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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
“This is how the sickness travels best: through all the same channels as do fondness and friendship and love.”
There is something strangely topical about this book, reading it in January of 2021. Even though it was published well before this very real pandemic broke out. And I'm not sure if that hindered my enjoyment of this book, or made it more enjoyable. I hope it was the first option, because I would like to imagine that this book is better than I thought it was while reading it.
To me it felt both empty and very full at the same time. There were a lot of characters to keep track of, which isn't necessarily something I struggle with, but to create an emotional bond between the reader and, I think, 6 different perspectives in the span of only about 300 pages is...tricky, if not entirely impossible. Which meant that, while reading, the story just kind of floated by, it just kind of happened. I didn't feel attached to any of the characters, so whatever happened didn't make me feel...well anything really.
I think this book tried to do...something. I'm just not sure what exactly.
My experience reading this was similar to english class in school; I could write pages and pages analysing an excerpt from one of the novels we read, but it didn't mean anything to me. I get why this book may move some people, why someone might be fascinated by it, but there was a certain aloofness in the storytelling that held me at bay.
There is something strangely topical about this book, reading it in January of 2021. Even though it was published well before this very real pandemic broke out. And I'm not sure if that hindered my enjoyment of this book, or made it more enjoyable. I hope it was the first option, because I would like to imagine that this book is better than I thought it was while reading it.
To me it felt both empty and very full at the same time. There were a lot of characters to keep track of, which isn't necessarily something I struggle with, but to create an emotional bond between the reader and, I think, 6 different perspectives in the span of only about 300 pages is...tricky, if not entirely impossible. Which meant that, while reading, the story just kind of floated by, it just kind of happened. I didn't feel attached to any of the characters, so whatever happened didn't make me feel...well anything really.
I think this book tried to do...something. I'm just not sure what exactly.
My experience reading this was similar to english class in school; I could write pages and pages analysing an excerpt from one of the novels we read, but it didn't mean anything to me. I get why this book may move some people, why someone might be fascinated by it, but there was a certain aloofness in the storytelling that held me at bay.
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This is a 3.5 that was a 4 at times. I love this author’s ability to create a sci-fi scenario in our own recognizable world. The writing is beautiful but the narrative is terrifying. I loved her other book so much that this one pales a bit. The Dreamers is unique and odd and literary and frightening and lovely all at once.
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I am torn in rating this book. I admit I really enjoyed reading this book with its dreamy narrative style with darker undertones. Yet after finishing, I can't say there is a lot to deeply ponder afterwards-- apart from the unexplained answers left to the reader to interpret. (I personally like books that provoke questions after reading about life and how to make the world a better place through one's actions now.) With the latest hype around [b:Bird Box|18498558|Bird Box|Josh Malerman|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1383949470s/18498558.jpg|26186624] where people violently end their lives after encountering a mysterious image associated with creatures you must not see, one could argue this book could be the matching yin to the violent yang of Bird Box. Here people quietly and mysteriously slip into a strange sleep and sometimes death.
This novel centers on a small, Californian town called Santa Lora with a college and a drying lake. An omnipresent narrator describes the events that unfold leading up to the first victim. At first, the narration is very detached and factual which creates a subtly chilling mood. For instance:
On the other floors of the hospital that night, women labor while the girls sleeps. Babies are born while she sleeps... She sleeps through sunrise, and she sleeps through sunset.
And yet, in those first few hours, the doctors can find nothing else wrong. She looks like an ordinary girl sleeping ordinary sleep.
There will be some confusion, later, about what happened to her there, how her heart could have slowed so much without setting off the monitors. But this much is known to be true: over the course of many hours, her shallow breaths turn gradually shallower.
It is hard to say afterward why the final beats of her heart go unrecorded by those machines."
Then the narration begins to become more intimate and delves into the thoughts of the town people--some who fall prey to the mysterious sleepy illness. We, as readers, even sometimes get a glimpse of what they are dreaming. The scientists are confounded that the victims' brains are more active than when one is awake. The fear of the unknown and how the illness is spread permeates. The mystery is certainly compelling, and each character almost is as captivating. Apart from the moments told from a parent's perspective, I didn't ever relate to any of the characters. To me I felt like the intention of the book was to be an overall dream-like adventure where the reader shares a consciousness with the author. The characters are just that-- characters seen briefly in a dream but inconsequential.
There are brief moments that touch on deeper philosophies and psychologies of sleep and life. I think an apt analogy the author touches on is the "zombie tree".
"He calls it that for the kids, this ancient stump. No trunk, no branches, no leaves, just a hallowed-out stump, and yet somehow, this stump lives on. The bursts of green in the grain of its wood--chlorophyll-- are proof of ongoing life, as if this remnant of a tree is at once alive and also dead.'How can this be?'...This stump's relatives are keeping it alive...They're delivering nutrients to its roots." Yet the symbolism ends there. I feel like there is a powerful message beneath all the sleepy layers of this book. Obviously the sleeping victims or "dreamers" are like this stump of a tree that is kept alive through the hopes of loved ones and medical interventions. Perhaps a deeper message is that living is not just about breathing and existing, but how we support one another through love? That one should not be a sleeper in life, but take more action to serve others? The theme could be more blatant or flushed out more.
With my own sleep deprivation (due to tending sick young children all week), I could feel both the hypnotic lull to sleep as well as the paranoia to NOT sleep. It made this a compelling read and I am glad I did read this book.
This novel centers on a small, Californian town called Santa Lora with a college and a drying lake. An omnipresent narrator describes the events that unfold leading up to the first victim. At first, the narration is very detached and factual which creates a subtly chilling mood. For instance:
On the other floors of the hospital that night, women labor while the girls sleeps. Babies are born while she sleeps... She sleeps through sunrise, and she sleeps through sunset.
And yet, in those first few hours, the doctors can find nothing else wrong. She looks like an ordinary girl sleeping ordinary sleep.
There will be some confusion, later, about what happened to her there, how her heart could have slowed so much without setting off the monitors. But this much is known to be true: over the course of many hours, her shallow breaths turn gradually shallower.
It is hard to say afterward why the final beats of her heart go unrecorded by those machines."
Then the narration begins to become more intimate and delves into the thoughts of the town people--some who fall prey to the mysterious sleepy illness. We, as readers, even sometimes get a glimpse of what they are dreaming. The scientists are confounded that the victims' brains are more active than when one is awake. The fear of the unknown and how the illness is spread permeates. The mystery is certainly compelling, and each character almost is as captivating. Apart from the moments told from a parent's perspective, I didn't ever relate to any of the characters. To me I felt like the intention of the book was to be an overall dream-like adventure where the reader shares a consciousness with the author. The characters are just that-- characters seen briefly in a dream but inconsequential.
There are brief moments that touch on deeper philosophies and psychologies of sleep and life. I think an apt analogy the author touches on is the "zombie tree".
"He calls it that for the kids, this ancient stump. No trunk, no branches, no leaves, just a hallowed-out stump, and yet somehow, this stump lives on. The bursts of green in the grain of its wood--chlorophyll-- are proof of ongoing life, as if this remnant of a tree is at once alive and also dead.'How can this be?'...This stump's relatives are keeping it alive...They're delivering nutrients to its roots." Yet the symbolism ends there. I feel like there is a powerful message beneath all the sleepy layers of this book. Obviously the sleeping victims or "dreamers" are like this stump of a tree that is kept alive through the hopes of loved ones and medical interventions. Perhaps a deeper message is that living is not just about breathing and existing, but how we support one another through love? That one should not be a sleeper in life, but take more action to serve others? The theme could be more blatant or flushed out more.
With my own sleep deprivation (due to tending sick young children all week), I could feel both the hypnotic lull to sleep as well as the paranoia to NOT sleep. It made this a compelling read and I am glad I did read this book.
I fully expected not to love this book as it's not my choice of genre. But I found myself really looking forward to reading each night as it was very well written and riveting. Highly recommend, even if it's not a genre that you normally read.
Really lovely prose, but not my kind of book. Almost felt dreamy reading it - I didn't relate to any of the characters (despite their being so many) and felt ambivalent when they died or dealt with tragedy, since the book was written with such distance. Technically a sci-fi book in that the main premise is a sleeping pandemic, but it was largely about time and love in a way that didn't seem to say anything bold or explicit. Definitely more of an atmospheric read, though not enough for my attention span.
Spoiler
I was also really put off by the lengthy descriptions of Rebecca's pregnancy. It felt strange to read such intense descriptions of a developing fetus that kind of went nowhere. I felt like I was in a pro-life ad, but to what end?
Odd timing for me - having picked this up right before the Corona virus hit. Kept me intrigued. Well written. Definitely recommend.
I don't really know why I liked this, but there was something about it that was so absorbing and almost meditative for me. Also, it was a little terrifying.