When Iðunn experiences numerous troubling symptoms like persistent exhaustion, body aches, and unexplainable bruises, she seeks help from medical practitioners. Unfortunately, the advice she receives consists of such vague lifestyle changes like eating better and exercising more. Nothing helps, and she seems further away than ever before from the answers and relief she seeks, until one night Iðunn falls asleep with her step-counting watch on, and wakes up to find she’s walked over 40,000 steps in the night...

I was captivated by how Iðunn's battle for a good night sleep takes her on a haunting journey to regain control of her own body as well as her sense of self separate from societal expectations and comparisons to her dead sister. This is an excellent, easy-to-read-in-one-sitting novella. In fact, that is exactly what I did! There is darkness in this book but also sharp humor. The terror and rising tension that one feels while reading interestingly comes from events that are often off page. This works really well for the story's formatting as we only have  Iðunn's POV, and that is restricted to when she is awake. This limited first-person POV does mean that we as readers will not get all of the answers we may want by the book's close; moreover, the ending is ambiguous. That won't work for everyone, but I really enjoyed my reading of this.

I am so glad that Hildur Knútsdóttir and Mary Robinette Kowal (another author I have enjoyed in the past) met at what I believe was a writer's conference, and their meeting led to this work being translated!!

CW: animal death

Actual Rating: 4.5 stars
Original Pub Date: 3 September 2024
Reading Format: print + audio

Thank you NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for an E-ARC copy in exchange for this honest review!