The Dreamers - Karen Thompson Walker

Fiction

Rating: 6.5/10

An ordinary town is transformed by a mysterious illness that triggers perpetual sleep. My interpretation from the book jacket synopsis was that this would be a dystopian tale that was more action based. What it was instead was an ethereal story that just floats along through the alternating narration of a diverse group of characters.

Always promising to take you somewhere, but never quite getting you there. Which, considering the title, may in fact have been the point. I kept going back to one of the lines; “Who are we to say that we are not right now in the dream of a better world?”

The writers voice is lovely, but I found it far too mild for the subject. It required in tone some heft and a degree of menace to properly pull you in.

Footnote: If you are anticipating an ending that ties up all the threads loosened in this story, you won’t be satisfied.