What do you think?
Rate this book
Sleep With One Eye Open
The Zombie Apocalypse doesn’t start in America, China or Europe. It begins in our own backyard; Sydney, Australia.
It’s 2019 and the annual Zombie Horde Parade is about to commence in Sydney. Instead of the usual cast of jovial participants in fancy dress, the Sydney City CBD is inundated by a horde of zombies flooding out from the underground train station in Hyde Park and rampaging into an unsuspecting public. A large scale brawl erupts in the CBD as people suddenly realise that they aren’t just defending themselves, they’re fighting for their lives.
We follow John’s journey as he tries to escape the carnage and savagery. By the time he reaches safety, the media have only sketchy reports of the morning’s events; while the police and riot squad are at a loss to understand the motives of the group responsible for the lethal riot that continues to rage. No matter who John runs into, their story is always the same; they were attacked by a group of psychopaths with an unrelenting thirst for violence and murder.
The scourge of the undead rapidly spreads across the city as people make things worse by engaging in looting and vigilantism. With their attention diverted from the real enemy, hordes of zombies easily overrun entire suburbs within hours. Just when things look to be at their worst, the entire city is plunged into a blackout, allowing looters and thugs to add to the increasingly insurmountable difficulties people are already facing. John’s struggle to survive begins with the knowledge that nowhere is completely safe.
He knows that Sydney will inevitably fall into the grasping hands of the undead, and the thugs and other lowlifes will be there to victimise those not strong or smart enough to escape the necropolis. This is the story of an ordinary man who uses courage and guile to achieve the seemingly impossible.
It’s 2019 and the annual Zombie Horde Parade is about to commence in Sydney. Instead of the usual cast of jovial participants in fancy dress, the Sydney City CBD is inundated by a horde of zombies flooding out from the underground train station in Hyde Park and rampaging into an unsuspecting public. A large scale brawl erupts in the CBD as people suddenly realise that they aren’t just defending themselves, they’re fighting for their lives.
We follow John’s journey as he tries to escape the carnage and savagery. By the time he reaches safety, the media have only sketchy reports of the morning’s events; while the police and riot squad are at a loss to understand the motives of the group responsible for the lethal riot that continues to rage. No matter who John runs into, their story is always the same; they were attacked by a group of psychopaths with an unrelenting thirst for violence and murder.
The scourge of the undead rapidly spreads across the city as people make things worse by engaging in looting and vigilantism. With their attention diverted from the real enemy, hordes of zombies easily overrun entire suburbs within hours. Just when things look to be at their worst, the entire city is plunged into a blackout, allowing looters and thugs to add to the increasingly insurmountable difficulties people are already facing. John’s struggle to survive begins with the knowledge that nowhere is completely safe.
He knows that Sydney will inevitably fall into the grasping hands of the undead, and the thugs and other lowlifes will be there to victimise those not strong or smart enough to escape the necropolis. This is the story of an ordinary man who uses courage and guile to achieve the seemingly impossible.
229 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 23, 2014
4 people are currently reading
211 people want to read
About the author
Beau Johnston
5 books44 followersBeau has always had an active (some might say overactive) imagination. He enjoys telling creepy tales on long car trips or during black-outs and thunderstorms.
Beau completed his first novel Sleep With One Eye Open, in 2014. The dark and disturbingly realistic tale quickly gained a following, with many readers demanding a sequel.
Devoting most of his spare time to writing, Beau completed Sleep With One Eye Open: Ghost, in September 2015. The story is more unnerving than the original, and far more devious.
In November 2017 Beau completed his third book, Sleep With One Eye Open: Shadow. This gave him the opportunity to explore the psychological side-effects of having to do horrible things simply to survive another day.
31 October 2024 saw Beau publish his anthology of short stories from the Zombie Apocalypse. This book is darker and creepier and although part of the same apocalypse, you do not have to have read his three previous books to be suitably chilled and repulsed by these new characters.
Beau completed his first novel Sleep With One Eye Open, in 2014. The dark and disturbingly realistic tale quickly gained a following, with many readers demanding a sequel.
Devoting most of his spare time to writing, Beau completed Sleep With One Eye Open: Ghost, in September 2015. The story is more unnerving than the original, and far more devious.
In November 2017 Beau completed his third book, Sleep With One Eye Open: Shadow. This gave him the opportunity to explore the psychological side-effects of having to do horrible things simply to survive another day.
31 October 2024 saw Beau publish his anthology of short stories from the Zombie Apocalypse. This book is darker and creepier and although part of the same apocalypse, you do not have to have read his three previous books to be suitably chilled and repulsed by these new characters.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
Read
September 27, 2015When I wrote this story, I wanted it to be unique. Ignoring the fact that the book is about zombies, I’ve tried to keep the story as realistic as possible.
Sleep With One Eye Open is set in Australia, providing a rarely used background for my story. To keep things interesting I incorporated Australia's very strict gun control and gun ownership laws. This means the main character is unlikely to stumble across the caches of high-powered (and often military grade) firearms that appear in other books in the zombie genre.
As such, there won't be head-shot after head-shot to eliminate the approaching horde of undead. (Have you ever tried to shoot a target about the size of a cantaloupe? Now put that target 50 or 100 or 200 or even 500 meters away. Now get this tiny target to wobble along at an unsteady shamble. Now factor in a cross breeze. That sort of accuracy is the stuff of legends. I know I couldn't pull it off; I haven't had that level of training).
The main character in my story has to rely on basic disaster preparedness and his self-defense training. The same sort of knowledge that is available to any member of the public if they are willing to dedicate the time to learn.
The story starts in Sydney, Australia; but I can't disclose where it goes from there without giving too much away. If you aren't familiar with the Australian countryside (or would like to know more), this story is guaranteed to satisfy your curiosity.
I found the biggest challenge was writing the self-defense and fight sequences. Compared to writing, teaching self-defense is easy. Putting the action into easily understood words and phrases was difficult at times, but very rewarding.
I encourage everyone who reads my book to give an honest review both here on GoodReads and with the online store you purchased the book from; it will help other readers decide if my story is right for them.
Sleep With One Eye Open is set in Australia, providing a rarely used background for my story. To keep things interesting I incorporated Australia's very strict gun control and gun ownership laws. This means the main character is unlikely to stumble across the caches of high-powered (and often military grade) firearms that appear in other books in the zombie genre.
As such, there won't be head-shot after head-shot to eliminate the approaching horde of undead. (Have you ever tried to shoot a target about the size of a cantaloupe? Now put that target 50 or 100 or 200 or even 500 meters away. Now get this tiny target to wobble along at an unsteady shamble. Now factor in a cross breeze. That sort of accuracy is the stuff of legends. I know I couldn't pull it off; I haven't had that level of training).
The main character in my story has to rely on basic disaster preparedness and his self-defense training. The same sort of knowledge that is available to any member of the public if they are willing to dedicate the time to learn.
The story starts in Sydney, Australia; but I can't disclose where it goes from there without giving too much away. If you aren't familiar with the Australian countryside (or would like to know more), this story is guaranteed to satisfy your curiosity.
I found the biggest challenge was writing the self-defense and fight sequences. Compared to writing, teaching self-defense is easy. Putting the action into easily understood words and phrases was difficult at times, but very rewarding.
I encourage everyone who reads my book to give an honest review both here on GoodReads and with the online store you purchased the book from; it will help other readers decide if my story is right for them.
April 25, 2014
First, the wildlife of Australia wants you dead!
Now the zombies join in the fun!
A survivalist guide to getting the hell out of Sydney, Australia, and traveling the Central Coast to find less deadly pastures, hopefully.
John is a survival and martial arts expert. He gets caught up in the outbreak in Sydney and he needs to get moving to save his skin. He will live through several adventures going north to find his family. Along the way, he explains a lot of what is needed to make it through the zombies in a smart, fully prepared way. He's the kind of guy you would want with you if you hope to survive. While I was reading the book, I came to the conclusion that I would probably last all of 5 minutes in an outbreak. :-)
When you read this book, take the time to follow John's itinerary along the coast with Google maps. What a beautiful looking part of the world!
Being mostly ignorant of Sydney and the area, I just loved learning the names of neighborhoods like Manly, Curl Curl, Dee Why, and other sites like Bongin Bongin Bay and Booti Booti National Park. :-)
This is Beau Johnston's first novel and he delivers an exciting adventure story written in a clean, simple, and smoothly flowing style.
The zombie horror elements are present in the book but, to me, they were not the most interesting aspect of the book. Read it and I think you will agree.
Now the zombies join in the fun!
A survivalist guide to getting the hell out of Sydney, Australia, and traveling the Central Coast to find less deadly pastures, hopefully.
John is a survival and martial arts expert. He gets caught up in the outbreak in Sydney and he needs to get moving to save his skin. He will live through several adventures going north to find his family. Along the way, he explains a lot of what is needed to make it through the zombies in a smart, fully prepared way. He's the kind of guy you would want with you if you hope to survive. While I was reading the book, I came to the conclusion that I would probably last all of 5 minutes in an outbreak. :-)
When you read this book, take the time to follow John's itinerary along the coast with Google maps. What a beautiful looking part of the world!
Being mostly ignorant of Sydney and the area, I just loved learning the names of neighborhoods like Manly, Curl Curl, Dee Why, and other sites like Bongin Bongin Bay and Booti Booti National Park. :-)
This is Beau Johnston's first novel and he delivers an exciting adventure story written in a clean, simple, and smoothly flowing style.
The zombie horror elements are present in the book but, to me, they were not the most interesting aspect of the book. Read it and I think you will agree.
August 20, 2016
I've been trying to mix up the zombie repertoire--and the last two I read were set in Spain and Ireland, so in this one Australia got a bit more dangerous.
This looks self-published and there were formatting things that drove me nuts so maybe it's the printer's fault or something. Also a discovery! Periods following question marks officially drive me insane--I wasn't even aware that was a possibility. "....?". is an abomination.
Well how does Australia feature in my tropes checklist?
1) Police & Military turn against populace: nope. There's a few spooky bikers but the police and military seem to have completely crumpled within seconds. The zombies aren't fast or anything that sets them apart from the original "standard." The main character never even seems to see a cop or soldier.
2) Government response is half assed. Well I guess so, since we also don't see any action from the government except for a failed quarantine. There wasn't even a call for safe havens or anything really--except for the one town hall building John encounters. He watches TV obsessively, but we hear very little what is going on in the country--does Australia not have the internet? In today's age, zombies and chaos would be on Facebook and Twitter in a minute. How was the country tricked? Are his parents and cousin all idiots?
The outbreak happens on a Zombie Fun run which is actually a nice concept. Jonathan Maberry has done zombie outbreak in horror conventions before, but it makes sense. It is a (very unlikely) scenario where zombies could potentially infiltrate a large group of people, making things tricky for first responders. But we don't get to see the outbreak--we hear about it in a ?. laden awkward dialogue between five people that attended the fun run and got bitten/scratched. Somehow even though the concept of zombies exist in this universe, all the characters but John keep rejecting what's going on, until he has to basically keep a severed zombie head in a bag to show as proof.
So a rare and total fail on the part of all media in this book as well.
3) Clergy goes insane. No cannibalistic pervy preachers roaming around in this one.
4) Criminals run amok. Yeah, I guess with the bad bikers, but John and surviving jogger hide in the bushes for all those scenes. And then the raiders later on, which seemed very easy to get out of with a bonus of annoying at how stupid his cousin was.
5) Plucky child. Nope, unless you count the jogger, which I sort of do. For an adult, he acted like a twelve year old that had to be constantly reassured. And do like park league baseball teams have crusty old coaches that mentor them, as adults? I thought all this was a little anticlimactic.
Bonus point of zombies on a boat: awarded! They are under all the boats which is actually scarier, and the water and island scenes were the strongest in the book. Probably the whole book would have been stronger if it was in those lines. So 3 out of 5.
Besides ?., the book reads a bit like a prepper's shopping list. Our dour and somewhat uptight hero almost seems like he is made for the apocalypse. He's got parents and the beloved cousin, and I guess he's middle aged. How is he already planning on retiring? Girlfriend? Friends? Coworkers? You get zero personal insight into his past, except for a fondness of motorcycles, but plenty of description on waterproof matches and sturdy backpacks and protein bars. He's got plenty of money because his wealth seems to be referenced many times, but it adds to the somewhat Mary Sueness of it.
This looks self-published and there were formatting things that drove me nuts so maybe it's the printer's fault or something. Also a discovery! Periods following question marks officially drive me insane--I wasn't even aware that was a possibility. "....?". is an abomination.
Well how does Australia feature in my tropes checklist?
1) Police & Military turn against populace: nope. There's a few spooky bikers but the police and military seem to have completely crumpled within seconds. The zombies aren't fast or anything that sets them apart from the original "standard." The main character never even seems to see a cop or soldier.
2) Government response is half assed. Well I guess so, since we also don't see any action from the government except for a failed quarantine. There wasn't even a call for safe havens or anything really--except for the one town hall building John encounters. He watches TV obsessively, but we hear very little what is going on in the country--does Australia not have the internet? In today's age, zombies and chaos would be on Facebook and Twitter in a minute. How was the country tricked? Are his parents and cousin all idiots?
The outbreak happens on a Zombie Fun run which is actually a nice concept. Jonathan Maberry has done zombie outbreak in horror conventions before, but it makes sense. It is a (very unlikely) scenario where zombies could potentially infiltrate a large group of people, making things tricky for first responders. But we don't get to see the outbreak--we hear about it in a ?. laden awkward dialogue between five people that attended the fun run and got bitten/scratched. Somehow even though the concept of zombies exist in this universe, all the characters but John keep rejecting what's going on, until he has to basically keep a severed zombie head in a bag to show as proof.
So a rare and total fail on the part of all media in this book as well.
3) Clergy goes insane. No cannibalistic pervy preachers roaming around in this one.
4) Criminals run amok. Yeah, I guess with the bad bikers, but John and surviving jogger hide in the bushes for all those scenes. And then the raiders later on, which seemed very easy to get out of with a bonus of annoying at how stupid his cousin was.
5) Plucky child. Nope, unless you count the jogger, which I sort of do. For an adult, he acted like a twelve year old that had to be constantly reassured. And do like park league baseball teams have crusty old coaches that mentor them, as adults? I thought all this was a little anticlimactic.
Bonus point of zombies on a boat: awarded! They are under all the boats which is actually scarier, and the water and island scenes were the strongest in the book. Probably the whole book would have been stronger if it was in those lines. So 3 out of 5.
Besides ?., the book reads a bit like a prepper's shopping list. Our dour and somewhat uptight hero almost seems like he is made for the apocalypse. He's got parents and the beloved cousin, and I guess he's middle aged. How is he already planning on retiring? Girlfriend? Friends? Coworkers? You get zero personal insight into his past, except for a fondness of motorcycles, but plenty of description on waterproof matches and sturdy backpacks and protein bars. He's got plenty of money because his wealth seems to be referenced many times, but it adds to the somewhat Mary Sueness of it.
March 26, 2021
Read : March 26, 2021
Rating : 3,5 Stars
I've read some great 'zombies in Australia' and normal Zombie books and some terrible. This falls somewhere in the middle of that.
Also, probably some minor? Spoilers.
Be Warned.
The action is good and I liked that this had almost no guns and the characters survived with what's readily available and what you can 'easily' get in a store.
However, what I felt was missing in this book was emotion.
Our MC is quickwitted and strong but lacks an emotional dept, not once does he really worry about his close family in the book.
We also know very litle of his before story, I would have liked some more background info.
This coupled with the fact that almost nothing really, horribly goes wrong for him makes it hard to lose yourself in this book, at least, for me then since I have some good martial arts knowledge and some okay survival skills but I think in a high pressure situation like this I wouldn't have such a reasonably easy time of it.
I mean, I'll probably spend the first days rocking in some corner babbling nonsense before getting eaten on my first outing but hey, let's believe I could make it lol.
There's some past and present tense mix-ups but overall it's really good editing for a indie book.
Rating : 3,5 Stars
I've read some great 'zombies in Australia' and normal Zombie books and some terrible. This falls somewhere in the middle of that.
Also, probably some minor? Spoilers.
Be Warned.
The action is good and I liked that this had almost no guns and the characters survived with what's readily available and what you can 'easily' get in a store.
However, what I felt was missing in this book was emotion.
Our MC is quickwitted and strong but lacks an emotional dept, not once does he really worry about his close family in the book.
We also know very litle of his before story, I would have liked some more background info.
This coupled with the fact that almost nothing really, horribly goes wrong for him makes it hard to lose yourself in this book, at least, for me then since I have some good martial arts knowledge and some okay survival skills but I think in a high pressure situation like this I wouldn't have such a reasonably easy time of it.
I mean, I'll probably spend the first days rocking in some corner babbling nonsense before getting eaten on my first outing but hey, let's believe I could make it lol.
There's some past and present tense mix-ups but overall it's really good editing for a indie book.
February 24, 2025
I feel like this is how a zombie apocalypse would start. Great job. I highly recommend it highly.
April 7, 2014
I had a hard time with one part of this book, which is where it lost a star. John, the hero of the book, didn't grasp the zombie attack in a totally believable way for me. Actually neither did the kids on the ferry. John is intelligent, he is a survivor because he has worked at learning to survive, he knows exactly what to get from the provision store. The kids on the ferry were in the zombie horde parade. This tells me they are zombie knowledgeable. Yet none of them grasped what was happening and/or that a zombie bite = infection. I had a difficult time with that. That rest of the story was good. The action, the suspense, the fear, all of that was going for me. Matter of fact it was going so well I got ticked off all over again that he was so stupid at first. So if you have a difficult time with that, push through it. The story after gets better. I was actually disappointed when it ended as I wanted to read more. There is more I want to say but it would involve real spoilers. So I will leave it at some interesting things happen and it does end in a cliff hangar which has me hoping the author is writing.
February 15, 2014
Wow. What an amazing twist on the classic zombie tale. Very similar in a lot of ways to Night of the Living Dead, in that it's just a man using his wits to defeat the ghouls.
The main character John appears at first glance emotionless and stolid, but as the book progresses you see more and more of his underlying goodness and morals.
Being set in Australia means the action feels very close to home, and also very believable which gives you extra chills up your spine. I can't wait to visit the places John went.
If you want a well written book with thrills and good writing instead of endless ammunition and explosions, this book is for you. I couldn't put it down! Can't wait to see if there's a sequel.
The main character John appears at first glance emotionless and stolid, but as the book progresses you see more and more of his underlying goodness and morals.
Being set in Australia means the action feels very close to home, and also very believable which gives you extra chills up your spine. I can't wait to visit the places John went.
If you want a well written book with thrills and good writing instead of endless ammunition and explosions, this book is for you. I couldn't put it down! Can't wait to see if there's a sequel.
December 11, 2015
This book is a great read. If anyone is keen on Zombies, how to kill/maim a zombie and how to survive a zombie apocalypse " Sleep with one eye open" is awesome. It's fast paced, action packed and is true with fight scenes and prepping. You won't find a fully automatic weapon of mass destruction at your disposal, just raw instinct. I loved following the lead character through the twists and turns of the first book (" Sleep with one eye open") and can't wait to see what happens in the sequel. Couldn't put it down i had to keep reading to find out what happened.
February 19, 2014
This is the best zombie book I have read. The author's written a frighteningly realistic depiction of what would happen if the zombie apocalypse started in Australia.
This story actually made me feel uneasy and still plays on my mind.
This story actually made me feel uneasy and still plays on my mind.
September 12, 2015
A friend recommended this book to me because of the realistic way it is written. I loved reading it and recommend it to anyone who likes zombie stories. As well as being resourceful and clever; the main character is believable and likable.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews