The Dreamers is a surreal, eerie read. I also listened to the audio book format which is excellent! Victims fall to a sleeping/dreaming virus in the small college town of Santa Lora, CA, and the town quickly becomes quarantined, giving rise to fear and national attention, including suggestions of conspiracy and hoax. Threaded throughout the story is how life continues, especially in the formation of a child in the womb, which I loved, as the ultimate example of the perseverance of creation. This story also has a quality of The Dead Zone (by Stephen King) in relation to the victims dreams. The ending was well done, but did fall a little flat for me as I was expecting a big reveal of the reason behind the dreams and virus itself.
Thank you Random House for the advance copy!

I started and stopped this book many times. I really thought I would enjoy reading the dreamers. Starts off well. Set in a small college town in California, students are falling asleep and not waking up. Panic spreads. I thought the writing was good;however, the plot is very slow as their are just too many characters introduced and the plot does not seem to move, just not the right book for me.

The review below of this book was posted on my blog Jan. 17, 2019, at https://www.thecuecard.com/books/the-first-three-books-of-2019-and-vice/

The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker (2019) 320 pages

Short Synopsis: (edited from Publishers Weekly’s blurb) Set in an isolated college town in the hills of Southern California, the story follows a handful of characters who become quarantined in the town after a mysterious illness causes its victims to fall into a deep, dream-laden sleep from which they cannot be woken and which sometimes leads to death.

My Thoughts: Uh-oh this malady starts at a college and spreads to the surrounding town. I fell into the story from the get-go and liked its small cast of regulars, especially the college freshman Mei who teams with her eccentric classmate Matthew to help others during the chaotic days of the illness; and a young couple who try to protect their newborn baby from it; as well as two adolescent sisters left on their own after their survivalist father succumbs and is taken away.

It’s a daunting premise and I didn’t really know what was going to happen. The ending might have been slightly a letdown for me as it didn’t really answer all my questions about the mystery or go out with a big finale, but instead it seemed to raise other questions about consciousness and time and whether the victims were dreaming about the past or the future — as well as it highlighted what binds individuals together under such dire circumstances. All in all, I found it kept my interest and its apocalyptic vision and feelings of alienation felt pretty real. I thought the author infused it with some insightful and inspired writing and passages.

The Dreamers is a novel consisting of loosely related narratives of people who are affected by a sleep disease whereby the individual effectively falls into a coma and dies after a few days.

I'd recommend this book to readers who enjoy reading spliced narratives to piece the story together. Personally, I wasn't a fan.

I received a digital review copy from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was super excited to read this book. Premise intrigued me and I was sure I would enjoy it. However, I felt lost most of the time not understanding characters and events. I was hoping for an explanation at the end regarding the sleep, what caused it, why some suffered and some not, but I was left with nothing.

I couldn’t connect to any characters and had hard time imagining everything described.

I loved the writing in this one, and the concept of the novel was intriguing. The dreamy tone is not going to be for everyone, but I enjoyed it.
Thanks NetGalley for the ARC!

Scary because it seemed so possible. Heartbreaking stories in the face of tragedy and epidemic. I'm not sure how I felt about the ending, thus the 4 stars. Completely engrossing, great storytelling.

While the premise behind this book was extremely fascinating and the plot was unique and compelling, I found myself just wanting a bit MORE about the characters - or maybe there were just too many characters with tiny glimpses into many of them., I also had some issues with the ending but that is another story altogether.

The omniscient narrator always gave me enough insight to keep me interested and there wasn’t a single character I wasn’t invested in. When there’s a big cast of characters that almost never happens to me but Karen Thompson Walker hit that spot perfectly. Each story made me want to keep reading and how they intersected ever so slightly gave this great sense of watching from a bird eyes view, if that makes any sense.

4.5 *s. I was enthralled with this book and read it in just one day. As an epidemic spreads through town, its victims fall into a deep sleep and can't be woken. This novel follows several families affected by the virus. It is a character study of how these families react and is remarkably thought-provoking.

This is on my top five reads of the year. I love books about plagues and this was was written so uniquely. The writing style was bang on for the subject and I loved following all the different characters.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to preview this ARC of The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker.

Concern hits a college in Southern California when a female student falls asleep and does not wake up. But when it continues to happen to other students, as well as other residents of the town, it becomes a matter of crisis. Is it contagious, is it curable, are there enough resources to tend to those who are sick. Through the quiet stories of various people, a college student, a young couple, a doomsday prepping father, we read about this mysterious illness and whether or not the results will be terminal on the town.

The writing of this story is just beautiful. It's call The Dreamers, and I do believe that the author meant to give it a dreamy quality. In many ways I did feel like I was sleep walking through it. Because of that, I did often have to re-read certain parts, it didn't always grab me, but it was still worthwhile.

I loved the individual stories and how we got a small glimpse into personal histories and issues. I know of so few things that don't directly affect relationships and connections. This book portrayed that perfectly.

The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker may be one of my favorite reads this summer. When a mysterious virus sweeps across a small California town, putting people asleep, how will the residents fair? Told from multiple perspectives, all which gave great depth to the story, this is a book I will be recommending to family and friends!

I ended up not finishing this book. It is very dull and feels kind of pointless. It just kinda drags on and on and I found myself not interested at all in the story.

I don't read a lot of dystopian novels and I have never having read Station Eleven (a book that the Dreamers is constantly compared to) so I felt that it was a bit of an advantage when I started reading this book. Unfortunately, the hype was real with this book since the beginning. I think that set the expectations too high and ultimately the book fell flat for me. I appreciated the writing, the plunge right into the story just hooks you right in. One of the things I love is character-driven novels and it just felt like too many characters were thrown in when I wasn't done being familiar with those I had just read about. I think it's a good read but just don't set the expectations too high because that is unfair to the book.

This novel could be considered speculative fiction but it works in that fantastic manner that truly innovative literary fiction does propelling readers through it by being at once lyrical and (if you will) dreamy while also rough and real. A superb novel

When I originally started this one, I did not think it was going to be for me due to the aspects that are not grounded in reality, but after hearing so much praise, I am glad I read it. Really ended up enjoying this beautifully written novel.

I really enjoyed reading this title. I am familiar with The Age of Miracles, so I was excited to receive this ARC. The Dreamers did not disappoint. This book was well paced, and thoroughly entertaining. I would recommend to patrons who enjoy literary fiction with a little twist.

I think what put me off this story was how detached the narration was from the story itself. Though the ethereal quality does add to a certain mysteriousness the book needs, it does nothing to help with the developing the characters or giving more insight to the "disease". However, the prose itself is beautiful on its own and it does what all good scifi does in using a good premise to ask questions about humanity.

I loved the style of this. The writing was very reminiscent of Station Eleven. But I loved that the plot was so different then any thing I have read lately. I will be recommending this to a lot of people.