Owl’s Slumber by Nicky James

Narrated by Adam Gold

A few months ago, I reviewed Cravings of the Heart, book six in Nicky James’ Trials of Fear series, and enjoyed both the story and the excellent narration by Adam Gold. As each book in the series works as a standalone (apart from the final one), they can be listened to in any order, and as I already had a couple of the others in my Audible library, I decided to skip back to the beginning and listen to Owl’s Slumber.

Each story features a protagonist with a very unusual phobia and explores the ways in which that phobia impacts on his life, usually in an extremely negative – and often dangerous – way, and how they find love with someone who offers the kind of loving support they’ve never had before. I’m no expert on phobias of any kind (unless you count having them about moths and spiders!) but it seems to me that Ms. James approaches them in a sympathetic yet realistic way, not shying away from the very real damage the characters are incurring while also presenting them as real people who are badly misunderstood and desperately need to be properly seen if they’re to stand a chance of being able to manage their fears.

Finnley Hollins grew up around death, having lived in the apartment above the Hollins Funeral Home and worked for the business in one capacity or another for almost his whole life. When the story begins, he’s just returned from visiting his dying father at the hospital and is full of guilt at not being able to stand to stay there until the very end, and anger over his father’s final request of him. Samuel Hollins wants his own son to prepare his body for his funeral. Finn manages to leave the room before being assailed by a bad panic attack, but makes it home safely where he gets started on his routine to resist falling asleep.

Finn meets Aven Woods when the latter comes to the home to make the arrangements for his step-father’s funeral. It was a sudden death and Aven is clearly out of his depth – but that’s not unusual for people who are grieving and Finn subtly steps in to guide him through the process of preparing for the funeral.

Aven is smitten with Finn from their first meeting, but has been unable to find an excuse to see him again. He’s determined to rectify that however, and on the day of his step-father’s funeral, arrives at the home early, intent not only on speaking to Finn, but on asking him out.

When Aven does ask, Finn almost doesn’t believe his ears; the last time he went on a real date was in college, and gorgeous guys never ask him out. When he realises Aven is for real, he gladly accepts. It’s only after they’ve made the arrangements and swapped numbers that a little seed of worry creeps in. If Aven wants to hook-up, Finn is more than down with that. But – what if he wants to stay the night?

Finn is both relieved and disappointed when Aven doesn’t push for anything more than a goodnight kiss at the end of what has been a wonderful evening, and can’t help a little internal wince when Aven considerately says it’s because he thinks Finn looks really tired and he knows he has a service the next day. Still, they agree to see each other again, and even through his ever-present exhaustion, Finn realises he’s feeling happier than he has in ages. When the issue of sleeping – or not – together comes up, Finn just says he doesn’t sleep well, and Aven goes along with it, even though there’s something nagging at him that there is more to it than Finn is willing to divulge.

As in Cravings of the Heart, Nicky James does a great job of revealing the truth behind the featured phobia – in this book, Finn’s somniphobia – and of showing how it affects Finn both physically and mentally. It drives just about his every waking thought (he obviously has a lot of those!) to the point of obsession; he pops pills and guzzles energy drinks and coffee like they’re going out of fashion, takes showers cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey and watches endless re-runs of Friends, all in the desperate attempt to ward off sleep for as long as possible before the crash he knows will eventually come – which will be followed by a massive panic attack. What makes it even more painful is that he knows what he’s doing is likely to kill him sooner rather than later, but he does it anyway because he’s just so damn scared of falling asleep. He’s so ashamed of his phobia, he thinks anyone he approaches about it will think he’s silly and stupid, so he refuses to seek professional help, opting instead to go through his personal hell night after night and alone. Knowing how completely awful a couple of nights of lost or broken sleep can make me feel, I honestly don’t know how Finn managed to keep going. It’s so frustrating to witness his continuing progress towards self-destruction, but given his upbringing by a man who wouldn’t countenance anything that could remotely be called weakness and insisted on stoicism in all things, it’s hardly surprising that his instinct is to conceal the truth and push through.

Fortunately for Finn, Aven is determined to do something to help him – even though he doesn’t realise the true extent of Finn’s issues until around half-way through the story. He’s patient and understanding and he doesn’t let Finn off the hook easily when he says and does something hurtful, although he’s perhaps a bit too-good-to-be-true. We don’t really get to know him all that well, other than that he’s estranged from his family – who treat him like crap because of his sexuality – but I liked him, and he and Finn are really good together. That said, the romance does move a bit quickly (I made a similar comment about the romance in Cravings) in so much as Aven realises he’s in love really early on – and I’m wondering if that’s a ‘feature’ of the series; that the romance needs to happen swiftly in order for the eventual healing to take place. In any case, the dates and getting-to-know-you scenes are charming and romantic, and the conviction conveyed by Adam Gold in another fabulous performance really helps embed the emotional connection between the pair.

The narration here is every bit as good as in Cravings of the Heart, with easily identifiable character voices and clear differentiation throughout. The supporting cast is fairly small but skilfully rendered, and the two leads are superbly portrayed; Finn’s unease and skittishness are expertly captured and it’s easy to believe that here is a man on the verge of falling apart. The warmth and evenness of Aven’s manner is a nice contrast to that – there’s an eminent reasonableness about him, coupled with a gentle good-humour that is both comforting and attractive. As I noted before, Mr. Gold’s vocal acting is excellent; he hits all the right emotional notes without going over the top, especially in the second half as Finn’s life begins to spiral further and further out of control.

Owl’s Slumber deals with some difficult issues and is pretty angsty, so it probably won’t be a book for everyone. But the deft handling of an unusual storyline coupled with Adam Gold’s terrific performance make this an audiobook to consider if you’re in the market for something a bit out of the ordinary.

Caz

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