The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker – 320 pages
Book Blurb:
In an isolated college town in the hills of Southern California, a freshman girl 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 who carry her away, nor the perplexed doctors at the hospital. Then a second girl falls asleep, and then another, and panic takes hold of the college and spreads to the town. As the number of cases multiplies, classes are canceled, and stores begin to run out of supplies. A quarantine is established. The National Guard is summoned.
Mei, an outsider in the cliquish hierarchy of dorm life, finds herself thrust together with an eccentric, idealistic classmate. Two visiting professors try to protect their newborn baby as the once-quiet streets descend into chaos. A father succumbs to the illness, leaving his daughters to fend for themselves. And at the hospital, a new life grows within a college girl, unbeknownst to her—even as she sleeps. A psychiatrist, summoned from Los Angeles, attempts to make sense of the illness as it spreads through the town. Those infected are displaying unusual levels of brain activity, more than has ever been recorded. They are dreaming heightened dreams—but of what?
My Review: 4.5 stars – Guest Review
The Dreamers is a beautifully written, inventive, and frightening novel, that captivated me from the very first page and kept me rapidly turning the pages. This book is totally different than anything I have ever read. It is extremely hard to describe this book, since it is so complex. It cannot be characterized by any one particular genre. It combines and crosses over numerous genres that include: mystery, psychological suspense, science fiction, dystopian, literary fiction, and an outstanding character study.
This book is written in the third person narrative. Ms. Walker is a masterful storyteller. The book alternates among a variety of realistic characters and how the crisis impacts their lives, and the choices they make as a result. Every character is memorable, and their points of view are interesting, authentic, and compelling. I could connect to each character’s fear on a visceral level, as the catastrophe escalates and the mysterious illness rapidly spreads beyond the college campus.
Ms. Walker’s writing is poetic and lyrical. I found myself re-reading some passages that were psychologically complex in order to process the information and savor the poetic language and imagery. The chapters are short and made for easy reading, even though the subject matter is rich, complex, and thought provoking. Throughout the book, the author effectively balances science with fantasy. I learned a lot of information about dreams through descriptions of how the virus affected the brains of its victims. Some of the thought-provoking issues the book covers include: dreams vs. reality, the concepts of time (ie. past, present, future), the subconscious, and the puzzles of the human experience. All of these interesting topics never detract from the plot and forward movement of the story. Through the stories of the people impacted by the crisis, the themes of fear, courage and love are covered.
The author skillfully maintains a high level of tension throughout the book, and my nerves were at a high level throughout. The novel manages to be disturbing, beautiful, mysterious, and uplifting all at the same time. I am still thinking about the characters and plot, and think twice about falling asleep! This novel will appeal to fans of both literary fiction and science fiction. I am not generally a reader of science fiction, but this was one of the best books I have read all year. I highly recommend you give this book a try, even if this genre is one that you do not usually read. Review by Guest Fairy Ronna.
Quotes I liked:
It is easy to mistake a wish for a fact, a hope for a lie, a better world for the one that is.”
“She feels a swell of something else, too: that she has seen all this coming in advance, has been expecting it for years, not this disaster exactly, but some inevitable loss, some sudden coming apart, as if all those nights she lay awake worrying were all of them rehearsal for this.
“The human brain is subject to all kinds of misperceptions, and the waking mind not always more attuned to reality than the dreaming one.”
“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.”
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