I’m a huge fan of apocalyptic stories, and WANDERERS didn’t disappoint, an book eight hundred pages, I wanted to take my time reading every tension-filled moment.

The novel opens with seventeen-year-old Shana Stewart, looking for her younger sister, Nessie, who goes missing. Fearing Nessie has run away, again, Shana goes looking for her, only to find Nessie walking down the road in a sleepwalking state, destination unknown. It isn’t long before other sleepwalkers, and a few of their loved ones following close behind, join Nessie and protector, Shana. As the number of the walker's increases, so does the theories behind what’s causing their somnambulist status, thus creating a panic that serves as fuel for an ultraviolent militia group determined to eliminate them. (Not a spoiler, it’s in the synopsis)

I would describe WANDERERS as horror/science fiction, in an age of advanced technology, as detailed throughout the narrative, served to enhance my fear as I clung onto hope like a life preserver until the stories end. And oh, that ending, the reveal was surprising and well done, in my opinion.

There are many characters in the novel; my favorites are Shana and her take-no-shit-from-anyone attitude, Arav and Marcy (for reasons I won’t spoil here). Wendig does an excellent of giving the reader just enough information about the main characters; it was easy to empathize with my favorites and loathe the evil that wants to harm them.

Highly Recommend!

Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey Publishing for providing me with an ARC of the WANDERERS for review.

First, let me say that Wanderers was a BIG undertaking. When I requested it, I did not expect it to be 800 pages. I was a little nervous getting into this one as I watched page after page go by without making a dent in the length of the book. Don't be scared off by this though, it's worth the time investment!
Wanderers begins in the small town of Maker's Bell, PA with the Stewart family. Shanna, younger sister Vanessa (Nessie), and their father, Charlie. Their mother walked out of a grocery store one day when Shana was younger, never to be heard from again. Immediately the reader is thrown into the story, beginning with Shana finding Nessie's bed empty one morning. On glancing out the window, she sees Nessie walking down the driveway, seemingly sleepwalking. Chasing after her, Shana realises maybe she's not sleepwalking, when she tries to stop her sister and Nessie begins shaking and overheating, and her eyes turn red. All while fighting to continue walking towards a destination only she seems to know. In a panic, Shana enlists the help of her father to follow Nessie on her journey. And off they go.
As they continue on their journey, more "sleepwalkers" join Nessie on her journey. The more they walk, the more people they pick up - both sleepwalkers and "shepherds", as they've been dubbed. The media picks up on the phenomenon of the flock, and it quickly becomes national news. The CDC is called in to determine what is causing these people to suddenly leave their homes, and begin walking, not responding to outside stimuli, except when efforts are made to hinder their journey. After one walker is detained by police in a police car, and explodes, it becomes evident that these walkers are to be treated very carefully, lest they detonate like human bombs.
It is at this point that Benjamin (Benji) Ray, disgraced CDC employee, is introduced. He has been enlisted by Sadie Emeka, and the company Benex-Voyager, who created a computer system that uses patterns to identify potential crisis before they happen. This system is named Black Swan, and it chose Benji to head the investigation into what was happening with the walkers. Despite his skepticism, Benji agrees to assist Black Swan.
The days, then weeks pass, and still the flock continues to grow and move throughout the United States. And still nobody can figure out what is causing this phenomenon, or why, or where they are going. They can't be stopped, they can't be steered, and they seemingly can't be killed. Meanwhile, an epidemic of epic proportions is taking over the world. Dubbed White Mask, this is a fungi that has made the zoological jump from bats to humans, where it infiltrates the brain, slowly causing brain function to decline until, inevitably, death. It begins with a sneeze, where it escalates to flu-like symptoms, where it continues on to develop dementia, as the fungi grows in the brain.
Wanderers consists of several other storylines, which include Ozark Stover - white nationalist disguised as a Christian; pastor Matthew Bird - a naive but well-meaning man who sacrificed his family for his devotion to his church; Marcy Reyes - a shepherd who has no actual connection to the flock, aside from a miraculous recovery from a baseball bat to the head, taken as a police officer, but who feels better and can fully function when in close proximity to the flock; and Pete Corley - an older rock musician, whose career is over but who refuses to let that get in the way of his search for the limelight.
Wanderers is a haunting reflection of America today, as political unrest is an underlying theme throughout, driven by a misunderstanding and misdirection of religion. The current political climate, the slow death of the planet and the human race due to our own negligence, the division of a country because of religious beliefs and racism, and the reality that our technological developments may actually turn against us. While it is an extremely long read, Chuck Wendig did a fantastic job developing his characters, the disease of White Mask, and the idea of Black Swan.
There were a lot of parts in this book that made me uncomfortable (as books like this often do), so I will include these trigger warnings - rape, racism, violence, disease.

Loved loved this book! End of the world type story by disease and global warming. Loved the characters and the mash of different genre's.

This book is a sprawling monster of a text. Wendig is one of my favorite writers, and his voice shines through this one, but it drags very much in the middle. It could easily be 200 pages shorter and would probably be better for it,

I found this engrossing from start to finish.

“You didn’t change anyone’s mind about politics by hammering away at them—all that did was drive the nail deeper into the wall of their own certainty.”

This was certainly a long end-of-the-world novel, and I think the comparisons to The Stand are apt, although Wanderers has a lot more uncovering of the mystery of what is going on, and The Stand has a lot more "how do we survive this?" (if my memory is correct). We have sleepwalkers who cannot be awakened or stopped; a mysterious and really really freaky illness; and good and evil people. Several things happened that I had no idea were coming, and I really enjoyed the book.

The Wanderers is one of my favorite summer reads. Many reviewers have compared the novel to King's The Stand, but as I've never read it, I found it shared similarities to two of my other favorite apocalyptic novels: Station 11 and the start of The Passage trilogy.

In The Wanders, Shana discovers her sister, Nessie sleepwalking and can't wake her. Nessie is joined by more and more sleepwalkers, who march to an unknown location, and explode if prevented from moving. Shana becomes the first shepherd, helping to protect and care for her sister, while also trying to figure out what is happening to the walkers.

Meanwhile disgraced former scientist, Benji Ray, is also sucked into the problem of the "flock" and tries to get to the bottom of what is going on. Rounding out the perspectives is a washed up rockstar and preacher who gets sucked into a scary white nationalist militia.

In turns emotional and terrifying, The Wanderers tackles technology, pandemics and the end of the world all in a page turning summer read. While I have some objections to the last few pages, overall, this epic book completely captured my attention. Don't miss it!

When I first started reading this book, I couldn’t put it down and was fascinated by the premise! I mean, a mysterious malady causing people across the country to become zombie-like sleepwalkers and then another devastating plague destroying the entire human population! Wow! But, about half way through, I wasn’t so enamored and had to force myself to keep reading in the hope of the story redeeming itself. Now, I am not opposed to profanity and totally believe that a few good, well placed swear words can definitely be used to express a specific message or emotion, but when used excessively (as in this story), it loses all meaning and impact. Also, what was the point of the rape scene? When expletives are overused in normal dialogue and violence thrown in for no reason other than shock value, I feel it lowers and cheapens the quality of the writing. As many other reviewers noted, the book was also unnecessarily long . . . dropping some of the F bombs could have helped shorten it by a hundred pages or so! This book could have been great, but, shit and damnit, it missed the mark in my opinion.

The nitty-gritty: Thought-provoking, violent, and ultimately hopeful, Wanderers thrills and terrifies in equal measure.

It’s been years since I’ve read a book I would consider calling “epic,” and now Wanderers has finally checked that box. This book is epic in every sense of the word. The scope is mind boggling, the heady combination of future tech and a terrifying fungus plague provided hours of entertainment, the cast of characters is huge and diverse, and finally, Wendig’s vision of a possible future-end-of-the-world scenario scared the shit out of me! Add in plenty of violence, a tantalizing mystery, and a chilling look at the future of politics in America, and you have a big, brash, ballsy book that, despite its blockbuster appearance, is well crafted and carefully thought out.

And before I go any further, I have to mention that if you are a reader who reacts negatively to triggers—murder, graphic violence, suicide attempts, rape, torture, racial slurs, etc—then this book is probably not going to be for you. I think Wendig includes every single trigger out there in his story, which worked for me, but it’s not going to work for everyone. You have been warned.

As for the plot, I’ll give you the bare bones version. One day in June, something strange begins to happen. A young girl named Nessie from a small town in Pennsylvania wakes up one morning and walks away from her home, barefoot and in her pajamas. Her sister Shana tries to stop her, but Nessie keeps walking, oblivious to her surroundings, intent on going...somewhere. It’s as if she’s sleepwalking with her eyes open. Terrified and confused, Shana decides to follow her, and by doing so becomes the first of the shepherds. Later, other walkers join Nessie as they inexorably make their way west, and Shana is joined by other shepherds, family and friends of the walkers who simply want to protect them.

At the same time, a deadly fungal infection is starting to spread throughout the United States. Slowly at first, with only one or two cases identified, the CDC is brought in to try and stop it from spreading. The first symptoms of the disease are cold-like: stuffy nose and watery eyes, followed by the appearance of a white, powdery substance around the mouth and nose. Eventually symptoms similar to dementia emerge, and the afflicted person goes crazy. There is no cure, and preliminary calculations by scientists are alarming: the entire human race is at risk.

Benji Ray works with the CDC and is brought on to help with the outbreak. Working with a predictive machine intelligence called Black Swan, Benji and Black Swan’s creator, a whip-smart woman named Sadie Emeka, delve into the mysteries of White Mask, the moniker for the disease. Are the walkers somehow connected to White Mask? And how does Black Swan fit in? As the ranks of walkers keep growing, and White Mask continues to spread, Benji and his team must find some answers fast—before things fall apart for good. 

Wanderers is a sprawling, multi-character story that takes its time developing. When the sleepwalkers start walking (and keep walking), you get the sense that this isn’t going to be a fast-paced, action-packed story. And in the beginning, it isn’t. Wendig has lots of moving parts that he not only has to introduce, but eventually connect together, and I thought he did a bang up job of it. The story never felt slow, even though it took some time to introduce all the characters, tell their backstories, and drop hints about what the hell is going on. The mystery of the walkers isn’t revealed until way into the story, but that was OK, because there is so much good stuff that comes before that reveal. And by the time the shit hits the fan—and it does—you’re truly invested in the characters and what’s happening to them. That makes some of the less savory events even worse because you like these people.

Wendig has always been open with his fans when it comes to his opinions about such things as social media, right wing politics, and other touchy subjects, and he definitely takes this opportunity to inject those opinions into his story. One of the characters is a thinly-veiled Trump-like presidential candidate who is trying to unseat a woman president in the upcoming election. Trump fans are not going to like this portrayal of far right values and political beliefs, although it certainly made for a fantastic—and scary!—story element. In the world of Wanderers, the United States (and much later, the rest of the world) is literally falling apart, and while Wendig’s story might seem fantastical and ridiculous, there is an eerie feeling that our society is heading in that direction, and maybe this should be read as a cautionary tale. (And aren’t all dystopians cautionary tales, after all?)

Lots of reviewers are comparing this book to Stephen King’s The Stand, and for me it was the way Wendig wrote and developed his characters that most reminded me of King’s style of storytelling. He’s got nearly 800 pages to work on those characters, and by the end of the story I was practically yelling at the book when bad things started to happen to them. Some of my favorites were Benji, a black man who not only struggles for respect in his field, even after he’s proven himself, but his faith in God is also tested, as things start to go downhill and he sees how truly evil people can be. I also loved Marcy, a tough, ex-cop who suffered a terrible head injury on the job and now has a plate in her head. Marcy has a different reason for being drawn to the walkers and joining the shepherds, and boy she goes through some shit in this story! Oh, and I haven’t even mentioned Pete Corley, an aging gay rock star who nearly steals the show, or Matthew Bird, a mild-mannered pastor who is seduced by fame and fortune and gets caught up with the wrong people.

There were a few things in the story that were never explained. Marcy has a special connection to the walkers that no one else seems to have, and I don't think the reason behind it was ever revealed. There's also a weird section near the end that had a Matrix-like, alternate reality feel to it. It does give the reader much more explanation about why the walkers are walking and where they're going, but it almost felt like the story took a weird turn into fantasy at that point. And I was confused by something that happened to Shana at the end as well. But honestly, these unexplained elements didn't kill the story for me, obviously. I'm still giving the book five stars and chalking it up to the mysteries of science!

My review has barely scratched the surface of this book. There’s just too much to talk about without this evolving into a Wanderers-length book review. Bottom line: I loved this book, and I'm excited for Chuck's next one!

Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.

This book is a slow burn. It starts off jumping right into the plot, but from there I felt it went downhill. I had high expectations, but at about 30% in still not much had progressed and I was beginning to get annoyed at the main characters. I tried to be understanding that Shana was going through a lot, but aside from her being a real angsty teenager, I couldn't connect with her either. She used the term "dude" too much and didn't feel like a real teenager. I got the vibe that the author was trying too hard to make her character relatable and he missed the target. I couldn't understand the science side of the book either and that really left nothing for me to enjoy. I had a lot of hope for this book, and it may just not have been the time for me to read this book. The author jumped between perspectives and time lines at random points and didn't make the connection between the two until later in the story. It felt too choppy and random. I certainly would like to give this book another try at a different time, since I have heard good things. But since it hadn't pulled me in yet I had to put it down.

I had a college English professor that used to say,”The How is the What”. By that he meant the process of telling the story is integral to the meaning of the story. That was certainly true with Wanderers. Our story begins by introducing a number of characters, including a teenager with a very large chip on her shoulder and an aging rock star living a double life. The action begins when Shana discovers her younger sister Nessie is sleepwalking and won’t wake up. We soon discover she is only the first of a growing number of individuals walking together, traveling west, neither eating or stopping along the way. As the group of sleepwalkers grows so does the publicity surrounding them. Are they terrorists or angels? Are they bringing disease or redemption? The government sends agents to study their condition and soon learns you cannot pierce their skin to take blood samples, but that attempting to restrain a sleepwalker will cause him to explode. As the caravan passes through one town after another more sleepwalkers are added along with friends and family watching out for them. Shepherds to the sheep..
Meanwhile a second storyline follows a venal businessman who begins displaying signs of dementia after inadvertently releasing a colony of disease-infected bats. Soon these two plots come together and reveal a future in which humanity faces a strong likelihood of being wiped from the earth. Scattered through the story are tweets and blog entries and other quotes from people living in this frightening world.
Reading this book is hard, as the reader confronts a future that seems to lead to a dead end. Plodding through the scary and difficult events on the road, trying to balance faith and science, makes this story more than science fiction. It is a thought provoking story of a dystopian future that couldn’t really happen — or could it?

I was provided with an ARC of this title from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

"Life is rife with questions we never answer. What we can do is be thankful we're here and live the best life we can muster." Benji, Wanderers by Chuck Wendig

This book is a roller coaster ride. It captures all of the anticipation of the climb, and all of the hysteria that accompanies the lightning fast descent. The end of the world as we know it begins innocuously, with a whimper, not a bang. And then suddenly it has arrived, and there is no escaping it.

Shana wants to protect her sister, Benji wants to both find purpose and restore his reputation, and the Black Swan wants to restore balance. This is a story that uses their demons and struggles to highlight the disastrous calamity of humanity's overconsumption and misguided ideals. It is an ironic examination of the quest to create and improve. The plot was full of intrigue, wisdom and vulnerability, and kept me guessing until the very end.

For fans of Heinlein, Asimov and Bradbury, this is a must-read.

This book is absolutely amazing. I only had a vague idea of what to expect and the more I read, the more uncertain I became and was thoroughly surprised by what was going on. I loved the apocalyptic feel and the regret and remorse and...I could go on, but seriously, great book.

I couldn’t put Wanderers down. At all. I’ve been in a terrible reading slump lately and this book...woke me up. Would highly recommend to my friends and family, both readers and non readers.

I was enrapt with this novel from Page 1, and throughout the 800 pages (ebook) and three days of engrossed reading, my interest never flagged. Science fiction (near future to contemporary), science, politics, anthropology, sociology, human evil: you can find it all here. Author Wendig paints on a vast canvas and does so enthralling. WANDERERS is a book not to be forgotten.

One thing can be said for a book this length - there's something for everyone. I think this will appeal to true sci-fi fans more than casual ones. Some parts of it seem familiar - like I've read it in previous books. I suppose that's inevitable in a work of this size. Make no mistake, this is a looooonnnnnggggg book!

It takes a commitment of time to get through this book. Is it worth it? That has to be up to the individual reader.

This is a whopping, 700+-page mammoth opus that has so much action, I'm not even going to try to describe the plot. Broad themes are covered - environment, religion, politics, family, military, artificial intelligence, even rock music. The writing is very detailed, descriptive, clear, unusual, creative, and surprisingly easy to follow. The many, many characters are so well-drawn that I had little difficulty keeping everyone straight in my mind. I'm not sure that I like, or accept, the ending, but I'm still thinking about it, so that speaks volumes. It will take a solid commitment to read this very long book, but it will be well worth the time and effort.

I had to sit with this one for a while before I could write a review. At its heart, all the hallmarks that make me love Wendig's writing were here. Snark, attention to minor details, unique and engaging side characters, a spunky female lead. Unfortunately, though, I found myself waning as the book wore on.

From the beginning, Shana's devotion to her sister caught me and it was really her that pulled me through the low points of the story. While I'm usually a fan of a big cast, there does come a point at which the cast becomes TOO big. I often felt like that was a case here. As the flock moved through the states and grew in size, so did my confusion at times over who was who. Characters would be named and I'd find myself wondering if I was supposed to know who they were.

The side plot with the anarchist militia group felt unneeded, cumbersome and a little too on the nose for the current political climate. While I'm not a person who is easily put off, the on-page rape scene felt gratuitous, nothing more than a cheap shorthand so the reader understood that Stoover was REALLY BAD. He was so bad that he almost felt like a caricature. It just felt like Wendig was trying to shove too much into one book. While the characters may have compared this story to The Stand, it was not that classic by any means.

So after all that, why is my rating so high? Shana, Benji, and ultimately, Black Swan. The ambiguous ending stuck with me long enough that I realized I cared far more than I thought I did. I found myself thinking about the morality of the story and wondering about the ending long after the book was over. Sometimes, a story is masterful in the way it hooks you at the beginning, but the ones that stay with you are the ones that are masterful in how they hook you at the end. This was one of those stories that will stay with me.

Take a walk on the long side....

The premise of this book immediately grabbed my attention: a teenager, Shana wakes up to find her younger sister, Nessie, in trance, walking out of their home and along the road. She does not respond, she does not blink, just keeps putting one foot in front of the other.... hmmmm

Soon, Shana's sister is joined by more walkers (who will soon become a flock). Interesting things happen - needles cannot pierce their skin, they shake violently when grabbed and let's not forget the gore fest when one was grabbed, and the cop did not let go.

Every flock needs a shepherd and soon this ever-growing flock of walkers has family and friends (called Shepherds) following them, trying to keep them safe, etc.

So why are they walking? What has happened to them? Is this an epidemic? Is this the end of the world? No one knows. So, a disgraced doctor and members of the CDC attempt to find out just what is going on and how to stop/treat this issue or shall I say these walkers...errr…. I mean members of the flock. Then there is Black Swan....not going to say more about that.

This is a long book and it felt long to me - especially in the middle. I really think this book could use a little editing. Be warned there are some scenes in this book which might serve as triggers. Plus, the author is not shy about sharing his political beliefs and viewpoints.

While reading this book, I couldn't help but think about:The Stand ,The Passage and even to a small degree, the walking dead TV show (sorry, never read the comics). But, let's face it, King and Cronin wrote better books. This book is not bad but at the same time, it didn't really wow me. It's one I won’t remember. It took me almost a month to read since I wasn't engaged enough to want to pick it up and keep reading. But I finally finished and I'm not sure how I feel about the ending with the five-year jump.

I can see why some are loving this book. For me it was okay but not great.

I received a copy of this book from Random House Publishing Group -Ballantine and NetGalley. The thoughts and opinions are my own

It's the end of the world as we know it.....and I am exhausted. 800 pages later, I'm a Chuck Wendig fangirl.

It's been compared to The Stand and while I can see that, Wanderers is something else. It's something amazing and special. I still don't know how to talk about it.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

The Wanderers is looong, like, be ready to commit to it long. Is it worth the time it takes to read it? I'm undecided on that. Yes, it's intriguing, unique, bizarre, entertaining and thought provoking. No, it's similar in some ways to other end of the world stories; there are a couple scenes I found very disturbing; it's overwhelming in scope and size. So, I can't fully recommend, nor can I say that I don't recommend. Weigh the pros and cons for this one. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.