Review of Awakened by Laura Elliot

How many times have you pulled an all-nighter to get some work done? After all, sleep just isn’t productive, is it? What if you could simply turn it off? Laura Elliot imagines a world where capitalism (one anonymous billionaire) has made this possible. Scientists have developed a chip that can be implanted into people’s heads ridding them of the need for rest. It was first deployed to the army but soon enough everyone has one and so begins the revolution of the awakened! But we soon see what chaos comes from a sleep-deprived society and all is not as revolutionary as it once seemed...Years later those very sceintists are holed up in the Tower of London, the sole survivors of the Sleepless apocolypse. Or so they think...

This debut is a literary horror/sci-fi that will really get under your skin. Elliot does what all great writers of the genre do, she uses real life to write fiction that confronts humanity’s horrors. For example, we are pulled back in time throughout the novel to remember infamous instances of medical abuse, such as the case of Henrietta Lacks. The novel as a whole is rich in discourse around the body and illness as well as what it means to be ‘cured’ and who is worth ‘curing’. There’s so much to unpack in this novel and you can read more about it in the author’s inspiration piece further in this issue but it made for very interesting reading and I would recommend for anyone interested in the horrors and intersections of capitalism, the ethics of science and medicine, the body and chronic illness/disability.

Reviewed by Abi

Published on 10/06/25 by Angry Robot Books

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