The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker

The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker

My Rating: ★★★★

When a young woman attending a small-town college falls asleep and never wakes up, it sets her friends on edge. As more people living in the same dorm fall asleep and are unable to be woken up, the college begins to act accordingly. Unfortunately for this small town, this does not stop the mystery illness from spreading and the inhabitants of Santa Lora find themselves overtaken by the sleeping sickness.

Told through a series of rotating narrators as well as various, unnamed, voices, Thompson tells the story of a mystery illness that sweeps through a small town. I found this book quite interesting because of the way it’s told. We swoop into various people’s lives long enough to see what they’re up to and how they’re dealing with the looming illness and town quarantine. There are also various chapters that are from unnamed voices. There’s a paranoid voice, scientist’s voice, newscaster’s voice, and so on. It makes it an interesting read. Not all of these voices are reliable, and even the reliable ones are not always something we can trust because the sleeping sickness is affecting them differently than we’ve seen in other characters.

While we pop in and out of various character’s lives long enough to see what they’re up to and what’s going on in town, it’s easy to care for them. For example, Mei is a young woman who doesn’t fit in well at the college. Unfortunately, she finds herself falling in love with a young man who constantly and abstractly says that he wouldn’t save her if other people needed saving. Sara and Libby are two kids growing up with a paranoid father who is always planning for the end of days. Thankfully for them, his planning keeps them well supplied with food and water as their town falls into chaos. These are only a few of the characters that we follow, but we do occasionally see the characters cross paths.

I will say that this is not a book for everyone because of the way it’s told. We don’t spend enough time with the characters to truly get to know them. We also get to know some characters more than others, but I can see how this style will not pull some people in. For me, it reminds me of those movies where there’s only one scene with each cast of characters, but their story is all somehow connected. In this case, everyone is connected by the sleeping sickness sweeping through their town. Some are scared while others are pushed into action. It makes for an interesting story that falls somewhere close to being a character study.

There are a few things left unanswered, like why there was so much focus on a muddy lake when it didn’t have anything to do with the story? Did scientists ever discover where the sleeping sickness initially came from? I thought it might’ve come from the lake, but once the illness is over, it was over. I can see why some of the questions are left up in the air, but the focus on the lake is something that should’ve been explained. Regardless, I think it’s a great story.