Part love story, part eerie mystery, THE INSOMNIACS can be thought of as Rear Window by way of Jenny Han

THE INSOMNIACS
by Marit Weisenberg
Flatiron Books, September 2020

When seventeen-year-old competitive diver Ingrid freezes up at a routine meet and sustains a head injury, her orderly life is turned upside down. Diving wasn’t just her ticket to a full-ride scholarship and the focus of her life thus far, it was also her last connection to her dad, who left many years ago for a more glamorous life (and family). Now housebound and sedentary on doctor’s orders, Ingrid can’t sleep and is haunted by the question of what triggered her uncharacteristic stage fright. The only thing she remembers about the moment before the dive is seeing Van Tagawa, her neighbor, former best-friend, and forever crush, on the sidelines. Then one sleepless night, she sees Van out her window…looking right back at her. They tentatively begin “not sleeping” together every night but still living totally separate lives by day. Together they try to piece together multiple mysteries that keep them awake—why she had her accident, the strange occurrences at the abandoned house in their cul-de-sac, and what went wrong in their friendship years before—and are both pulled into a mystery that turns their quiet neighborhood into a far darker place than they realized.

Marit Weisenberg received her BA in English from Bowdoin College and her Master’s Degree from UCLA’s school of Theater, Film and Television. Marit has worked in film and television development at Warner Brothers, Universal and Disney. She is the author of the YA novels Select and Select Few (Charlesbridge 2017 and 2018). She lives in Austin, Texas with her family.