Insomnia

By: Stephen King

Narrated by: Eli Wallach

A number-one national best seller

Since his wife died, Ralph Roberts has been having trouble sleeping. Each night he wakes up a bit earlier until he's barely sleeping at all. During his late-night walks, he observes some strange things going on in Derry, Maine. He sees colored ribbons streaming from people's heads, two strange little men wandering around town after dark, and more. He begins to suspect that these visions are something more than hallucinations brought on by lack of sleep.

There's a definite mean streak running through this small New England city; underneath its ordinary surface awesome and terrifying forces are at work. The dying has been going on in Derry for a long, long time. Now Ralph is part of it...and lack of sleep is the least of his worries.

Returning to the same Maine town where It took place, a town that has haunted Stephen King for decades, Insomnia blends King's trademark bone-chilling realism with supernatural terror to create yet another masterpiece of suspense.

©1994 Stephen King (P)1994 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"A yarn so packed with suspense, romance, literary reference, fascinating miscellaneous knowledge, and heart that only Stephen King could have written it. Marvelous - that is, full of marvels." ( Booklist)

Horrible Music Throughout- Ruined the Story

Why does anyone put music into an audiobook?! Especially if it's terrible music that is obnoxious, distracting, and irrelevant (it's not a climactic moment yet there are screeching violins). Ruined the story for me.

Worst production I've ever listened to.

While not Kings best work I'd say it's in the top 50% of his books. It's a little slow getting going but the story picks up nicely. It is important in the greater Dark Tower universe. I didn't care for the reader right at first but he grew on me and I thought he did solid job by the time I got to the end.

Now the bad. I don't know who was responsible for the music between chapters but they should never be allowed to work in sound production again. I almost stoped listening 3-4 times just because of all the screeching in my ears. How anyone could think that added to the performance is beyond me. I had just listened to Hearts in Atlantis before this book. I thought the music was a nice addition in that case. It's not that I don't like loud guitars. I grew up on Maiden and Metallic. This is one case where I'd recommend skip the audio book and read this one the old fashion way just to save your ears from the abuse.

Music

The music and sounds were annoying and distracting. The story was great. Eli was great!

Music and sound effects are the worst

The guys voice is horrible, sounds like a pack a day for 40 years. Not sure who thought up the sounds but they are horrible.

Not kings finest work but an ok story.

I liked the narrator, he fits the main character very well but the music was horrible and distracting! At times the narration was nearly inaudible, it sounds like a bunch of 8 year olds left alone in a music store! Please, no more music!

take out the stupid music

the narrator is hard to hear as it is. then you add the useless music at pointless parts. I am so frustrated with this read that I don't know if I can finish it.

Ok, but the performance was not that great

The narrator’s attempts at making different voices was mediocre at best. Also, I get that sometimes the background music sets the mood, but it was too loud at times.

But, I enjoyed the book anyway.

AMAZING book, TERRIBLE SFX

This is an amazing book that has call backs to the Dark Tower series (which is some of my favorite King work). There’s a magical element that feels like both The Dark Tower and Fairytale.
The narrator is incredible and truly makes you feel each character.
My ONLY issue is the absolutely painful SFX. When they come on, they are twice as loud as the narration and make it almost impossible to make out what is being said. I listen to much of my books in the car and I have to cut the volume down to half and then cannot hear what is being said. It’s startling to say the least.

I never leave reviews but...

I was iffy about getting this due to the other reviews. But I finally decided to try it. This story was super intriguing and entertaining and the reader did a fabulous job. Many people said the music was distracting and went over the words so you couldn't hear them. This is definitely true. But they didn't really explain it further. First off, it's just louder than the words so when those parts come up, as long as you don't have it playing in the shower or doing dishes or something kinda white-noise loud, you can still hear the words. You'll want to turn the music down to hear them but that obviously won't work. You never really get used to the "music"...but you do. It becomes the kind of annoying you can deal with. Honestly, it was a little comical because to me it sounded like the guy in charge of editing this had just discovered garage band and had access to a large library of "creepy sounds" which he utilized to make "songs" that he felt would add to the "drama" of the scene changes. Clearly he doesn't know how good stories work. Because this didn't need it. Anyway, aside from the laughable music, I really enjoyed this book. I'm glad I went ahead and listened to it. I'll forever associate those weird home-made garage-band songs with this book, but thankfully* I'll never hear them anywhere else.
*I hope.

The music was awful!

A very good book with very bad musical assaults in it. Eli Wallach is a good actor, but he made everyone sound like an old Jewish New Yorker.