Book Review: "The Dreamers" by Karen Thompson Walker
“The Dreamers” by Karen Thompson Walker
Synopsis: 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?
Written in luminous prose, The Dreamers is a breathtaking and beautiful novel, startling and provocative, about the possibilities contained within a human life—if only we are awakened to them. - Random House
Rating: 3.75
Trigger warnings:
Review: I really, really wanted to love this book — I had seen nothing but glowing reviews of it, and the premise is so interesting: a mysterious disease that puts people into a deep sleep, for no rhyme or reason. I have a background in public health, so I adore a good fictional pandemic story, and I had high hopes for this one. Unfortunately, they weren’t quite met.
At the beginning, when the pandemic begins, it feels like your normal containment story, just one with much more lyrical prose. We are given glimpses into the lives of those that are still awake, and the work that they are taking to avoid getting sick. This book does have multiple points of view, but I think it only adds to the story that is being told; we can see their motivations, their fears, their secret desires, and it’s an amazing character study.
I know that it sounds like i’m being critical here, and yes, it is a review, but let me reiterate that I really did enjoy this book! Walker is an amazing writer, and she created a situation that felt urgent and believable. Her writing is absolutely incredible, and the characters that we got to know were lovely and sympathetic and sad, but in a good way.
I think my biggest issue is that I wanted more — at the end of this one, I was left wondering almost too much. Was Santa Lora the only town affected? How did the virus happen? What happened to the dreamers 5, 10, 15 years down the road? Walker created such a rich environment that it is little surprise I wanted to spend more time there. She spent so much time creating a world that the ending felt really abrupt, and after thinking on it a few days, that’s why my rating isn’t higher.
TL;DR: An absolutely beautiful book that will leave you with more questions than answers, at least for me.
If you liked this, try these:
“Perfect Little World” by Kevin Wilson (one of my favorite books of 2018!)
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