Review: 'The Sleeping Land' by Ella Alexander

Picture yourself on an archaeological dig, with two other postgraduates you don't fully like or trust, with an advisor who is definitely a little odd, and you're in the middle of nowhere in Siberia during summer time, when the sun hardly sets. That's enough to feel a little out of it, but when you add weird sounds, scratches in the floor, and everyone's increasingly nervous behaviour, you have a pressure cooker-type of situation ready to explore. That's The Sleeping Land which cooks slowly, but reaches a boil when necessary. Thanks to Unnamed Press and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Pub. Date: 04/03/2025
Publisher: Unnamed Press

Less than two years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, three junior archeologists and their gloryhound advisor arrive at a remote cave in the heart of the Siberian wilderness to carry out the first extensive Western dig on Russian soil since the execution of the Czar. 

Surrounded by a looming forest with eerie silences and flickering shadows, Valerie, Kit, and Mark begin their dig under the eccentric and charismatic guidance of the venerable George Auberon. The excavation yields fascinating discoveries, and excitement grows among the team, but George’s true motivations soon reveal themselves to be much less noble than he originally let on. 

As each member of the party grapples with the complexities and the challenges of the dig, going deeper into the cave, a strange feeling sets in. Are they really alone out there? Or has George’s paranoid ambition gotten to them? 

A powerful debut with vast imaginative range, The Sleeping Land introduces a cast of memorable characters who must face a terrifying question: who controls the past when it comes back to life?

Before I ended up in literary studies, I held childhood dreams of becoming an archaeologist. I couldn't imagine there being anything better than actually digging up and touching history that way. I eventually moved from digging in dirt to digging in books, but a certain fascination with archaeology remained. A lot of the students I teach also study archaeology and I have to admit to mild yearning whenever they speak of going to digs over the summer. Because of this longing, The Sleeping Land by Ella Alexander was, in many ways, right up my alley. In a way, it could almost fit into the Dark Academia genre, except that instead of dusty libraries and Greek lessons, it's dusty caves and lessons on sedimentary layers and safety protocols. The Sleeping Land is, as I said above, something of a slow pressure cooker but I can imagine that, for many readers, it is too slow. There are train journeys across the Siberian tundra, odd encounters with fellow travellers, ruminations on student-supervisor relations, diffuse lives coming together to dig, and the growing need for clear answers and guidelines. I enjoy these wanderings through the minds of characters, picing up snippets of backstory here and there, but also just following their thoughts on history, who gets to tell what story, and whether who we are is set in stone. 

Val, Kit, and Mark are in Russia, shortly after the collapse of the USSR. They are going on a dig with their, somewhat enigmatic, supervisor George Auberon. He is at once just a man, and yet for each also a little larger than life. This dig could end up making their careers, and yet all three are, in their own ways, uncomfortable even before they reach a quiet, far-away valley to begin excavating a cave George remembers from previous travels. While each thinks themselves at least somewhat prepared for the strain of the dig, rumours that the valley is haunted, or "occupied", does little to settle their nerves. To say anything more would really spoil the fun, but be assured that in the last 10 to 15% of the book, the tension ramps up, as all the stress and anxiety that has built up explodes. Something I enjoyed was how the POV switched between Val, Kit, and Mark pretty consistently. I would say that the majority of the focus is on Val, but you get a solid insight into the other two as well, while George remains, quite rightfully, something of a mystery. I also really liked how Alexander described things throughout the novel, it really allowed me to picture their surroundings and feel the desolation of the dig. 

I went into The Sleeping Land having, largely, forgotten what it was about. I knew I had requested it for a reason, so I decided to trust past me and not look up the blurb before beginning to read. Because of this approach, Ella Alexander got to properly lure me in without me having any preconceptions or clear ideas about where she wanted to take this book. What I enjoyed about the novel is that she is working with a cast of characters who are all, in their own ways, deeply annoying and unlikeable, and yet you also get to see them as actual, conflicted human beings. From the beginning I thought that Alexander managed to build up a good sense of how deeply entangled they all are with one another, with each other's pasts and futures, with their individual hopes and dreams, and it all ends up feeling sweaty, constricting, and a little gross. Which I imagine is what an archaeological dig in a cave must indeed feel like. While the novel does ruminate on history, on who gets to shape it and what that means, I think this theme could have come through a little more strongly. As it is, The Sleeping Land is a fun balance between historical fiction and something of a historical horror. For a debut novel, I am very pleased by the end result and I look forward to reading more by Ella Alexander. 

I give this novel...

4 Universes!

The Sleeping Land pulls you in slowly, only to take your breath away with a rapid-fire finale. If you're a fan of archaeological sites and like your horror with a side-serving of history, then this is the novel for you.