Insomniacs Be Warned!

Black Moon is a novel by Kenneth Calhoun. This is a contemporary novel about the breakdown that can occur when a society is hit with a plague. In Calhoun's United States, people are suffering from endless bouts of insomnia. First, there is the exhaustion. Next is the forgetfulness and impaired reflexes. Then, comes the irrational behavior, hallucinations--both auditory and visual. Finally, is the full-blown descent into insanity and, in most cases, suicide. Men, women, and children roam the streets dazed, confused, and muttering to themselves. They are filthy, ever-maddening creatures who scrounge food where they can. There is hope in those who are still able to sleep at night, but those few are in mortal danger. If someone with this viral insomnia finds a person asleep, then they go into a terrible rage and attack the sleeper--in some cases killing them. There are mass suicides from highway overpasses and tall buildings. Our main protagonist, Biggs, has lost his beloved wife, Carolyn. Biggs is a sleeper, but his wife has succumbed to the insomnia that is running rampant throughout the country. In a fit of confusion and despair, Carolyn wanders from their apartment and out into the chaos. During his journey to find his beloved wife, Biggs meets all sorts of characters in various states of insomnia-induced madness. There is also Lila, a high-school student who has taken to roaming the streets and subdivisions of a desert town wearing an owl mask. She, too, can sleep, but her parents sent her away when they realized that she was not safe around them. The Marine who was taking her to a military base tried to attack her when she falls asleep in the backseat of the car. She suffers minor injuries to her face, but the Marine dies, leaving her alone to roam this new chaotic world. This story starts off strong with an interesting premise, but around the center, it seems to lose steam and the ending feels rushed and a bit contrived. I can deal with the author leaving us hanging with the crumbling state of civilization, but there are loose ends that could have been resolved before bringing this book to a close. One of the main characters seems to die "off stage" (which is very annoying). Overall this is a good book, but it is a bit hard to get through in places. Some of the descriptions of the break-down of people's psyches are pretty disturbing. If you like deeply psychological accounts of dystopian futures (and not-so-futures), then this is a good book for you.