Barnes at one point takes the opportunity to name drop half a dozen other dystopian novels, which served no purpose beyond making me think to myself 'hey, maybe I should throw this mess in the trash and read one of these actually good books instead'. Cleverly thought out ideas, original and unique with delightfully poetic writing, Nod is quite simply a masterpiece of apocalyptic fiction. As is often the case, two of the things which make this into an interesting and rewarding novel, the originality of the reason for the end of the world and the specific qualities of the narrative voice, can also feel like weaknesses.

It tells the tale of Paul who finds himself an unlikely prophet after his manuscript on the etymology of words becomes a surrogate bible to a city who cannot sleep. My reading of this was a little altered by an awareness of his death, possibly in a daft sentinel way, as I pondered how us readers will never get to sample another dose of his very fucking full-on style.Those still having the ability to sleep, find themselves dreaming the same dream about a golden light. Gaps in Paul’s general understanding of what’s going on, as he tries to navigate a Vancouver made monstrous by an other-worldly insomnia plague, are fine with me. Nod works brilliantly on several levels; as a nerve-shredding horror, a timely cautionary tale, and a study of a man’s life being stripped away. There is a plot, of course, but I found it so sparse on actual story and so heavy with experimental tangents that I couldn't connect with what was going on.

There is so much going on under our world of words and societal constructs, but we accept the surface as it is presented to us. It ultimately never goes anywhere and is merely used as a vehicle to show the Deprivation of Man and how We Were Like This All Along and honestly, by that point I'd stopped caring. The cast-- save for the homeless guy nobody likes and a bunch of similarly flat characters who get, at most, one or two scenes apiece-- is rounded out by the protagonist's girlfriend. Because odds are a lot of readers won't be familiar with the effects and timeline of sleep deprivation psychosis, but you can bet your ass that a book marketed to the SF/fantasy/horror crowd will be read almost entirely by People Who Have Seen Star Wars.The author can craft words in delightful ways, I found myself rereading sentences here and there just for their sheer delight of wordsmanship. It's a weird book, written in a very literary way (MC is an etymologist) with some deeply peculiar sequences that feel like dreams or madness, and plenty of stuff that makes no sense as part of the world or anything else.

If your mind and body never again got its eight—or even four or three or any—hours of necessary rejuvenation. The first few days very clearly outlined what was happening for Paul, who could sleep, and his partner Tanya, who could not, and the bar was set for absolute mayhem and trauma to come. Women when they can't sleep turn into disgusting sluts, men turn into megalomaniac, homicidal nutjobs.But it was different the last few days – I became oh-so-grateful to put my head on my pillow and feel sleep overtaking me, because I was reading Nod. It's obviously very clever and you can feel the author's style consistently throughout, but it almost felt like this is a book for a certain elite and if that's not you, you're left right out. It's also wonderfully apt considering the state of the world at present, a little look behind the curtain at what might await us should we lose control.

Paul is an etymologist – his life revolves around the exploration of words and their origins, and writing books about their history and transformation. I really enjoyed the first half of the book, but what happens next is strange, overwhelming and at times a little unrealistic. The deterioration of Vancouver society happens very quickly, as expected, but everything that comes with it is just depressing and nonsensical.This novel is a debut, poignantly so — Barnes died of a brain tumor shortly around its release, and my paperback copy included a moving afterward by the author talking about his diagnosis and how it related to the novel. I suffer from bouts of insomnia myself and so this premise is especially terrifying and interesting, in equal measure.