4 stars - Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for a chance to read and review this book.

I enjoyed this book right up to the ending. I was disappointed in the ending. I felt like the author just bundled everything possible into a dice cup and threw it out there as an ending. Let it land wherever it may. I didn't feel any real closure there. Just - maybe this happened, maybe that happened. No rhyme or reason. I think that took away from the overall story for me.

I did enjoy most of the story and most of the characters. I felt the writing was good enough to push me on and keep me turning pages. I do wish that the reveal of what the illness was had been pushed further back in the book. I felt that the reveal was a little bit early in the story.

I enjoyed it enough, however, to read another one of her books.

This book. Wow. The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker absolutely blew me away. I am a fan of the post apocalyptic genre with a hint of science fiction and great character development. And this book had that in spades.

The Dreamers is the story of a plague of sorts that spreads through a small California town. It begins in the college, and continues from there. But this isn’t your typical plague. No. Those afflicted fall into a deep sleep and yet keep on living. What follows is a reflective and atmospheric look at the lives of each of these characters. This book is highly readable. I couldn’t put it down. And yet I was also left pondering dreams, questions of reality, and the fates of each of these characters. The author’s writing had such an ephemeral and dreamlike quality to it. Which was perfect for the subject matter at hand. And I loved that in some ways it left me with more questions that answers and left me pondering the nature of life.

I am recommending this to all my friends and I plan to read her previous book, The Age of Miracles, ASAP!!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book!

Thank you to Net Galley, Random House, and Karen Thompson Walker for the opportunity to read this book as an advanced reader copy. The Dreamers is unlike anything I have ever read before. I chose to read it because 1) the cover is beautiful, and 2) Taylor Jenkins Reid recommended it on instagram and I love her. I usually don't read books that are more science fiction, but I am glad I did read this one.

The town of Santa Lora, California has been infected by this strange virus that puts people into a deep sleep. It can spread through the air and there is no telling who or when people will get it. When they do get it, they have incredible, realistic dreams that can tell the present or feel real to them. The people have no idea how long they have been sleeping when they do wake up.

I encourage you to pick up this book, especially if this is a genre you don't usually read. The author tells such a great story and is very talented.

In the southern California city of Santa Lora, an epidemic spreads across the town, causing people of all ages to fall into a deep sleep. What is called “the sickness” begins in a dorm room on the town’s college campus and spreads quite quickly. THE DREAMERS is told through the perspective of multiple characters, weaving a beautiful narrative of an “end-of-the-world” story. I’m one of those people who is constantly thinking about the big picture: who are we, what will happen to us when we are gone, what will happen to all of our stuff? If you are like me in that sense, this is definitely the book for you. THE DREAMERS is haunting and mystifying, and I had a really difficult time putting it down. This book also makes me want to never fall asleep again. 😂 Walker explores the idea of dreams versus reality and how much of a role dreams play in our lives. Does our life begin when we are dreaming, or when we wake up? One of the most beautiful pieces of writing I’ve read this year.

In Santa Lora, a small Southern California town, students of the college begin to fall asleep. However, they do not wake up. This sleeping sickness spreads from the college to the town. Brain activities show that they are dreaming, but what are they dreaming of. ⁣⁣
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In the beginning I struggled with this book. I think it took me a while to get used to Walker’s style of writing. However, once I got used to it, I flew through the book. It was fascinating, and it asks the question that everyone wonders, do dreams have meaning? Can see see the future through our dreams?⁣⁣
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“...they die, he wrote, as of overcome by sleep—or, according to a second translation: as if drowned in a dream.” I like this thought of drowning in a dream. Dreaming (and sleeping) is often the best escape from reality, and I feel that dying because one was overcome with sleep, or drowned in a dream, would be the most pleasant way to go. ⁣

This is a lyrical book about what happens when a college town is hit with a virus that causes people to fall asleep. The pace and writing of this book match the topic, it's a soothing and gentle read with such an interesting premise. There are college students, of course, but there are also newborns and older adults and just about everyone else in between. It has a large cast of characters but instead of feeling diluted, their stories combined really tell the story of a small town being quarantined. I found it most interesting that instead of the typical hysteria and sometimes gruesome viruses that are depicted, this was in contrast, a quiet and peaceful type virus but with equally devastating consequences. Highly recommend!

The Dreamers is written in the third person, and perhaps that was the reason I never quite connected to the characters. There were many characters, but no one stands out to me as the main character, and that's what I think would have made the novel a four star read for me. The pacing of the story is leisurely, which kind of took away the urgency of a pandemic. I was hoping for some race to cure a featured character, or a threat to some particular character or family member. The writing is lovely, but it was too easy to put down this novel and no eagerness to pick it back up. I guess it just wasnt for me.
I received my copy through NetGalley under no obligation.

The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker available now!

In a small college town in Southern California a college student falls asleep and doesn't wake up. Shortly after, another student suffers the same symptoms, then another. It soon becomes apparent that this is a virus that is spreading very quickly. The book follows several characters in the college town as the sickness spreads and they are quarantined.

A little sci-fi, a little dystopian novel, this was a good book that felt fresh. I did struggle to feel invested with the majority of the characters, especially Mei, who I felt should have been developed more. It's possible it followed too many characters and it felt more surface rather than getting to know them deeply. That being said, I really enjoyed this book and couldn't stop reading from the beginning and the fact that there were so many characters really gave you a feel of how fast the virus was spreading and how it affected the town as a whole. I won't give anything away but the ending seemed believable considering the events leading up to it and I found it satisfying. I recommend this book to those who like both dystopian and sci-fi and also for those looking to try something fresh and contemporary.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing for the free copy of The Dreamers in exchange for my honest review.

The premise of this book sounded so fascinating that I knew right away I had to read it. The writing pulled me in from the very first page - it’s perhaps corny to call it “dreamlike,” but that’s exactly what it is. It floats around between multiple different storylines, beautiful and descriptive but also in many ways distant and removed just like dreams can be. I’ve heard some critiques that it makes it hard to really connect to the characters, but I loved it for the way it set such a uniquely appropriate tone.

Unfortunately I felt like the ending was pretty lackluster. As someone who enjoys reading into the symbolism of dreams, this book about dreamers ended in a way that felt disappointingly lacking in meaning. I still ultimately liked it, but that ending prevented me from being able to say I loved it.

Imaginative and well-executed novel about a small Southern California town being overcome by a frightening and insidious illness. It starts in a college dormitory – students begin to fall asleep and do not wake up. Their breathing and heart rates slow as they continue to sleep and dream. Some pass away; most are kept alive in hospitals and are nourished intravenously. Inevitably, attempts to isolate and contain the illness fail and it spreads to the surrounding community. Panic and misinformation spread like wildfire as the town becomes overwhelmed by the mysterious illness.

The story has a handful of central characters and we experience the calamity through their eyes – a shy and lonely college student, a young married couple with an infant daughter, two young sisters and their survivalist father, a biology professor mourning a life partner with dementia, and a doctor specializing in neuropsychiatric disorders who has been quarantined apart from her five year old daughter. Interspersed between the individual story arcs, Thompson Walker keeps us up to date on what is going on in the rest of the town and beyond its borders.

I enjoyed the writing and overall concept, and loved the characters. The unveiling of the plot had a hazy and dreamy feel to it, which is appropriate considering the title and the nature of the catastrophe befalling the characters. The disorientation of dreaming is beautifully described as the sleepers begin to awaken. Have you ever had a vivid dream that felt so real that its alternate reality cast a pall on the rest of your day? Thompson Walker captures that perfectly.

The ending lacked some of the oomph factor and resolution I hoped for, but this was still a very nice step up from Thompson Walker’s last book (“The Age of Miracles”). Well done!

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for an ARC of this novel. My review, however, is based on the hardcopy edition.

This is a floaty, loosely-structured novel with multiple narrators and a lyrical prose style. I appreciated the meditations on the nature of sleep. However, the story lacked narrative drive, the tone veered too close to sentimental for my taste, and the multiple threads were not resolved in a satisfying way.

This novel is very different from my usual reading choices, but I was pleased that I decided to give this a try. It opens in a small college in Santa Lora, California. A young girl feels unwell, goes to sleep and simply doesn’t wake… Before long, the sleeping sickness is beginning to overtake others in her dorm and, as others fall under the spell, we begin to meet the many characters in this book, both from the college and the town, nearby.

There is Mei, a young student who has found she doesn’t fit in to her new life. Ben and Annie, two young professors at the college, who have just had a new, baby daughter. Catherine, a psychiatrist who is called to the town, and who leaves her young daughter behind. Sara and her sister, Libby, whose father is a conspiracy theorist and survivalist and who are used to the world being slightly off kilter, as well as a cast of other characters that you will come to care about.

As time goes on, more and more people fall asleep and dream – but what is the purpose of these dreams, how is this sleeping sickness spreading and how will it end? This is very well written. The style of writing keeps you a little at a distance, so you see events unfold gradually and are then pulled in. I am pleased that I took a chance on something different, as I enjoyed this very much. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

I really enjoyed this page turner and especially appreciated the different points of view. It was interesting to see how each character handled their challenges with this epidemic.

Thompson Walker adds a new twist to pandemics and the steps needed to contain them by introducing a virus which causes its victims to fall into a deep sleep, a sort of coma. When the first girl in a small community college slips into unconscious you know it's only a matter of time before the others in her dorm become infected. What happens next will have readers turning pages as quickly as they did with her debut novel, The Age of Miracles.

I was swept up in this read and was fully involved in the characters and their families along with the efforts to contain this mysterious virus. Thompson Walker has an uncanny talent for pulling in readers with her “what if” scenarios. Like her debut novel, this story has a New Adult feel to it with college students featured prominently in the various threads of the story.

I can’t say I liked this novel as much as her debut. The third person detached and clinical point of view leaves the readers feeling equally detached. You feel for Mei and her treatment at the hands of the others in her dorm but her character is never fully developed and she remains a mystery. Many chapters begin with updates on the medical condition of another character. and tThe reader is led to believe what is happening to her will impact the outcome of this pandemic. Instead the story fizzles rather than flares at the end and those many updates have no impact on the final resolution.

Clever concept and definitely a page-turner. Disappointing end to a promising premise.

ARC received with thanks from publisher via NetGalley for review.

'The Dreamers' is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. The relationships between the characters, the emotions they experience throughout the book, and the decisions they make draw you deeper and deeper into the story of this town. I especially connected with the storyline of Mei. This book isn't science fiction in the traditional sense, but it's also not fully grounded in reality - it exists in some hazy, philosophical middle ground where you as the reader have to piece together facts and ideas to understand the story. It reminds me of the 2016 movie 'Arrival', where you have the information you need all along, you just don't understand how it fits in the universe yet. I admit the ending made me feel like I was missing something, but this seemed to be a general theme in the book, some questions can never be answered. Overall, it was an amazing read, impossible to put down.

Rating 3.5 Stars (rounded to 4)!

Today's book is The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker.  I had seen this book everywhere on social media so when I saw it available on NetGalley for review, I put in a request and my request was granted. Then, as it turns out, I actually received a copy of the book for my birthday earlier this year!

The Dreamers is a different sort of read for me, and since I hadn't read the cover, I didn't know what to expect. The theory of the book is a disease that is affecting a college town causing strange and vivid dreams with unstoppable sleep.  Not my usual read, but kept me turning pages.....

At a fictional university in Southern California, a student named Kara falls asleep after having left a party not feeling well and thinking she was coming down with something.  She arrives home to her dorm room, falls asleep in her clothes, and when her roommate, Mei, tries to wake her the next morning, she is unable.  The doctors at the hospital can't even wake Kara, and then it happens - one person after another suffers from the same sleep occurrence.  Soon the town is attacked with panic thanks to this unknown and unnatural sleep disease.  No one seems to know why it's happening, or whether it is real or a prank. Doctors are not able to find a known medical cause either.  The people who are sleeping seem to show unusually high brain activity than is considered normal, whether they are asleep or awake and their brains are in a deep REM sleep stage. 

I found myself slightly panicked at times caught up in the story. Other times, I was baffled trying to figure out exactly what was happening to this community of people.  It was scary and captivating at the same time.  The Dreamers is a memorable, thought-provoking, insightful, and frightening page-turner.   I was in the mood for something different to read, and this book fit that bill perfectly!

I received an advanced readers digital copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to provide a positive review.

Interesting story of a sleeping illness that starts at a California college with a few students falling asleep and not waking up, like ever. They live on the same dorm floor and the floor is quarrantine which does not really help because the deep sleep seems to keep overtaking victims in spite of it. More students keep falling "ill." The community reaction is quite intense and eventually more people outside of the school fall asleep and become dreamers. There are many characters in this book and each chapter follows a different point of view which I found a little confusing; however the writing is well done. The premise of the story was very interesting but I guess I got lost somewhere in the middle and the ending did not feel complete to me...maybe I needed something more concrete. Just a little too dreamy for me. THANKS to NG for the ARC!!!!

The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker was a great story. The storyline was so unique and flowed with such organic beauty. Just think about a story that you never want to end and that is how I felt when reading The Dreamers.
I look forward to reading more from Karen Thompson Walker!

“At first, they blamed the air. It’s an old idea, a poison by the ether, a danger carried by the wind.”

The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker is unlike anything I’ve read before. It’s beautifully written, but the story is tragic. It’s a book where so much yet so little happens. You meet characters and see them experience some of the best and worst that life has to offer, yet you barely come to know them at all. This book is magical, but it is not for everyone.


When I first read the description for this book, I knew I needed to read it. The story takes place in a small college town that becomes a breeding area for an unknown virus. This mysterious sleeping sickness first exhibits itself in a college student, who falls asleep after a night out with friends. At first no one thinks much of it—students are known to sleep off hangovers—but when no one can wake her up, people start to worry.

After a few days, more students fall asleep, and nothing can seem to wake them up. After being brought to the hospital, doctors notice something strange: the patients have increased levels of brain activity. The virus has not only put them to sleep, but also put their dreams into a sort of hyper-drive.

There are a few sets of characters throughout this book: Mei and Matthew, two college students who attempt to help people battling the virus; a father and his two young daughters (he’s been preparing for the end of the world, and has a basement stock full of supplies); a young couple and their newborn baby; a therapist who’s been brought in to help patients; and a professor who has been visiting his partner (who suffers from dementia) in a nursing home.

Throughout the story, you learn only bits and pieces of these character’s lives. You know who they are, and how they react to the dire situation. However, you aren’t given enough background information, in my opinion, to truly care about what happens to them. I was fine with this, because I was more interested in how they reacted to the situation, and how they coped and tried to survive.

As the virus spreads, the town is put under quarantine, and you get small glimpses of what different people are experiencing. Short chapters also look at what the rest of the country is experiencing, but you’re only ever given enough detail to keep you guessing. For some readers, this would undoubtedly be frustrating. For others, it will keep you on your toes, and immerse you into the chaotic setting that the author has created.

The Dreamers poses more questions than answers. I don’t want to give too much away, but the book does not provide a conclusive ending. I think that’s the point, though. After enduring such a horrific experience, your life doesn’t just go back to normal. You have to grapple with what happened, and work through the trauma. For the characters in this book, life isn’t easy after the illness passes. It’s hard, confusing, and frightening.

I’d recommend this book to fans of Station Eleven, or readers who enjoy lyrical writing. You won’t get a lot of character development in The Dreamers, but the plot and the atmosphere of the book are more than enough to keep you flipping pages.

The Dreamers was published on January 15, 2019, and is available wherever books are sold. Thank you to the publisher for an electronic copy of this book via NetGalley.

The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker
Random House Publishing Pub Date Jan,15,2019
5 stars***** 5stars***** 5 Stars******

Synopsis and advance praise;
NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS’ CHOICE • An ordinary town is transformed by a mysterious illness that triggers perpetual sleep in this mesmerizing novel from the bestselling author of The Age of Miracles.



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?

*********What I liked:***********
I am an admitted #bookaddict #booknerd with a TBR pile is staggering to most, and I compulsively check for new books to arrive to review every day. After this book archived I wished for it, and the pubisher ( Thank YOU #RandomHouse ) granted my wish sending it to my awaiting Kindle. This is a book I will buy for friends to read, and I suggest if you see it in a giveaway enter to win it!!! This book is atmospheric and the authors prose is a combination of Stephen King sitting down with Steinbeck, Paula Hawkins for female perspective suspense, and Michael Crichton for technology and science and voila combined you have this beautiful mind who wrote this story. First the outbreak occured in a University, and it wasn't the clinic or University Med Center that was taken over with the quarantine but the library . When you were in school where did you do your best day dreaming? Mine was on the fifth floor of the Strozier Library at FSU.. In chapter 48 the author says
" In Philosophy one could entertain the theory that if you could truly understand the complexity of reality, you could accurately predict the future, since every moment of the future is set in motion by the events of the past- the whole system simply too complex for the human mind to explore. Time said St Augustine, exists only in the mind. Carl Jung at a certain point in his life was convinced that he had dreamed of his wife many years before he met her, and in the same row William James writings compared any attempt to study human consciousness to turning on a lamp in order to better examine the dark..
********WHOA***gorgeous!*****I found myself reading and rereading sections to devour and imprint the author's thoughts.. The people unaffected by the illness seem to be sleepwalking themselves; " now that her father was home ( out of quarantine) she is suddenly aware how the house had gotten away from her- like weeds taking over a garden" . Sara a preteen found herself stuggling to take care of her father as he came to terms with his loss of time, and illness that brought him back home worse than he was mentally before he was sick. Asleep for five weeks , and how did she cope for five weeks.. it was if time stood still for this town yet kept on running. As Mei succumbs to the sickness, we get the brief description" Some kind of dark figure was there, like something human and not human climbing up onto her chest, pinning her arms" was this possibly alien lifeforce, was it demonic possesion that sucked the energy from its host till they just stopped breathing? I will stop here.. and no more spoilers to spill :, let you the reader just think about this. No blood oozing from their eyes and nose like Ebola, no zombies taking over like the Walking Dead; just people dreaming, no longer moving .like Sleeping Beauty they all.. fall.... asleep. Go get your copy..what are you waiting for? The best book Ihave read in the first quarter of 2019.