A mysterious epidemic starts with a young college girl falling asleep and no one can wake her. Then another student falls asleep and then another. Panic begins to spread. What could be causing this strange occurrence and how far will it spread? Doctors notice heightened dream activity in these sleepers. People are falling asleep in dangerous places, behind the wheel of a car, out in a drifting boat or alone and forgotten. The caretakers of the sleeping are now falling asleep and there are too many sleepers for those awake to help.

What I really liked about this book were the individual stories of the families in this town. Mei, the roommate of the first student to fall asleep, was a favorite character. She was a bit of an outcast before the epidemic struck, never quite fitting in. She teams up with another student as they attempt to be of help to the most people that they can and their affection for each other starts to grow. A young baby may have been exposed to the virus through donated breast milk. A survivalist finds he’s not as prepared for such an emergency as he had thought he was and his young daughters are left to fend for themselves. One of the college students became pregnant the night before she succumbed to this unusual sleep, the growing baby unknown to her.

As much as I enjoyed these characters and their private battles with the virus, the book grew even more interesting when it was revealed what the dreamers were dreaming about. Thought-provoking questions about consciousness and time are opened up. Which is reality and which is the dream? The book is written in a dreamlike way that was quite fascinating.

The only negative thing I can say about the book is that I felt like I was reading a YA book at first since it dealt with the college students and life on campus. But it soon grew into something much deeper.

This is a well written, compassionate and moving dystopian novel. Recommended.

**4.5 Stars** A very different type of book, but one that I am glad that I read. I wasn’t sure how the author would handle the premise of a contagion that causes so many to fall asleep and stay asleep, but it was done with great characterization and back stories. I am not sure about the ending, but I don’t know if any ending would satisfy in a story with this much complexity. Overall, a great read.

A weirdly enchanting dystopia.

“They sleep like children, mouths open, cheeks flushed. Breathing as rhythmic as swells on a sea. No longer allowed in the rooms, their mothers and fathers watch them through double-paned glass. Isolation—that’s what the doctors call it: the separation of the sick from the well. But isn’t every sleep a kind of isolation? When else are we so alone?”

“[H]ow much quieter that ending would be, a whole world drowned in sleep, than all the other ways we have to fall.”

The remote California college town of Santa Lora (population 12,106) is beset by two calamities one autumn in the not-so-distant future: an unrelenting drought, and a “sleeping sickness.” Sufferers collapse into a deep sleep, from which nothing can wake them. If not cared for with feeding tubes, heart monitors, physical therapy, and the like, the sleepers (as they are colloquially known) are apt to succumb to the disease. However, as the outbreak spreads from the college to the rest of the town, finding volunteers to tend to the sleepers becomes increasingly difficult. Especially as many of the carers drift into sleep as well.

We experience the initial days and long weeks of the epidemic through the eyes of various Santa Lorians: Sara and Libby Peterson, ages twelve and eleven, daughters of a survivalist dad who works as a janitor at the college, and a mother long dead of asthma-related complications. Ben and Annie, new parents and recent Brooklyn transplants who are employed as part-time visiting professors at the college. Nathaniel and Henry, senior professors who have been together since Nathaniel came out in middle age. Mei Liu, a Chinese-American freshman from San Diego who was hoping to turn over a new leaf at college – and “Weird” Matthew Baker, a fellow quarantinee from her floor. And Catharine, a psychiatrist flown in from LA to assess the situation in its earliest days.

THE DREAMERS isn’t so much a story about a viral outbreak, or the potential end of the world, as it is an exploration of human consciousness and the elusive nature of time. Walker has created a dystopia that’s surprisingly beautiful and enchanting; her prose is, in a word, mesmerizing. Likewise, THE DREAMERS is one of the more thoughtful and philosophical (would-be) apocalypse stories in recent memory.

Walker plays with time and reality in ways that are both frustrating (don’t believe everything you read!) and delightful. While they sleep the sleep of the dead, Walker’s sleepers dream: of other possible worlds (or all possible worlds), of the future, of days come and gone and yet to be. Scientists monitoring the patients’ brain activity are shocked by what they find: “there is more activity in these minds than has ever been recorded in any human brain—awake or asleep.” Some sleepers dream entire lifetimes into being. When, eventually, some of them begin to wake up, it is a little death of sorts. Who is to say which life is real, and which is the dream?

So yeah, THE DREAMERS is a bit of a mindf***, in the best possible way.

Oh, and bonus points for the trolley problem reference. I don’t know if the author is one, but fans of THE GOOD PLACE are likely to dig this story, I think (Matthew and Mei in particular).

The story behind the book is amazing, quite intriguing.

Here what it's about:

A disease is found in a college in Santa Lora, a girl fell asleep, and never woke up. She is not dead, nor alive, her heart is beating, but she is unconscious for so long they don't know what to do with her.

And so the disease spreads, all over the dorm, all over the town, all over the hospital. 

People go to sleep, the go into this slumber, where there's no waking up.

The book is from mthe third POV, of more than one character, like there's no main character, they are all secondary, and the story take turns to show how they are living and evantually fall into that endless sleep.



So I was hooked from the very synopsis, the writing kept me going, it was like being told a story a " once upon a time " kind of story; it also had a sense of mystery in it, like it leaves you sympathizing for the character and wanting to get their full story.

But as the book goes on, everyone got sick, the disease in mysterious, and i felt like it took so long for the people to get better, there wasn't anything that clarified what caused this? what happened when they sleep?

Like i waited for 320 pages to et closure and with the ending, i didn't feel like i got one.

That's why i rated it as a 4 STARS, but other than that:

a disease spreading and a town being quarantied? yes please!

it was a mix of Give The Dark My Love and Delirium

The premise here is a college campus is inflicted with an unknown plague, causing those affected to sleep without waking while having strange dreams.

This was not my normal read and I found it quite good. Writing is beautiful and had me transfixed from start to finish. While a thriller in some ways, would not classify it as that at all. Mostly just a story that will have you a little startled and probably choosing to keep a dream dairy.

In a small college town a sickness spreads...... first through one of the dorms and then it quickly affects the entire town. Those who are stricken fall into a coma-like sleep that they can not be awoken from. There is widespread panic as people make a run on groceries and supplies. No one knows how the contagion is spread, so there is no way to know what to do to contain it.
This book was really good, albeit scary in the thought that something like this could happen. Sometimes the pace seemed a little slow, and some of the characters I felt more invested in their story than others. I would recommend this for fans of pretty much any genre.

This beautifully written book hit all the right notes with everything I love in a novel. The premise is not a new one but the story Thompson writes is unique and compelling. What makes this book different is the thoughtful nature of the writing, the somewhat dreamy quality, and the brilliant turns of phrases. This is not a horror/sci-fi/thriller, but a quiet character study.

A sleeping sickness strikes a quiet, fictional college town in California. It begins in a college dorm and initial attempts to contain the illness fail. The disease is determined to be airborne, and the entire town is quarantined. The different ways the residents deal with such a threat makes for riveting reading.

What makes this novel compelling are the characters, most notably:

 *A college freshman who is terribly unhappy and lonely but finds a friend/lover when they team up as volunteers.
 *Two motherless young girls who live with their doomsday prepper father who nonetheless failed to prepare for all potential scenarios.
 *A couple with a shaky marriage struggles to cope with the needs and demands of a newborn and the threat from the sickness
 *A young dreamer who unknowingly became pregnant the night before she was struck down and whose parents are sitting vigil at her bedside
 *A psychiatrist brought in from out of town to assist with studying the dreamers, who now finds herself quarantined away from her young daughter

The sleepers show unusually high brain activity than is considered normal, asleep or awake. Their brains are in a deep REM sleep stage. The strongest narratives in the novel are when we are given glimpses into the character’s lives, past and present, and into the minds of the victims as they dream. Some characters are more fully developed than others and I found myself caring deeply about what happened to them.

Eventually, some dreamers wake up and struggle with assimilating back into their regular lives. The past, present, and future are fluid and they (and we) are left pondering reality and the nature of time. Is there a thin line between dreams and reality? Is there fluidity of time: past, present and future? Are there alternate realities that exist out there in time and space?

The illness itself is not the focus of the novel and few answers are provided, which worked for me but may not for some readers. Some threads are left dangling. Even now, a couple days after finishing, I find myself thinking about it. I appreciated not being spoon fed by the author but allowing her readers to ponder the issues. This would make an excellent book club choice.

Highly recommended for fans of character-driven novels who are looking for something different and who do not require their endings to be neat and tidy.

The Dreamers is a different sort of read for me, and I’m grateful I read it. The premise? A disease is affecting a college town causing unstoppable sleep and vividly strange dreams.

It all starts at a university in Southern California when a student, Kara, falls asleep and no one can rouse her, not her roommate, Mei, and not even the doctors at the hospital. That event is then followed by another student, and then another, and then the town is sieged with panic by this unknown and perplexing illness.

At first no one knows why this is happening. Are the students playing a prank? With the doctors finding no known medical cause, just what could be going on? I personally cannot imagine how scared I would feel in that situation.

Karen Thompson Walker’s writing is stunning, and I found my emotions all over the place while reading. At times, I was panicked and forlorn, like the townspeople and students. Other times I was emotional over the effects of this disease on the community and individuals within it. There was palpable tension, and again, that frightfulness. Not in the horror kind of way, but in that unknown, insidious, completely out-of-your-control kind of way. The exploration of dreams versus reality was also captivating.

The Dreamers is all about the characters and their raw and authentic emotions. I was so completely transfixed I felt like I was a resident of the town, too. I found The Dreamers a memorable, thought-provoking, insightful, and frightening page-turner. This book spans genres, including eerily tense suspense, light science fiction, and dystopian; all on a backdrop of a glorious character study. Loved it!

Thank you to the publisher for the complimentary ARC. All opinions are my own.

I loved reading Karen Thompson Walker's science fiction tale, The Dreamers. I was hooked after reading the first few pages. The story's beginning has the right combination of odd and creepy as we find the story's first victim. The story continues to reveal an unknown virus spreading throughout a small college town and making people stay in a sleep state. This book is very compelling and thought provoking. We all need sleep so crafting an eerie tale about a sleep virus will make anyone hesitate before closing their eyes at night. This is one of the best science fiction books I have read this year. The characters are well developed and well written. I liked the pacing of the novel, never a dull moment. I am not familiar with Karen Thompson Walker's work. At the time of this review, she only has one other book listed on Goodreads. All I can say is that I look forward to reading more from this author.

To read this book is to be transported in a dreamworld of sorts, both in prose and in the metaphors for life, love, and possibilities. It's beautifully and skillfully crafted.

The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker is a suspenseful science fiction read in which people begin to fall victim to a new virus. Victims simply fall asleep and cannot be woken up leaving doctors looking for answers.

It all starts in a small college town in Southern California, a student returns to her dorm room and crawls into bed falling fast asleep. The next day the roommate of the girl gets concerned when morning turns into afternoon and then evening and the girl will not awaken.

When the student dies with no answers as to what happened to her people first think it was an isolated incident. Life goes on without the young coed but before they know it another student in the same dorm falls into the same deep sleep, then another, then a quarantine is established but it's too late as the sleeping sickness continues to spread.

When finished reading this book I was trying to think of how to explain my thoughts about it and the best way to put it would probably be it simply fizzled out on me. The book was so amazingly compelling for the longest time after starting with a bang but the very end just felt flat to me and as if it went nowhere. In my mind I picture a gymnast with a near perfect routine falling instead of sticking the landing. I decided to give this one 3.5 stars for the strong story and writing through most but I would have liked to have a bit more at the end.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Totally blown away by this masterful piece of art. The rare book whose plot makes the novel impossible to put down, but the writing and development of the characters makes reading it a beautiful journey. Heart-wrenching, unpredictable, and thrilling, I know I’ll be recommending this book all throughout 2019.

4.5 stars
“To sleep, perchance to dream” and dream and dream and dream.....

Sometimes a book can force you into places you only take a moment to think about. At other times, a book can bring you to places where your brain engages thinking in many diverse directions long after the last word was read. The book, The Dreamers, was such a book that made you not only think but wonder about the very things that govern our being....the brain, the fear of illnesses, and the power of sleep and dreams.

There is a virus that is plaguing a town. It is a sickness that causes one to fall into a deep sleep, not waking but suspended in a deep dream state, one from which you cannot wake. People succumb to the sickness, people die, and as the town and others rush to help, the town is quarantined and the people left wakeful deal and do what they can with those in deep sleep.

Characters are presented and each one deals with the prospect of family and possibly themselves becoming one of the sleepers, the unwakeful, those who can’t deal with the needs of life and need the wakeful to tend them. Scary and frightening and yet a journey into the unknown world of our brain and what happens when we sleep, including the fear of never awakening, and the places we all venture to when life is precarious and death seems eventual.

There were so many positives about this book. The writing was exquisite propelling the reader forward with mystifying detail designed to entice the reader to form their own opinions and draw their own path through the story. There were no easy answers, really no answers at all, and yet in just that aspect alone, the book shines. How one thinks of sleep, of death, of a journey between time and dimensions, this book will touch upon all that. Your thoughts about the concept of sleep, the fear of never returning to a life once lived, and the untouched potential of our brain are there for you to ponder.

Reading this book with my book partner, Jan, made for an amazing experience. We both came away with many questions, few answers, but a reading experience that was enriching and ever so fulfilling.

Thank you to Karen Thompson Walker, Random House Publishing, and NetGalley for a copy of this thought provoking novel.

Oh my, I loved this second offering by Karen Thompson Walker nearly as much as he debut, The Age of Miracles. A "what if" premise becomes, in Walker's hands, a tender unfolding of personal stories that mesh perfectly. Every word fits! I can think of no higher praise.

Astonishingly, Walker has pulled out a feat by introducing us to a group of people who suddenly become somnolent but appear to be dreaming. The entire book has little action except for the spread of this viral disease but she manages to keep the reader entranced. I kept thinking of Jose Saramago's book Blindness when I read this but they are very different in structure and quality. It is a quiet book, that pulls us along calmly but I was not sure what the author actually intended. Was there an allegory that I was missing? I could surmise the basic themes of the story but kept feeling that there was some deeper level that was not overtly exposed. Although I enjoyed the book I found myself conflicted with the absence of certainty that I was not absorbing more complex themes.

This was a really fun read. It’s a bit dystopian / sci-fi, but feels very real. Much like Station Eleven, an unknown virus appears out of the blue and spreads quickly. However, this book is very linear, unlike Station Eleven.

For me, the comparisons between the two end there. I was pretty invested in finding out more about this virus so it was easy to keep reading. Plus, the story is told through many characters in the same small town so you get a pretty big view of what’s happening.

Overall, it was a good read, but I had one problem. The ending felt incomplete. I don’t need every story to end in a way that wraps everything up with a pretty bow, but I do prefer when the moving pieces come together in some way. The last half of the book kept me flipping pages quickly to find out more so it was a little disappointing reading an ending that felt rushed.

I have been not so patiently awaiting a second novel from Karen Thompson Walker since I read
Age of Miracles in 2012. When I was given the opportunity to read an advance readers copy of The Dreamers, I jumped at the opportunity. Walker once again tackles a unique and imaginative topic. I was hesitant as the synopsis didn't pull me in but I am glad that I read it as I was mesmerized from page one.

It all starts innocently enough a young college student comes down with an illness and returns to her dorm room. Her roomate, Mei is unable to wake her up and medics are called in. Doctors are perplexed and don't have answers and then another student falls ill. The cases multiple and a quarantine is put into place. The illness targets all ages and races no one is safe. It is determined that those who are in this unwakeable sleep are displaying unusual brain activity, activity that has never been recorded before.

This is a character driven story and is told by a variety of characters. Their point of views help to deliver an exceptionally creative and compulsive read. It's clever yet not at tantalizing as
Age of Miracles.


* I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a honest review.

Walker returns to the dystopian genre (see her previous novel, THE AGE OF MIRACLES) with her new title, THE DREAMERS. With a small, California college town serving as the epicenter, an unknown virus takes hold in a dormitory, leaving its victims in a deep, coma like sleep. The reader is rapidly drawn into the story through multiple POVs as the virus takes over California. While more attention could have been given to the national and global reactions, Walker's novel is suspenseful with many discussion points (ethics, survival, dreams, what would you do if..). A definite page-turner!

The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker is a wonderful book, both sad and mysterious, that leaves you mystified and somewhat dreaming. This book is written so beautifully and calming you dare to wonder about sleep, long sleep and dreams. Do we dream of what we know, of the past, of the future, of what we're afraid of or of what we desire. Just as this book starts, we read, "At first they blame the air" and "as if drowned in a dream". I highly recommend this lovely book! Thank you, #netgalley.com#TheDreamers#RandomHouse

Many thanks to NetGalley for sending me an advanced reader's copy of The Dreamers in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 2.5 stars
I wanted to like this book. I mean the cover is gorgeous and synopsis gave me real Station Eleven vibes. But I didn't. The Dreamer just didn't deliver the way that Station Eleven and other books in the mysterious human illness/sci-fi genre do.

The style of writing at the beginning was weird and totally caught me off guard. It was almost like there was an ominousness or vagueness to the voice, which I guess goes with the whole theme of the book. The plot starts off slow, which I get. Every dystopian novel has to start somewhere to explain how things got to the way they are in the book. It felt like the same story over and over again. People were getting sick, the population is freaking out, even more people were getting sick, population is STILL freaking out. There was no progress and many of my questions were left unanswered at the end of the novel. I mean, an author can leave some things up to speculation, that's fine, but The Dreamers left everything up for speculation: how the sleeping sickness started, how it spread, how it's cured, why it was only contained to the college town. There was just a general lack of explanation and I was left wanted more.

I also felt like a lot of the characters were one dimensional. There were several POVs in the book, although it's told from an 3rd-person omniscient view. However, I felt like some characters were more of a focus than some others. And I would get to one of the less-focused on characters and be like "who is this again". I really wanted to connect with these characters, especially Mei, but she just felt like a large blah.

The most intriguing part of was the blurred line between was is real and what is just a dream. When the first person woke up, I was immediately drawn to what might be going on in his brain. And the fact that he felt so disconnected between dream and reality was fascinating. However, I felt like that idea was left right there. None of the other dreamers that woke up felt as much disconnect, even when they had been asleep for several weeks longer. I would have loved to have had a POV of one of "the dreamers" throughout the book. That would have left the reader with the question of whether or not everything going on was really happening. I expected more of an existential dilemma over this.

Although I did not not enjoy The Dreamers, I do recommend you give it a shot. Everyone has different tastes and even if this wasn't my cup of tea, it doesn't mean that it might not become your next favorite novel.