Sometimes When I Sleep

Harriet arrives at university hoping to leave a family tragedy behind and become someone new, though she is unsure who she is or where she fits. Growing up, she kept out of sight and found comfort in the music of Dark Island, whose songs seem to speak to the trauma she carries. She threw herself into ice hockey and top grades, and into role-playing games, where she found friendship and excitement, yet the nightmares that haunt her at night always catch up. Dark Island's promise that she is stepping out of the shadows convinces her that university will change everything.

Belonging proves harder than she expected. Hockey is ruled by the conceited Mark Collier, and relationships are as difficult on campus as they were at home. When the structures that have protected her begin to fall apart, she is pulled, against her will, toward Iquis, a cold, enigmatic and magnetic figure. Their connection is turbulent, marked by clashes and misreadings. Harriet recognises a similar damage in Iquis and comes to believe their lives are bound together, and that freeing Iquis from whatever holds her is the only way Harriet can escape her own past.

The girls' journeys carry them through the nocturnal landscapes of Cumbria and then farther into the frozen north, raising questions about how much of their fear comes from within and how much from the world, and what redemption costs.