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Insomnia
- Narrated by: Eli Wallach
- Length: 25 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Horror
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Publisher's Summary
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.
What the critics say
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What listeners say about Insomnia
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- joanne
- 2018-05-02
Not sure about this one
I had a really hard time getting into this one. The musical interludes were way to loud! I disliked them thoroughly! When you listen to audio books with ear buds like I do, the speaking parts would be fine and then the music would blast so loud sometimes... Not enjoyable. There was a nod to the dark tower.... Which I haven't read but maybe I will try yet. I'm really not sure about this one, I found myself not paying attention to it a lot and not really missing anything. I may return this one!
8 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Alex
- 2020-01-04
Good story, great narration, awful production
Insomnia is a cool story from King that ties very well into the King multiverse. Wallach does a fantastic job bringing the story to life but the production is very distracting and totally breaks the immersion into the story. Seemingly every 5 - 10 minutes you get loud music and just horrible sounds playing over the Eli's narration which just seems disrespectful to the awesome work he does.
5 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Howard
- 2019-07-31
A weak Stephen King book. Bad audio production
I found this, unlike most of Stephen kings books, almost tiresome and did not keep my attention.
The near ration by Eli Wallach was OK, but the use of music at times was very distracting and took away hugely from the book. The music over powered the near ration. And was particularly irritating.
5 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jenna Brake
- 2018-10-28
Great book!
I very much enjoyed this story and it’s connections to the dark tower. My only issue with it is the music that was played over the reading in some areas made the story hard to listen to.
5 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Sally
- 2019-05-21
meh
the music was absolutely horrendous, completely overriding the readers voice. It was annoying and nerve rattling music. not one of my favorite Stephen King books.
4 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Cass
- 2019-12-20
The sound design is absurd
Decent book but this is the third time I have almost given up because of the ridiculous sound design. Not a big fan of music in audiobooks, but this is insane. The story is good, the narration is great, but nobody needs random overdriven electric guitar in an audiobook.
3 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- J.Nickel
- 2019-02-25
Sound mixing is terrible.
Story is an interesting premise and it does have an introduction to the Dark Tower series. The musical interludes are too loud, cover up some of the narration, and incredibly grating on ones nerves. I understand that it's done to mimic the feeling of the haze of prolonged sleep deprivation, but it is still a bit overdone. Eli does a great performance, but its marred by instrumentals screaming over the words.
2 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- D Michelle B
- 2018-11-26
Music is so, so bad
Love everything King so of course tried to love this story. I don't mind the narrator's voice at all but I'm very annoyed by the music inserted throughout unfortunately.
update- Finally finished this book. That was a long and painful experience. The music is so excessive and this book is very dry.
2 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Stuart B.
- 2021-09-01
Music and sound effects
I love this story, especially the tie to The Dark Tower. This is likely the only thing that kept me from quitting my first audio book ever. The music and sound effects are terrible. They do not fit with the story at any point, and at times block out the narrator. I'm not sure who thought this was a good idea, and I hope for future listeners that these can simply be removed from the production.
I read the book when it was originally published, and was very happy to revisit. great job by the narrator.
1 person found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Michelle McNab
- 2021-08-23
Annoying Screeching Music
This great story was marred by the constant musical screeching randomly added through out each chapter. So annoying! I literally jumped every time it blared out, which was often. Totally ruined the whole audio book for me.
1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- X
- 2017-09-03
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.
111 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Andrew J
- 2017-09-08
Terrible background music
Just to be clear the book is great. I'm giving this a 1 star in the hopes that someone from audible will read it and fix it.
This back ground music was horrible, distracting, and literally was never needed. Get rid of it.
47 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- LoriA
- 2016-01-24
Great story, horrible production!
I want to know what insane audiobook producer thought putting HUGELY ANNOYING music into the background in seemingly random places at quite a high volume level was a good idea?! I'd like to wring his neck! So distracting it was difficult to focus on the narrator, who was good, btw. As was the story.
278 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- NanaReads
- 2017-08-30
Do yourself a favor and read this one.
This is one of Kings best Derry tales. It weaves themes and characters from the Dark Tower into a combined love story and horror yarn all its own. But the audio production does not do it justice. He reader's speaking voice is reminiscent of that of the narrator in Disney's Winnie the Pooh cartoon. For a horror story. Seriously? Then there is the annoying hissing sound behind the reader's voice during the first few hours. Bad sound engineering or failed dramatic effect? Unacceptable. The blaring discordant "music" throughout was unnecessary and a discredit to the book. Audible.com should mark such productions with an asterisk so that listeners who want the simplicity of a good story and a professional reader will not waste money on bad attempts at radio theater. Buy the paperback. Buy the ebook. Just do not buy this unless you need these theatrical props.
141 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- wvfrog22
- 2016-05-09
Insomnia
I enjoyed the story and the narrator. The issue I had was with the random musical accompaniment at the end of chapters. It was much louder than the narrator and was not necessary, in my opinion.
88 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- jennifer
- 2016-04-24
sound effects ruined it
the sound effects were not only irritating and grating but couldn't hear what was being said over them
178 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- MD Geyer
- 2017-07-01
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.
24 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Rebekah
- 2016-04-18
Weird music intervals
Overall, I really enjoyed this book and the narration. However, the only thing that really annoyed me was the random bits of music that they stuck in to add to the emotion...it was unnecessary and really annoying. And the music was louder than the narration so randomly, as you try to listen close, a loud screeching violin bursts your eardrums...also waste your time when you are trying to follow the story
45 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Leigh Roden
- 2016-04-15
Book Good - Background effetcts BAD
I had read this book many years ago and was glad to find it here. I often listen to books while accomplishing my daily tasks. I mainly listen as I fall asleep at night. I set the timer for 30 minutes and drift off. this book prevented me from doing that. The background guitar scratching and screeching sound effects made it so difficult to listen to. It would often blast into the audio near the end and beginning of a chapter obscuring, more often than not, the words of the narrator. I have some trouble hearing lower tones and so I must turn the volume up to hear male narrators. The startling sound of a screeching guitar made me jump every time. It was so much worse when I was trying to fall asleep. I couldn't go back to sleep. I had to stop listening while I fell asleep and it took forever to get through the book.
Please don't add background "music " to the books!
The content and narrator were EXCELLENT though!
89 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- A.M.E.
- 2017-08-30
I love this book, but the music nearly killed it
I have read Insomnia twice before and I love the story. This is the first time I've listened to the audio performance, and while the narration itself is very good, the music that pops up at exciting or emotional moments almost made me quit listening several times. At first it was just annoying, but when you're listening with headphones to fairly even toned narration and all of sudden are blasted by screaming guitar, or when you're listening to intense dialogue that is drowned out by louder than necessary music, it's frustrating beyond belief. I made it through, but I cursed the music every time it popped up. I highly recommend the book, especially if you're a fan of the Dark Tower series as it ties in with it amazingly well, but be prepared to be bombarded by unnecessary musical accents.
39 people found this helpful