A Raptor On Wheels - Reviewing Juan José Millás' "Let No One Sleep"

Honestly, I am a little tired of reading North American horror all the time, which is, not always but usually, formulaic and predictable. So the Otherland Bookshop supports me in my quest of finding exciting horror from all over the world and gave me a bunch of translated horror review copies and Que nadie duerma - Let No One Sleep by Spanish author Juan José Millás is one of them.

Lucìa is not your average taxi driver. Having lost her job at an IT firm, she swiftly adapts to the situation by earning a taxi driving license and starts a different life. She also swiftly adopts an obsession for her neighbor who is a moderately well-known actor in Madrid and enjoys loudly listening to Puccini’s Turandot in his apartment.

After he moves out, she centers her life around the idea of one day driving him as a client, but until that day comes she has many other encounters with all sorts of people. Driving around the city dressed and made up as Puccini’s titular Chinese princess, she sinks so deep into her own powerful imagination, her make-believe world that when she finally bumps into cold-hearted reality and betrayal, her reaction will be equally powerful and cruel.

Lucía is not your average taxi driver and she isn’t your average main character either. Her childhood experiences which convince her she has a connection to a certain bird, the incorporating of the bird motive into her present life, she herself and her animal side reflected in this bird – all this makes a very singular character who on my part, needed some getting used to. I soon rooted for her, though, and seriously enjoyed her abrupt descent into darkness.

Let No One Sleep is full of iconic scenes; it is visceral, speaks to your senses; it is music, rot and gore, evil, innocence, theater, life galore. It has plenty humorous moments and the horror just barely creeps in, enforcing itself throughout the book and reaching its peak towards the end. This different and original take on horror, this little story of the making of a monster is insanely enthralling and was a pleasure to read.