*3.5 stars*
The Dreamers is a poetic, thought-provoking novel about a "sleeping virus" that befalls a small town in California, in which those affected cannot be woken up.

Before I get into the reasons why I am giving it 3.5 stars, I would like to say that I would still recommend this book to anyone who likes speculative fiction; books that are in the sci-fi realm, but still read like a contemporary novel. ("Soft" science fiction, if you will).

Perhaps to its detriment, this book has been compared to one of my favorite novels of all time, Station Eleven. So I went into it with very high expectations, and ultimately, I was left wanting a bit more.

For example, there were some loose ends that I would have liked to see tied up better (for one, the college kids who broke the quarantine). Also, we were teased with an early reveal that the "dreamers" were logging more brain activity than any human brain ever recorded, and I felt like more could have been done with that.

Ultimately, a well written-novel with an intriguing premise, that just didn't quite hit the mark for me.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I adored this book! It's so quick and I did not want to put it down. I loved the short chapters, the switches between characters, and the mysterious aspects! It's intriguing suspenseful. I loved it and will be recommending it widely.

Some might put The Dreamers in a dystopian category but it is not that simple of a book. This is a story about a small college town that has been taken over by a sleeping virus. People all over start to fall asleep and not wake up. The thing about Karen Thompson Walker's books are they make you think about these hypothetical situations in such a different light. There are so many little details that would have never crossed my mind but start to take affect when a virus takes over. She is such a great author that the entire situation feels so realistic to me. I really enjoyed this book and will continue to think about it for a long time.

So thankful to @netgalley for providing me with an advanced readers copy!

"An ordinary town is transformed by a mysterious illness that triggers perpetual sleep"

This is the broad synopsis of the engaging book, The Dreamers, by Karen Thompson Walker. This book is a study on how close our dream-world and the waking-world are and how the lines can be blurred between the two. We are shown, as the sickness spreads, the fear and the desperation and the will to survive of different characters and how some end up succumbing to this sickness. The reaction of the outside world is mostly contained to the periphery, but the glimpses we are given is that it plays out as a reality TV drama. I couldn't help make the comparison, as the outside world reacts to the spread of the illness in this one American town, how it isn't so far-fetched that something like this could happen today.

This book kept me enthralled from start to finish, paying just the right amount of attention to each of the storylines.

Book Review
The Dreamers
"Hysteria-that's the real disease of this era."
Summary
In the small college town of Santa Lora, California, a party girl passes out in her dorm. Her roommate, Mei, can't wake her. This girl is the first. More students on the same floor are next. And it continues out as things always do. Several story lines spin throughout: the teens Mei and Matthew, the young girls Sara and Libby with their unhinged father, the young couple, Ben and Annie, and baby Grace, the biology professor, Nathaniel, and his invalid partner, Henry, the psychiatrist, Catherine, quarantined in the hospital, a sleeping student, Rebecca, plus numerous doctors, nurses, neighbors. Lives crossing and uncrossing. All touched by the sleep in some way. This town is trapped as the nation watches. What are these people dreaming? According to doctors, it's something different than ever before. What will happen if they wake up? If they don't?
My Thoughts
This narrative feels hazy, like I might drift off reading. Each story line brings it's own urgency, tragedies and triumphs. Who will sleep next? There is tension in the air. Do you help others or save yourself? The world is terrible and bleak. Most sleepers keep sleeping. Some wake speaking premonitions they believe are true. Someone wakes convinced every dream was the future, "the feeling that these dreams are somehow glimpses of days yet to come". But, these events already happened in the past. Nothing can change this person's mind. Still more swear they dreamed the future in past events. Why? Where were these people? What's real? Are we a dream? This is a story about the big questions and the small moments. "Time: that's what the dream is really about. "
The defining moment for me is a character waking seeming to have lived a long life in sleep, but waking, it vanished. The loss is extremely profound. I felt it so deeply it surprised me. I had no breath. Nothing existed anymore. I wanted this character to sleep again in the life lost. This book knocked me off my feet and traumatized me.

You'll read this in a gulp. What happened to Kara? And Rebecca? And Caleb? What starts as a weird sleeping sickness among a few students at a university spreads throughout the town, pulling people into its thrall. You'll become invested in some of the characters- Mei, Ben, Sarah and her sister (and the kittens) as they try to figure out not only what's happening but how to survive. Then there's Nathaniel and Henry. If there's a fault to this well written novel, it's that some, like Catherine receive short shrift, and it's not clear why. This is a quick read, with an intriguing premise and a no holds barred approach to who gets the illness. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. I'm not sure which genre is most appropriate but it's a good read.

This is so much more than a book about people falling asleep. So much more than a book about waking up from dreams. This book is everything. What is real? The son of our dreams or the daughter of our body? Can it be both? Does it matter? Is it still to come or already passed? Absolutely lovely.

I really liked "The Age of Miracles", and I am blown away by this one. Thank you, Karen Thompson Walker. I'll be telling everyone I know to read this!

Thank you, Random House and NetGalley, for the free digital copy to review. All opinions are my own. 

I love a book that can capture you from the first page and hold your attention until the very end. I couldn’t put THE DREAMERS by Karen Thompson Walker down!

What made this book enjoyable for me was the author’s writing style. Clear and concise, there were no wasted words. Told from various points of view, the mystery of the illness kept me reading to find out what was behind the mystery. Unfortunately, as I neared the end, the story didn’t truly develop past the point of introduction. I was left with so many questions - what caused the illness? How did people become infected? What happened to the people while they were asleep? Some of these issues were touched on, but not fully developed so that left me mostly confused and frustrated. There were almost too many characters and had the author left a few of the secondary ones out, she may have been able to develop the essence of the story more. 

Even after considering the things that didn’t work for me, I still enjoyed the story. As mentioned above, I couldn’t put it down so that definitely says something. Had the ending summed it up a bit better - tidied up the loose ends - it would have been a much more memorable read for me. If you’re looking for something quick and easy to read, pick this one up and give it a try…I have no doubt it will be one of the books that gets the most buzz this winter!

I have to be honest, I'm a little disappointed with this book! I keep seeing everyone rave about it and says it's their first 5 star read of the year. And I've been noticing when people rave a lot abour a book it usually is underwhelming for me. This book wasn't bad at all but it wasn't great for me. I didn't hate my time reading it at all but I didn't have a pull to want to pick it up and devour it. Overall it was just an okay read for me.

The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker is a very good read. Students at a university in a small town in Southern California start falling asleep and cannot be wakened. At first isolated to one dormitory floor, the mystery illness soon spreads to affect people of all ages at the university. Despite efforts to quarantine students and staff, the sleeping sickness runs rampant and soon townspeople are also affected.

Ms. Walker's writing is smooth and she wonderfully ratchets up the suspense, detailing the disbelief, fear and panic which ensues as more become ill. This page-turner of a novel is completely believable. It could very easily happen; if not this particular mystery illness, then another one. Our world is becoming smaller and smaller - it's only a matter of time until a pandemic of mass proportions occurs.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House for allowing me to read an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

It starts with a single college student coming back from a party, collapsing into bed, and never waking back up. The eerie slumber swiftly claims classmates, then spreads to the other residents of Santa Lora. Is it viral? Psychological? No one knows anything, but the victims' brains register unprecedented amounts of activity. The rapid spread of the phenomenon itself and the attendant hysteria are chronicled through the eyes of a cross-section of the affected: children, parents, students, teachers, healthy, sleeping. The lyrical, dreamlike quality of the writing suits the story perfectly. Thanks, Netgalley.

One day, on a college campus, in a small college town, a female student falls asleep and never wakes. Thus begins an epidemic of end-of-world proportions, an illness which is fast moving, unidentified and for which there is no cure. The premise of this story is both fascinating and terribly frightening. I needed to find out the fate of the highlighted characters and our emerging heroine, Mei faster than I could read. As more and more of the students, faculty and helpers fell asleep, could the scientists find a antedote?

Karen Thopson Walker's writing is beautiful, even within a horrific tale. Had this book ended several chapters earlier, this would likely have been a new favorite. However, the ending, for me, took a winding philosophical tangent that fell flat. All in all, I was happy to have read this unique story!

Thank you to Random House and Netgalley for the opportunirty to read an advance copy, in exchange for my honest review.

The Dreamers
By: Karen Thompson Walker Literary Fiction
Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy to review in my honest opinion.

Description of Novel: One night in an isolated college town in the hills of Southern California, a first-year student stumbles into her dorm room, falls asleep—and doesn’t wake up. She sleeps through the morning, into the evening. Her roommate, Mei, cannot rouse her. Neither can the paramedics, nor the perplexed doctors at the hospital. When a second girl falls asleep, and then a third, Mei finds herself thrust together with an eccentric classmate as panic takes hold of the college and spreads to the town. A young couple tries to protect their newborn baby as the once-quiet streets descend into chaos. Two sisters turn to each other for comfort as their survivalist father prepares for disaster.

Those affected by the illness, doctors discover, are displaying unusual levels of brain activity, higher than has ever been recorded before. They are dreaming heightened dreams—but of what?

The novel is not meant to be rushed at all. You are challenged and look into dreams, see how they may be woven into good. A bit above my head in places. I did enjoy it and did complete it, Yet more a just ok for me. Perhaps the Literary Fiction is not my cup of coffee.

This narrative style! From the first paragraph I knew I was going to be so pulled into this story, whatever it was going to be, by the writing. There is something about it, the way Karen Thompson Walker tells this story. It’s third person narrative and I felt removed as if I was watching this on film or on the stage but at the same time there’s an intimacy that affords the reader a connection to these characters, their fears, their loneliness, their pasts, and their dreams from this deep sleep. While this felt very visual, I didn’t find the language to be overly descriptive. It was clear and concise and beautiful.

In a small town of Santa Lora, California the sleep sickness, caused by a virus first hits a college dorm. One by one they are taken to the hospital, until some doctors and nurses fall into this sleep, and the hospital as well as the dorm are placed under quarantine and then the library where overflow patients are taken and the gym where the students from the affected dorm floor are taken. It’s an eerie feeling as Santa Lora is placed under quarantine - no one in or out. We see the crisis through the lives of fairly large cast of characters who are not depicted as mere statistics, but as real people that we may know or could be. Rebecca, the second victim lies in the hospital and we come to know something about her that she can’t know in her sleep state until the dreams come to her. Mei, a lonely college freshman for whom connections become possible through the crisis. Sara and Libby, eleven and twelve year old girls, who are forced to care for themselves. Anne and Ben and their newborn daughter, adjusting to parenthood and facing the crisis. These are some of the characters I came to know and care about along with others as the narrative alternates between their points of view, sometimes overlapping as they connect with each other.

I might have given this 5 stars, but it lagged in the middle and then it seemed the ending came so abruptly. I’m not sure I really understood what the dreams meant. Were they memories of the past? Were they about the future? But what I do know is that this was a haunting, thought provoking, and hopeful story. Mei whose loneliness broke my heart, says of people she sees on the street , “One of the women outside is walking barefoot in her business suit. Where are her shoes ? Mei wonders, but that’s the thing about strangers: you don’t get to hear their stories.” The thing I loved most about this book is that we do get to hear their stories.

Esil, thanks so much for the recommendation because you were right that I would like this book. I’m so glad I followed up because this is so much more than I thought it would be. I also highly recommend The Age of Miracles, the author’s first novel which was a 5 star read for me.

I received an advanced copy of this book from Random House through NetGalley.

Wow! I read this in just over 24 hours, staying up far past my bedtime to do so.

The premise of this book drew me in immediately. I enjoy futuristic/dystopia/sci-fi, so I expected that I’d enjoy reading this. But I wasn’t expecting to read about a devastating, longterm-sleep-causing virus and its victims in such beautiful language.

There are a lot of characters in this book and sometimes I like to refer to this as “character vomit.” However, that’s not the case here. The author explores each person in such a way that A. I never got confused as to who’s who, and B. I got to know the characters, but not too much. Somehow, in some way that I couldn’t ever accomplish in my own writing, the author delves into the characters’ lives but also holds them at an arm’s length. You never get random fluff just to pass the pages. She tells you what you need to know, and every statement is written with intention.

The relationships and scenarios described in this book are realistic: examination of parental relationships after a new baby enters the picture, the loyalty of siblings, the behavior of new college kids. The scene is set so realistically that the incredulity of the virus also seems very real. I also happen to like being left at the end with just a few questions.

Absolutely LOVED the conclusion. The last page will stick with me for quite some time. The theories and explanations behind the meaning of dreams and how dreams differ for each person were so well interwoven into the plot of this novel.

I will definitely read more by this author.

Thanks to NetGalley, RandomHouse and the author for this advanced reading copy, provided in exchange for an honest review.

Beautifully written and thought-provoking. Like in The Age of Miracles, Walker has used a science fiction crisis as a backdrop in order to explore the lives of characters, several groups of them in this case. I quickly got swept away with the unfolding drama of the mysterious illness as well as the effect that it had on the individuals in this small community. I appreciated the opportunity to read from multiple perspectives within this same event, and it was enjoyable to see them eventually converge at various points. This book isn't going to be for everyone, as it is fairly quiet and doesn't provide much in the way of answers, but it left me with much to ponder.

We live in an age when it almost seems like we’re supposed to be suspicious of everything, of everyone who isn’t quite like us, of all that we don’t, or can’t, understand in the time it takes to read a tweet. It’s so easy, so dangerously easy, to be skeptical and to wonder if what we see is ‘fake news’ and to go about our business as if all the business of other people doesn’t affect us.

I can’t say if Karen Thompson Walker meant any of that to be a message in her new novel The Dreamers but it seems to me, a reader of that novel, to where she might have started from. It’s a terrifying thought, really, to be confronted with how purposefully ignorant we humans can be when we choose to be.


But then, terrifying thoughts often make the best novels.

The Dreamers is the story of a small college town in Southern California where students on one floor of a dormitory start falling asleep and not waking up. It isn’t death, it’s sleep. And no one knows why. Much like the proverbial Patient Zero from the news coverage we’ve all seen of ebola outbreaks in Africa, the story blooms out from the floor of the dorm. More people fall asleep every day, at a rate that seems to increase far faster than all the CDC and infectious disease experts could hope to figure out a cause, much less a cure. The story blooms and jumps around the town – from once carefree college students to suspicious doomsday preppers to already nervous new parents and to a few authority figures who like to pretend they’ve got a handle on things.

It’s intense on levels that are eye-opening, in an age when Ebola outbreaks are generally ignored in America unless pretty young white Americans are infected while helping those who are not pretty, young, or white. The story is fiction, of course, but it could be real. Small Town, America could fall under a quarantine when something we don’t understand quite fast enough infects us. Probably something we could’ve avoided if we’d tried just a little harder to be just a little vigilant, in my skeptical worldview. It will happen, sooner or later, and Karen Thompson Walker seems to have grasped pretty much what it will be like.

The narrative of The Dreamers is succinct in that might count as second person, which is the best way I can describe it, because it takes the reader from one place to the next, always seeming to ‘look in’ on what’s going on. Lines like “Here’s Annie with the baby in her arms…” and “Rebecca lies in her hospital bed…” give the story a flow that seems unique and important. It’s almost like getting to look Here, at This before something grabs your hand and pulls you to look There, at That instead. It doesn’t seem like it would make a cohesive plot, but it does. Because The Dreamers is the story of an entire town of dreamers, and the reader needs to know them all.

The plot, the narrative, the creation of a town full of unique individuals… those are only some of things, albeit the major things, that Karen Thompson Walker gets right with The Dreamers. The novel is diverse (who might count as the Main Character is Mei, a Chinese American girl who is painfully shy and yet incredibly strong and what might count as the purest romance in the novel are Nathaniel and Henry, men who found love after Nathaniel’s wife died and now struggle with Henry’s dementia). The novel tells the story of crisis without being weighed down with logistics and detailed analysis, it is humanity at it’s core. The novel leaves questions unanswered, just as they are in life. And the novel is one that will carry you away and make you think, about yourself and about the world around you.

The Dreamers is one of the most buzzed about books for 2019 and I can see why. This book is full of ambience and anticipation. This small forest-surrounded town in California with a lake that is slowly descending is the setting for this dystopian novel. It all begins in a dorm on a college campus where students begin to fall into deep unwakeable sleeps. This phenomenon spreads to health care providers, neighbours, a long term care facility. Soon a public health crisis erupts which grows quickly from local media to national and even international news. Measures are put in place to choke the spread of the illness.

The build up in this novel is very strong and compelling. I give this book ⭐️⭐️⭐️ for its ability to keep me hooked for much of the book. There are a great cast of characters to contend with and the author does a good job of giving them strong attributes to stand out among the crowd. Unfortunately this book lost me a bit when it started to analyze the dreams of the illness and change voice for one of the characters assumably to give more context to the dreamers. References made to the trees spreading messages and the lake slowly disappearing are all but dropped into our laps with no explanations. While I don’t need a book with a tidy ending, this one left me more perplexed than thoughtful.

Thank you to @netgalley and Randomhouse for this ARC in return for an honest review.

I requested this book on NetGalley, mainly because it had an endorsement from the author of Station Eleven, and because the premise of a virus that causes people to fall into an indefinite sleep sounded interesting. I was a bit disappointed. I liked many of the characters, including Ben, a new father, young Sara, and Mei, an isolated college student. But I found all the “dreamy” language a bit tedious, and this story of an epidemic in a small town didn’t cover much new ground.

I also felt a lot of storylines were dropped or never explained, like the students who leave town and spread the virus at a highway rest stop. If you’re looking for much on the science of epidemiology, you won’t find it in this book. This is a book that’s much more about philosophy and psychology – Thompson Walker explores ideas about consciousness and time, and what our dreams might mean. Some of the sick have horrific nightmares, while some dream about idealized pasts and others dream about possible futures.

Because there are a lot of characters, it’s pretty hard to keep track of all the different people falling in and out of the illness. The story changes narrators constantly, and some of them were harder to relate to, as we never get to know them very well, like the college professor and the pregnant girl. I disliked the pregnancy storyline, because I felt the author could have raised a lot of really interesting issues instead of just going on and on about the wonder of creation.

The writing is beautiful at times, but the story felt very abstract. I don’t mind there being confusion and uncertainty, but I found myself particularly intrigued by the details, like how the sleeping sick were cared for (basically feeding tubes and having their nails clipped) and what happens to people who fall ill while they are in the middle of something (like one character is trying to fix a leak and ends up with a house full of water). I wanted more of those kinds of details, but the author has deliberately chosen an approach that is more hazy (dream-like you might say).

I didn’t read Thompson Walker’s first book, Age of Miracles, so I can’t compare this one.

Not really the book for me, but those less detail-oriented and more into philosophy will probably find this an enjoyable read. I didn’t find it to be anything like Station Eleven, except in the sense that it’s a non-science-focused book about an apocalyptic event.

Note: I received a complimentary copy of this novel from NetGalley and publisher Random House. The book publishes on January 15, 2019.

The Dreamers is a unique story about a small town where students and residents inexplicably go to sleep and don’t wake up. The storytelling by Karen Thompson Walker is intriguing. The plot line was so interesting and I was dying to know what was happening to the town! However, the ending was disappointing for me (no spoilers so that’s all I’ll say). If you like slow-burning mysteries, you will enjoy The Dreamers.

Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.