as hell... some of the creepiest I've ever read

The not-so-good:
- for me, the story went downhill when Lois came into the picture as a fellow aura-seer
- the creepiness was lost when more and more information was discovered, which of course made the "unknown" dwindle... and fear of the unknown is a big draw for me.
- too much reliance on "he didn't know how he know. He just knew." and so forth
- too much reliance on deus ex machina

All in all, it was a decent book. If the atmosphere of the first few chapters had carried through the rest of the story, it would have been excellent, but alas it rather lost me. Not a waste of time, but not a re-read for me either.

[marlene9nl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Another great read by Stephen King.

And again too long ago to really write a proper review but I do highly recommend it.

The book starts of slow but the characters are great and it gets better and better once you start to get what is going on.
It is also very related to he Dark Tower series (which I love)
Another one I am going to re-read in English on my kindle soon.

[shanaqui_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I liked Insomnia a lot. I was quite surprised by the older protagonists, although of course there are things which compensate for their age. It wasn't a bad surprise, either. I thought it might be harder to relate to Ralph and Lois because of it, but it ended up not really being a problem at all. The most fascinating character for me, though, was Ed Deepneau. It was interesting how he kept the photo with him until the very end.

I loved a lot of the imagery that ran throughout this -- the auras, the "deathwatch", the "balloon strings". The Clotho/Lachesis/Atropos triad was a very, very interesting plot point. I love references to mythology. And the trade Ralph makes to save Nat breaks my heart a little, and is a lovely way to end things.

It's also interesting to see all the links between this and other Stephen King books. I'm guessing that a large amount of the references were to The Dark Tower, which convinces me that it's probably time to start reading those.

[stahl2ricco · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Good, but easily 300+ pages too long! Ralph can't sleep, Ralph sees auras, Ralph has a job to do, a job that is Dark Tower related. See, concise! I did like the abortion issue, the Old Crocs, and the characters. Just too long!

[mmyoung_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Like much of the latter King overlong and overwritten. The book has always been personally compelling to me because I first read it during a period of my life when I suffered from dreadful insomnia. Like Ralph I find that everyone had a cure for me and none of them worked. To this day whenever I wake up at 3 in the morning I think of this book.It is interesting to see King attempt to expand on what had earlier been a more implied than clearly explicated shared universe.

[skinglist · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Another one of my favorite King stories. Loved the men and their auras. Another of the only to make me cry

[smooney1202 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Currently reading and about to finish this book. This is my 3rd King book. I was never a huge Stephen King fan but was pushed to read him by my bf who is a big fan. The book has a slow start and is fairly long, the story really does not start to pick up until the second half of the book, which has caused me to take long pausing in reading because I was loosing interest. However once you get through that rough patch, the book is very good and as always very well writen.

[tjcams · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Despite the length of this novel I read through it at a pretty quick pace (at least for me). After hearing mixed reviews I finally decided to go for it. I was not disappointed at all. It is kind of hard to describe, and overall it has almost a metaphysical feel to it. Generally though it is kind of a sad story with an unsuspecting hero.King revisits many places in Derry that will be familiar to those who have read It, and this adds some character to the setting.This is certainly not my favourite King novel, but I wouldn't steer someone away from it either.One thing I found with It, was that King could have shortened the story by reducing the amount of time spent on the side stories. In Insomnia - there is not much time spent on side stories - things stay the course for the most part.

[aliceanna-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A really good book and a departure for him as the main characters were elderly. I never really saw what was coming either. I literally couldn't put the book down and I read it in one weekend. Good characters, good plot and very evocative of a sense of what it must be to be really old and tired and wearing out.

[peterjameswest · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I'm a great fan of Stephen King so when I didn't really enjoy this book I'd say it was more because the book wasn't aimed at me. Probably those who can associate more with Ralph and Lois will enjoy it, but for me it wasn't one of his best.

[toobusyreading · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I've been reading Stephen King novels for what seems like ages, and I love some of them. Some of them just fall a little flat for me. This is one that I'm not crazy about.Sure, it was entertaining, but there was nothing new of different or exciting about it. To me, it feels like it was phoned in, although something that is approximately 900 pages long would take one heck of a phone call.The protagonist, a recent widow, has increasing problems with severe insomnia, and starts seeing people's auras. And creepy little doctors. And good neighbors have become bad neighbors. Of course, the protagonist is called to save the world. Right-to-Lifers are pitted against Pro-Choice people, and this doesn't bode well for anyone.Despite a storyline I could have bought into, (I like Stephen King and have a pretty good capability of suspending my disbelief), this story just didn't resonate with me, didn't make me care about the characters nearly as much as some of his other books have done.I listened to an audio version of this book, and the narration by Eli Wallach also didn't work well for me. His voice as children was especially off-putting. But more than that, I really disliked the creepy, atmospheric music that was played at the beginning and end of segments. Sometimes it was so loud, it covered the words I was trying to hear. At any rate, for me the addition of the music detracted rather than added.So, I'll happily continue to read Stephen King novels, including older ones I never got around to reading, but this will just isn't one that drew me in.

[adonisguilfoyle · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Every time I re-read another Stephen King novel, another fond memory is shattered. I was already of the opinion that King's earlier works, like Christine, Cujo, It and The Stand, were his finest hour, but now I'm not even sure he had one. This particular rambling epic is far too long, cribbing from previous novels and the Dark Tower series, and overflowing with King's corny, all-American, small-town, quasi-religious good vs. evil cliches. What I used to love about King's writing now makes me gag, I'm sorry to say.All I remembered about Insomnia from my first read was an elderly man who stops sleeping after the death of his wife, and starts seeing colourful auras around people. The auras represent health and mood and even thoughts, and there is a little umbilical 'balloon string' poking out of people's heads, measuring the length and condition of their lives. To counter this, King introduces the three Fates of Greek mythology, Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos, who spin, measure and cut the thread of human life. Two brilliant ideas, and I still remember the names of the Fates now, thanks to King.What I forgot - or possibly didn't notice, when I first read the novel in my teens - was the childish dialogue (what the hell does 'done-bun-can't be undone' mean, and do people really say 'goshdarn' anymore?), depressing nostalgia for the less than enlightened 1950s, when men were Working Joes and beat up their 'homemaking' wives, shameless references to King's other stories, heavy-handed condemnation of abortions, and weak ending. Ralph and Lois are the white hats, living honest-to-goodness Christian lives where love triumphs over hate, and the black hat is a foul-mouthed little demon, pilfered from Tolkien. The only recommendation I have for King's novels is that they are not exactly challenging to read, even 750 page exercises in ego, like this one. Disappointing.

[eltomaso · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Scared the S&%@ out of me!

[jkazenel_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Way, way, way too trippy.

[jseger9000 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Here's a rarity for me. A review of a Stephen King book that I just did not like.Troubled by the death of his wife, Ralph Roberts is having trouble sleeping. He spends the wee small hours of the morning staring out of his living room window... and he's started seeing the strangest things. Is it a glimpse of a hidden world, or is the lack of sleep causing hallucinations?Now that, friends, is a good setup for a horror novel. It has King's trademark strong and likeable characters that you come to care about. The story is quirky and interesting and unlike anything else that King has written. Unfortunately, Insomnia is one of Stephen King's books that I like the least.For the first 200 pages or so all we know is that Ralph is waking up a few minutes earlier each night. The book just sort of meanders along with no real plot or driving narrative. Ralph visits other old crocks, takes walks and gets increasingly frustrated at his inability to sleep. Any of the enjoyment in the book is due to the personality of the characters. Which is to say that two hundred pages in it is mainly "The Life and Times of Ralph Roberts: Sleepless Old Fart." The pacing is slooooooooooow.Once things do get rolling, my interest was piqued. But the further you go the more the story ties into King's Dark Tower universe. Many of King's books will have oblique references to the Tower. But here, the story ends up so connected to those books that I think a reader unfamiliar with Roland's struggles will be lost.The book also is saturated with abortion politics and it is not exactly unbiased. Now, I happen to agree with King's politics, so it didn't bother me. But I do wonder if at times it became intrusive to the story.So in the end, there's a fuzzy, slow-moving story, perhaps too heavily invested with abortion arguments and definitely too connected to an 'outside' series of books. Yeah, the characters are great, but you can get that in almost every King book. Even King (in On Writing) refers to Insomnia as a "stiff, trying-too-hard novel." Well, at least we agree on that.

[chromiumdomium · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Another cracking story from the strange mind of Stephen King. I really enjoyed the caring and thoughtful way SK approached the subject of ageing and how he used his considerable prowess as a writer and story teller to give his, primarily elderly lead characters, charm and presence and made them very engaging in this rather dark but somewhat uplifting tale. I was quite surprised at the amount of story still to tell when I entered the epilogue, which in itself spans quite a few sub-chapters. I didn't enjoy this quite as much as Duma Key, I found myself losing interest a bit about 4/5ths of the way through, (Perhaps I couldn't go up to that level) but I'm ever so glad I stuck with it as my struggles were well rewarded with a wonderful tying up of another epic read. I cannot wait to choose my next venture into SK Land. But first I think a few other authors are calling me.NB: I noticed quite a few references to places and characters I'd met before in other books of his that I've read. I'm beginning to think I should read his books in chronological order of publication. I'm also beginning to think the Dark Tower series has moved a notch closer on my "Must Read" horizon,

[dekan-6 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I'm doing a review on this book because i saw some from other people and it reminded me that its' in my collection. for some reason this brings to mind swan's song as well. these two books are two of my favorites. This book does twist and turn and kindof like from dusk til dawn throws you into a place you don't remotely expect, more like in a direction it wasn't headed to. However it is probably my favorite king novel, this and the bachman books. I was completely absorbed in the story and loved it. i have to admit when i started the book it gave me the creeps but it isn't that type of book. it is definently worth reading, and completely. i felt very drawn to the characters and i couldn't put it down either.

[khoov00 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is one of King's more bizarre works. I bought it as a joke for my son who was experiencing a rather bad case of insomnia. I ended up reading the book since I am a fan of Stephen King. What I got out of the story took me completely by surprise and was nothing like I expected. It was a good read but bizarre to the extreme. This book reminded me that you never know what you will get when you read a Stephen King book. I enjoyed reading the book and couldn't put it down, but it is not the type of book I will read again and again. I would recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of King, Koontz, or their type of genre.

[barpurple · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It's been a long time since I've read one of the Derry novels. It's like slipping into an old pair of shoes, comfortable and familiar. I've got a vague feeling that I've read this one before, but it must have been over 20 years ago. Once again Mr King's skillful writing give you a near tactile experience of the ordinary every day things in Derry. You're soothed by the familiar so when the strange and creepy starts happening you go along with it. You get swept up in the details and the crazy becomes acceptable.As you'd expect there's a fair bit of crazy in this novel, tho nothing more odd than you'd expect from Derry. As an on/off insomniac myself I can say the Stephen King is either a sufferer himself or he really did his homework. I found myself feeling every bone weary move Ralph made as he tries to come to terms with less and less sleep. There's plenty of "ordinary working joes" in this story and although there is battle of sorts between good and evil I'm left with the vague feeling that no one really won. Saying that everything worked out for the best, or at least as well as short timers can hope for.Not exactly light summer reading as you find yourself very involved with the action and characters. Well worth a read if you like intelligent horrors than give you that odd creeping feeling up your spine.

[docwalt10 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Not one of Stephen King's better efforts. The story could have been told in half of the 749 pages. I persevered to the end but was disappointed. I was intrigued by the idea of auras which I don't think are that far fetched.

[djupstrom · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is one of my favorite King novels. It is smart, plausible, in an odd sort of way, and terrifying. I think it is a commentary on the thought that when your time is up, there is nothing you can do. You will never look at balloon strings the same way.

[nm3spring083j3surcam · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In this Stephen King book you must prepare yourself to face the supernatural and the spine tingling yet again. In his book, Insomnia, you walk with two elderly people, facing the struggles of insomnia, and the supernatural powers that come with the lack of sleep. I never thought that a horror book could be so heartwarming, but you find yourself loving the main characters. This book is very well written, and stays true to the Stephen King style we all love. It is a must read for anyone loving horror, suspense, supernatural, or mystery stories. A book for young and old alike.

[lilhottie4u2 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I love Stephen King but this book was the one I liked the least. It started out good then turned redundant. I had to FORCE myself to finish reading the whole book,.

[endersreads · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The story of Ralph Roberts. We have a local book publisher and public access tv star named Ralph Roberts. I find this very amusing. If you are familiar with mythology you will recognize the Moirae, or the fates. Their names are intact, yet here they have manifested not as women but short bald doctors. The Crimson King is here (rock on King Crimson) and he is up to no good. Ralph and his girlfriend (both elderly, which I think is cool, I've always been old) travel in different planes of reality which give one the distinctive feel of dream landscape. Something King is skilled in providing. My favorite part is where Ralph and Lois are tracking down Atropos on railroad tracks when they come by a vagrant who is drunk on Boones Farm. The suck up his energy and continue to track down Atropos. They come to his lair which is under an old oak tree. Ralph has a lot of slicing to do here. I'm sure you too have had dream sequences similiar to what takes place.