This novel is well written and I really enjoyed it! The Dreamers is a compulsive, well-composed and beautifully immersive novel!
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The story was 4 stars in my opinion. The novel hooked me from the first page, and found the writing to be completely gripping!

The book follows lots of people in the town which makes it a little bit of confusing with different characters-this was why 4 instead of 5 stars, I really wanted to rate the book five stars but the ending also left me with a lot of questions!
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Thompson deals with people put under pressure by an unexpected external crisis, it really is a great and precise prose from the author that each moment has a strong suspense that keeps you turning the pages!
I really liked the details of sleeping disease.

The Dreamers was such an amazing book. A girl in a college dorm falls asleep and will not wake up for days. She eventually dies. Medical professionals cannot figure out what caused her to fall asleep and stay asleep. But before they can even begin to figure it out, more college students are succumbing to sleep. It quickly spreads through a town, causing 1500 people to be unable to wake up. While they are sleeping, they are having extremely vivid dreams that seem almost real. The Dreamers was simply incredible. Once I picked it up, I spent the rest of the day and night reading because I just couldn't put it down.

Editing my review to increase from 4 to 5 stars. This book hasn’t left me since finishing it weeks ago and the more I think about it the more I appreciate the ending. THE DREAMERS is unforgettable and the author is brilliant.

Original review:
THE DREAMERS is one of the most spell-binding books I have ever read... I was completely transfixed from start to finish. The writing is beautiful and dream-like yet what it paints is an absolute nightmare. I interpreted THE DREAMERS as a book about possibility and perception, love and connection, dependence and survival. I found the last quarter a bit scattered and perhaps a little too open-ended, but no less intriguing. Thought-provoking and a complete pleasure to read overall.

Karen Thompson Walker's writing is stunning! I adore literary fiction-style writing with a dash of the speculative, and this definitely checks that box. The story is compelling, but unfolds at the pace you'd expect from lit fic—so readers hoping for the tone and pace of a thriller may be disappointed by the relatively slow and steady style of The Dreamers. As with any book that shifts between different perspectives, some characters/perspectives will be more or less compelling for various readers. I had little patience for Ben, Annie, and Grace, and no patience at all for the story of Rebecca—that portion of the narrative was truly troubling to me, and the fawning descriptions of embryonic development read to me like anti-abortion rhetoric. Given what little we know about Rebecca and her family's religious background, this felt especially gross—a character we have known for all of 5 pages prior to her slumber, and about whom we very little beyond the fact that she was homeschooled by her Christian mother and has recently been less involved in her faith, becomes, essentially, an incubator. Perhaps this is intended as a critique of such a view of women, of a belief that women owe something to zygotes and embryos and fetuses whether we have been given a choice or not—but without additional context, without actual narrative reflection, it certainly does not come across that way. That aside, I did enjoy The Dreamers! A good comp for Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel and The Fever by Megan Abbott.

How to describe The Dreamers? Hmm... The writing is dream-like, so it feels almost like you’re moving slowly and stumbling through a sleepy town. People begin to succumb to a sleeping illness. Some sleep, dream, and then wake up, whereas others never wake up and are lost to a continuous dream . We meet a variety of characters but we don’t truly come to know them. Some of them break your heart (Mei) but some barely touch you. Rather than stopping with them for a long time, we move past them, as our dream continues.

Although it’s never clear what the dreamers experienced, this might be for the best. I suspect that a full explanation of the sleeping virus might have been disappointing. Instead, we wake from the dream, unsure about what just transpired. Hopefully, it was a pleasing dream.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and Random House for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

Me? Liking a sci-fi book? It’s true!

And no, I did not undergo electric shock therapy. This book is almost pogo-stick worthy, it’s so damn good. I don’t even know what category this book fits into. To me, it’s not pure sci-fi, really. Is there such a thing as disaster books, like there are disaster movies? Because that’s what it is. It’s not about aliens or weird gadgets; it’s about a virus, a sleeping sickness, that takes over a college town. Maybe it should be called sci-fi light. Well, whatever we want to call it, this book is excellent. And what makes it so excellent is that it’s character-driven—something I don’t usually associate with a sci-fi book.

There are about ten or so characters. Every single one is well-drawn and likeable, and each one evoked my sympathy. Most of the story revolves around a couple with a newborn, a survivalist father and his two young daughters, and two college students who hang out together. There are a couple of other minor characters whose stories I found interesting, too. Halfway through the book I realized with horror, hey, these characters could all get the sleeping sickness (so would be unavailable to entertain me) or they could even die. Ah, so this is one reason why “disaster books” are such a bummer! You get all attached to a character, then poof, they’re gone. What kind of deal is that?! Maybe I should have thought longer about reading a book where so many people may die. But as I continued, I was happy to see there was hope and there were people who were helping, which gave this cynic a little faith in humanity.

The language pulled me in immediately. It’s straightforward, fluff-free, and on the sparse side. It’s dramatic in tone, but not overly dramatic. I was all-in as soon as I opened the book.

There are lots of wise little nuggets:

“Not everything that happens in a life can be digested. Some events stay forever whole. Some images never leave the mind.”

“But isn’t the future always an imaginary thing before it comes?”

“But isn’t every sleep a kind of isolation? When else are we so alone?”

“But it feels good to take care of them—the way it is possible to disappear inside someone else’s need.”

If you’re an Extreme Worrier like I am, the following quote should make you feel better. Hell, it will probably make you strut. (The two sentences are probably why I loved the book so much, lol):

“Worry, she often reminds her patients, is a kind of creativity. Fear is an act of the imagination.”

Many of the characters face moral dilemmas, the kind of questions that come up with natural disasters. Do you help people if it puts you more at risk? Do you leave your children to go help others? Do you obey the quarantine because of the risk to other people? Do you shove to get out first? Remember the famous moral question, if you were in a life boat and could only save one person, how would you choose who to pick? There’s one character who keeps asking those types of questions to his friend. This has significance later in the book, and it’s all subtle and cool.

Fear! Man, a contagious disease spreading fast is going to scare the hell out of everyone. You have the people who live in the town, fearing they will be the next victim. And you have the fretting parents of college kids, totally nutso because they live in other towns and can’t find out if their kids are okay. The book does an amazing job of showing people’s fear, in all its permutations.

The scenes of people desperately trying to leave town were realistic and powerful. They reminded me of what happened during the recent fire in Paradise, California, when the whole town disappeared—the whole friggin’ town! I got an up-close view because my friend’s mom lived there, and she told of a harrowing tale of her escape. She and everyone else lost their house, and they were left basically with the clothes on their back. The trauma is unimaginable. So as I read, I kept flashing on that real disaster. The book definitely gave me a taste of the mayhem, the fear, the urgency of a disastrous event. I felt like I was there, all unchy and crazed.

The book got me thinking about what I would do if it happened in my town. I’ll tell you one thing—I’m sure I would run, just like everyone else. Okay, I realize I can’t really RUN, but I would try to beat feet out of town by car—god, “escape by car” better be an option. But what if I was low on gas? Yi yi yi, I better make sure to keep my gas tank full! If I were smart, I’d probably go fill it up right now. (I must remember that these worries are simply signs of my creativity, lol).

One thing that happened with the sleeping sickness was that people still could dream. Damn, am I going to have to hear about people’s dreams? Because I’ll tell you right now, that doesn’t interest me one iota. Tell me what’s happening now in the real world; I don’t care about what someone’s brain cells are dreaming up. Bor-ing! But thank god, no—the book doesn’t go there.

Instead, the book playfully talks about dreams versus reality; perception funnies; parallel universes; the mixing of past, future and present. The comments pop up but they don’t detract from the plot one bit. If anything, they add some cool eeriness.

What a captivating book. Good characters, suspense, and food for thought. For those of you who shy away from the sci-fi genre, go ahead and dive in. It’ worth it.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.

3.5 stars - I received an e-galley of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The prose of this novel is beautiful, and I love the concept. However, it took me quite a long time to get into it - I'm not sure if that's because the writing style is very distant. It's almost as though the narrator is sitting above the city of Santa Lora, looking down on everyone from a distance. It could also be because there are many characters, which meant that it took me a while to connect to some of the characters. Overall, I did enjoy getting many points of view and seeing the tragedy unfold and affect lives differently. I also expected a bit more from the virus/disease itself - the author was certainly trying to make a larger point about dreams and reality, but it didn't really land for me.

Despite my criticisms, I would recommend reading this book for the original concept nad beautiful writing style.

Full, formatted review available at: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2527014529

A college freshman falls asleep and doesn't wake up. As the days pass, more students fall into a deep slumber—their hearts continue to beat, but they can't be roused. Authorities are mystified by the mysterious affliction that spreads like wildfire through the community. Only one thing is certain: the brain activity of "the dreamers" exceeds all previous recordings of both sleeping and awake subjects. What's happening in their minds? Will they ever wake up? The mysterious outbreak isolates the community from the larger world, but it also brings the small college town closer together.

The Dreamers is not an action-packed novel and it stalled in familiar territory for a while. About halfway through I started longing for a major shift in the story, but I had already fallen in love with the themes! The urgency driven by the fleeting nature of life kept drawing me forward. The tension derives from the outbreak's unpredictability, but what I loved most were the beautiful descriptions of relationships and natural processes. Karen Thompson Walker is such a perceptive writer and it shows in small moments of humanity that pop up throughout the story: "There is a kindness in not telling. There is love in covering up." and "But it feels good to take care of them—the way it is possible to disappear inside someone else’s need." The specter of contagion is always lingering overhead, so the few chapters about the reaction of the conspiracy-minded community almost came as a relief; it's comforting to think about a world where nothing bad ever really happens and that anything that does occur is orchestrated by people who know exactly what they’re doing!

The mysterious epidemic brought me to this novel, but the focus is actually on the characters' relationships and how the dire circumstances affect how they relate to each other and the world around them. This book is filled with touching reflections on love, family, parenting, marriage, and the evolution of those relationships over time. Through the eyes of an omniscient narrator, we flit through the lives of several relatively disconnected people. They can fall victim to the epidemic at any time. The main characters are a college girl who has trouble fitting in, a married couple with a new baby, a college professor whose husband has dementia, a prepper raising two young daughters alone, and a psychiatrist who left her toddler behind to help find answers. The extreme peril magnifies their daily struggles and gives them greater perspective.

While everyone is going about their day-to-day lives and even as they are trying to work their way through the worst catastrophe of their lives, a multitude of natural processes within the environment and their bodies continue beyond the realm of their awareness and understanding. One of the professors delights in showing his students the "zombie tree," an ancient stump that is simultaneously both alive and dead due to assistance from neighboring trees. This invisible process mirrors what's happening in the community. Despite all the natural disasters and contagions that have imposed on this small community over the decades, life in its multiple forms continues to weave its way over and around obstacles.

The people of Santa Lora coexist in the same town, but they are also living in their own bubbles colored by their own experiences and limited perceptions. The drought-stricken forests are all the younger generation will ever remember, while the lush forests their parents knew fade into the past as intangible as a dream. The young people's lives are directly affected by the previous generations, but the world their parents knew will never be their reality. The college students also become aware of adult limitations for the first time, shaking their previous sense of security. The world they knew turns out not to be the world as it is, but they settle into their new reality like it's all they've ever known. The author also touches on how the imagination—such as dwelling on fuzzy memories of the past (the new father) or conjuring up fears of the future (the prepper)—has real effects on the present, much like the stuff of dreams can ruin a whole day. 

Are our dream worlds any less real than our own? Dreams can often conjure up emotions so real that it feels like they really happened. Sometimes they draw attention to the things we aren't ready to confront yet. Dwelling on the imaginary landscapes of our minds can directly affect our present-day relationships and mental states. The Dreamers shook my sense of reality, while also making me feel a sense of wonder about all we do not know. Our knowledge of the world is limited by our own self-absorption and imaginations.  So many extraordinary things happen beyond the borders of our conscious mind, remaining "as obscure as the landscapes of someone else's dreams." It's humbling to think about our awareness is inessential to the big picture.

Stellar. Ethereal. Thought-provoking. Intelligent. Just some of the few words that immediately come to mind after finishing The Dreamers. This was dystopia told from a voyeuristic viewpoint. Truly, you are on the outside looking in. Watching a small town in California crumble before your own eyes. For those who prefer a heavily epidemic-laden dystopian novel- this is it. Every single page you will drown in the world of dreams.

On a college campus in Santa Lora, California, Mei finds her roommate sound asleep. But it’s no ordinary sleep, it’s a sleep so deep that no matter what others try to do...you cannot be woken up. This is the start of a rapidly spreading epidemic that takes over the ENTIRE town. Without warning or visible sign, one by one, neighbors, professors, babies, friends, parents and children fall asleep. Why is this happening? No one know. How do we stop it? Not a clue. Chaos ensues as this town ceases to function and the rest of the world looks on in horror and disbelief that this is happening. But those that are sleeping...well they are living in a world of vivid dreams. About the future, about the past, about those they value most and some are just at peace. One has to wonder- are these dreams the link, the key to this epidemic and how can this puzzle even be solved when everyone is deeply lost in their dreams???

The Dreamers was so thought provoking. I’d stop multiple times while reading trying to solve the puzzle, read into poignant paragraphs and find that connection between all of the dreamers. I’m still stumped. But isn’t that the best part of a great book. When there are no definitive answers? When the answers are what only you, personally take away from a story. Genius writing. Original point of view. LOVED LOVED LOVED!

The Dreamers had me hooked from the start. If I would've had the time, I would have read this in one sitting. While some may find the writing style detached, I think it works well for this novel. It adds to the dreamlike quality of the story, the feeling that nothing is quite as it seems. While the story has many characters, I was never confused. My only complaint is that the ending didn't quite live up to the rest of the book. It wasn't unsatisfying, just maybe too quick and abrupt. But overall, an addictive and enthralling story!

The concept isn't mine; I read it in other reviews here but it's such a perfect description of the experience of reading this one: the language is lush and soft and very dreamlike. Apropos.

Random House provided me an advanced copy a couple weeks ago; one of the only few ARCs I've recently requested but I did so because the synopsis (and certainly the blurb from St. John Mandel) won me over.

So, I need to be honest and say that I'm vacillating quite a bit between 3 and 4 stars here. There are things about it that frustrated me. A medical situation during a quarantine that would never, ever be allowed to happen. A description of a foetus in utero that felt too uncomfortably like an earnest pro-life poster (including the mother's absolute and complete loss of autonomy). Most everything about Annie and Ben. There's a lot of straggling threads, some of which I was fine with because that's how dreams ago and perhaps I cared less about those situations anyway, but a couple I really wished had been tied off.

I ultimately allow the metronome to stick to 4 stars because I quite enjoyed much of that lush language that was too much for many other reviewers - it lends itself to making the scenes feel quite equally like dreams and also nightmares. In one situation, when the truth of it was revealed, adhered so strongly to that catch-22 with dreams that I've personally experienced that it made me hold my breath: it felt like a wondrous and loving fantasy only to turn its to reveal a gritty nightmare. The medical situation that bothered me was due in part to how Walker also skillfully built up the world where this virus occurs - scenes of dogs wandering the streets because of their fallen owners and homes incinerating because of unattended stoves felt visceral and precisely how things might happen during a real-life crisis. Annie and Ben's relationship really bothered me for multiple reasons but Ben's relationship to his newborn daughter and the actions he takes and emotions he feels in his attempts to protect her felt realistic and powerful. Equally as much as Ben and Annie irritated me and felt false, though, I adored the relationship between Nathanial and Henry and wished for more.

And I hesitate to include my criticism about the foetus - I include it because it did bother me, but I assure any reader like me who may be bothered by it that it's minimal enough to mostly dismiss and certainly shouldn't prevent you from reading if you're otherwise intrigued.

I requested this in large part due to St. John Mandel's championing and it's never fair to compare but since she did blurb it and since this does feel closer to Station Eleven than anything else I've read, I have to say this isn't nearly as immersive and strong as that one for me. But again (on that side of four stars), I'm very happy to have read it and will continue to seek out Walker.

In her first novel, Karen Thompson Walker quickly sketches the scene in the initial pages: the rotation of the earth is slowing and catastrophe is upon all of mankind. She spends the next three hundred pages looking through the eyes of an eleven year old girl, giving us the complex and intricate story that made her first work, The Age of Miracles such a masterpiece. In The Dreamers which is set to be published in January, the formula seems much the same: drop the essence of the story, then fill in the pieces along the way. But Dreamers is more unsettling than The Age of Miracles. Instead of a slowly unfolding natural calamity, Dreamers presents us with a deadly, incurable, and easily transmittable disease experienced through a multitude of characters. What also makes Thompson Walker’s second book so disturbing is that the storytelling in its apparently simple, rambling, third person narrative, unexpectedly sets you on edge. From the moment the first person succumbs to the disease, to the pinnacle of the epidemic, no one is safe. Every relationship between characters is charged with the electricity of transmission, bringing a sense of dread, fear and ultimately chaos that envelops the town of Santa Lora.
As the title implies, the townspeople begin to fall under a deep unwakeable sleep. While there certainly are more terrifying viruses out there, particularly those imagined by other science fiction writers, this epidemic as described by Thompson Walker is particularly troubling. Instead of peaceful slumber, the diseased seem to be captives who dangle on the edge of existence. Like the rest of this book, even the manifestation of the disease is quiet and subtle, but powerful to the point of being overwhelming. And if there were anything to pick at in the Dreamers, and there isn’t much, it’s just that—the bleakness of Thompson Walker’s book, at times feels overwhelming. At one point during this compelling read, I put her book down for a day, just to put a little space between me and Santa Lora.
While Thompson Walker creates this cascading sense of helplessness, she pulls us along with ordinary characters who appear to be randomly chosen: a professor dealing with the slow decline of his spouse, a troubled young couple who’s three-week-old daughter has provided a needed diversion, geeky college students who’s unexpected relationship turns them towards heroism, and finally young sisters who struggle alone in the midst of the outbreak. But not so randomly chosen, these witnesses to the madness become the basis for a series of existential threads that aren’t fully revealed until nearly the end of the book.
Without giving anything away, the resulting climax is not unlike her rambling writing style—unassuming, and simply told. I found myself re-reading the last twenty pages three times, believing I had somehow missed the big punch at the end. The thing is, this isn’t that kind of book. The Dreamers deserves a quiet read and like The Age of Miracles, there isn’t a race to the finish. The end comes soon enough, as does the resolution, but in The Dreamers, especially, you have to be ready for the gentle endings of each character’s story. For some readers, who are unfamiliar with Thompson Walker, this may be too much to endure, but for those who can appreciate the final subtle movements of this book, it’s a beautiful ride.

This review can also be found at Amazon (01/19/2019), Goodreads (12/04/2018) and the Midnight Book Club (12/02/2018)

“I see the flame before I strike the match,” says the victim of a mysterious sleeping sickness seizing the small college town of Santa Lora, California. The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker explores existential questions that lie in this space between being awake and asleep as characters struggle to survive and solve this medical mystery. Is this dreaming the reality of another dimension running parallel to the lives of the sleeping?

This sleeping sickness starts in the college dorm and quickly consumes the drought-stricken community. It’s October and Santa Lora is suffering one of the longest droughts in its history but the weather is beautiful and the community is in denial as the author writes: “It does not seem possible in weather so pleasant for an eighteen-year-old girl to die.” That girl is the first victim of the sleeping sickness that spreads from the college campus into the community consuming entire families.

The sleepers are dreaming: some of the past, some of the future, some of the present. What do these dreams mean? Do they reveal some deeply hidden truth about their souls and psyches? Or are they just random bits of memories colliding together discombobulated?

Dr. Catherine Cohen, a specialist in psychiatric disorders, arrives in town from Los Angeles to study these sleepers whose sleeping brains are extraordinarily busy. She notes: “There is more activity in these minds than has ever been recorded in any human brain—awake or asleep.”

The sleepers are kept alive by feeding tubes and some begin to sleepwalk. It starts with a sleeping boy who jumps from the hospital window and kills himself. Two students on that infected dorm floor, Mei and Matthew, seem to be immune to the sleeping sickness. They become community heroes searching for and rescuing sleepers and delivering them to the hospital until one falls ill. The other must choose between saving the life of a friend or sacrificing one life to save several.

The sleeping sickness will forever be known as the Santa Lora Virus, an unsolved medical mystery that challenges notions of the past, present and future, the reality of two lives lived— one with eyes wide open and the closed in slumber. Who is to say that what we dream is as much alive as what we live awake.

I highly recommend this provocative work of fiction that probes human perseverance in a world of unknowns where “Every ordinary moment holds a potential calamity and you cannot know when one will rise.”

The Dreamers is the perfect book club read to spark lively conversation and thought-provoking questions.

In Santa Lora, California, it all begins at the college. It precisely originates with Kara, who climbs into her bed and never wakes up. Her roommate, Mei, finds her, panicking when nothing rouses the girl. Then another girl falls asleep. And another. And then more. Soon classes are canceled. The kids on the floor are quarantined. And before you know it, things escalate from there. A mapping of brain activity shows that the sleepers are dreaming--dreaming extraordinarily active dreams in fact. But what are they dreaming of? And can anything stop "the sickness" from spreading?

"Whatever this is, it comes over them quietly; a sudden drowsiness, a closing of the eyes. Most of the victims are found in their beds."

I found this book to be utterly fascinating and such a wonderful change of pace. It was almost like reading a horror film at some points (and I'm not the type who likes scary movies). It was compulsively readable--I read it in five settings, completely drawn into the creepy, amazing, and sometimes horrifying story.

The book is told from the point of view of a variety of characters--all in short snippets--and through an often impassive narration style. Still, you grow to care for the few characters you do get to know: Mei and some of the other college students; kids Libby and Sara and their apocalyptic-fearing father; professors Ben and Annie and their new baby, Grace; a biology professor, Nathaniel, and his partner, Henry; and Dr. Catherine Cohen, a psychiatrist called in after the sickness starts.

There's really no way to describe this book, and I do not want to reveal too much about the plot. It's beautifully written, which is amazing, considering it's mostly a book about a near plague spreading through a town. The characters, even though their chapters are often short and sparse, are fully-formed. It's easy to get attached to them and pulled into their lives, which are so quickly altered by the sickness. And it's amazing how quickly the sickness changes life in Santa Lora: how a town can nearly become a war-zone due to illness. It was really intriguing to read about, especially when the narration style is so mesmerizing and presents such a creepy helplessness (I wish I could describe it better).

Overall, I really, really enjoyed this book. The subject matter was not what I usually read, but it was a fascinating, captivating read. I was drawn to the characters and the narration style. The book presented such an interesting scenario to think about too--what would happen if this occurred in real-life society? Walker's writing is beautiful, and I've already tracked down her novel, The Age of Miracles, on Paperbackswap.com, and look forward to reading it soon. 4.5 stars.

Oh...this book. I could not put it down. It's so well written, and the story is amazing. It's an interesting look at how people handle crises and relationships. I became really involved in the lives of the people in this town, and weather or not they were going to survive the epidemic. I read most of it one sitting because I had to know what was going to happen next. Highly recommended!

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher for review.

This was such an interesting book that I don’t even know where to begin. In this magnificently crafted novel, a mysterious sleeping sickness takes over a small town, beginning in a college dorm. It quickly spreads to the rest of the town and more and more people become infected. The virus itself is never really fleshed out, which isn’t something that I really liked, but the whole book had this constant air of mystery. When people are overcome by this sickness, they fall asleep, sometimes in random places, and immediately start dreaming. This part was the most interesting to me because we follow so many different characters, and several of them recount the dreams they had while sleeping. I would love to say more, but that would include spoilers, so you’ll just have to trust me on the fact that these were some cool dreams. As I’ve already said, we follow so many different characters throughout the entirety of the book, and you get to see how different people react to the situations differently. I loved following the stories of the college kids, the young girls, the new parents, the old professor, etc. Each of them have such different outlooks on the situation and different ways that they deal with what is going on around them. The entire idea behind the book is so fascinating, and I don’t know how the author even came up with this idea. I absolutely fell in love with this story. My only issue with the book, despite my loving it, is that I just feel kind of detached from the story. I adored it, but while I read it, I wasn’t so attached to it. The only real stakes in this book were that you could get sick and not wake up, which I guess got old after a while. So overall, it was a very interesting read, but it wasn’t anything with a super intensive plot.

The Dreamers is about a college town that is hit with an epidemic, where people suddenly fall into a deep sleep. The narration is purposefully sleepy...lulling you into a quiet fear of where such an epidemic can take you. This is good for people who like literary thrillers. I would not really classify this as a dystopian novel, as it is a pretty contained epidemic.

This is an absolutely beautifully written book. The poetic style of writing brings the sleeping sickness to life, almost as if it's another character in the novel. This book drew me in from the beginning, the idea of this sickness taking over a floor in a dorm room felt so real to me. As the story progresses, so too does the virus and we see this crisis from the inside out. I think it would have been interesting to read more from the vantage point of those outside of the two of Santa Clara, but at the same time, this missing element made it feel almost more isolated, like the sickness itself. Even though this was set in contemporary times, this book felt timeless as if the story could have existed in any time period.

I think this would make a great novel study for high school students especially while examining critical theories in regards to this novel. I would absolutely recommend it to high school students as well as my friends who love to read great books.

The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker certainly lives up to its title. It’s dreamy and lush and hazy. It sweeps you along in a split narrative between several different people. The premise is this: all of a sudden, people in a small, isolated town in California are falling into a deep sleep and not waking up. The illness spreads throughout the town and people are starting to panic because they’re not sure how it can be stopped. The doctors and scientists discover that these sleepers are dreaming heightened dreams and everyone is wondering what they’re dreaming about.

I thought that the different POVs were really nice as they show all the separate narratives and struggles of the characters. We start with the roommate of the first girl infected, then go to two young girls who live with a father always prepared for an apocalypse, and to a young family of a newborn baby. There is a palpable sense of dread that seeps between the words of this book as you know the inevitable sleep infection will continue to take over the town. It’s interesting to see how the infection spreads, too. But you should really read it and experience it to find these things out. The characters are flawed but compelling and the plot will keep you invested until the end.

The Dreamers is a quiet and cerebral novel with a lot of heart that will pull you along as if you yourself are apart of this dreamlike state. I recommend this and hope that other readers will take something away from this book like I did.

"To sleep, perchance to dream." Hamlet does not make an appearance in this thoughtful, modern day psychodrama, but like the Prince of Denmark we are left wondering about life and the afterlife, the meaning of dreams and our society's ability to cope with the unknown. A kind of sleeping sickness has gone well, viral, on the campus of a fictitious southern California college, creating slow-burning mayhem and confusion, bringing out the best and worst instincts of those still awake. When it is discovered that the long-sleepers are dreaming, things get really weird. It's difficult to tip toe around the nature of their visions; suffice to say that the mental programming features repeats as well as coming attractions. I guess I would quibble about the denouement, which seemed like a bit of a yawn after all that REM sleep.