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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
This book was a big miss for me. The concept was interesting but the description behind what was happening to the "dreamers" was half-baked. Lots of storylines also led to shallow character development. Disappointing, because the premise of the book showed a lot of potential.
Beautifully written but so bizarre. It did not make me as anxious as The Age of Miracles but was still uncanny to read about a mystery virus during a pandemic
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Ending let me down
dark
emotional
sad
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
This read was provided to me through Net Galley for a fair review.
The title of Karen Thompson Walker's newest novel, The Dreamers, is apt. Walker writes in such a style that you find yourself feeling as if you are in a dreamlike state through much of the book. The pace and descriptors leave you well immersed in the mood and tone of the story. I found myself picturing this small town and really understanding how the geography, which plays an important role in the plausibility of this tale, and the characters could really exist within the proposed circumstances.
Unlike other stories that portray the bleak fallout of a fatal pandemic, The Dreamers breaks barriers by introducing you to a variety of vignetted characters who are impacted by a seemingly inexplicable breakout of a strange and fatal sleeping disease. Centered around a college community, we are first introduced to the ever active and political college students who first experience the disease. Several students lead the charge to become activist heroes who embody the impassioned ideals that only the youthful can embrace. Meanwhile, children and adults alike within the community are introduced as side stories that lead you through how tragic such circumstances can be for the individual. The most haunting may be the story of two men who are partners and experience a brief reversal of fortune when one of them contracts the disease but because of his dementia finds himself getting better rather than worse. The hope embodied in these circumstances shows us just how isolated we can become in a tragedy.
Isolation plays a big part in this story as we see character after character left to go solo as friends and loved ones leave them either consciously or unconsciously. Isolation is also the only perceived way to remain healthy.
One cannot help but reflect on life today and how this book may be asking us to look around us and take stock of what we have and what the cost is to remain secure in your immediate and communal surroundings. What can you depend on? Who can you depend on and what would you do if all of that slipped away?
The title of Karen Thompson Walker's newest novel, The Dreamers, is apt. Walker writes in such a style that you find yourself feeling as if you are in a dreamlike state through much of the book. The pace and descriptors leave you well immersed in the mood and tone of the story. I found myself picturing this small town and really understanding how the geography, which plays an important role in the plausibility of this tale, and the characters could really exist within the proposed circumstances.
Unlike other stories that portray the bleak fallout of a fatal pandemic, The Dreamers breaks barriers by introducing you to a variety of vignetted characters who are impacted by a seemingly inexplicable breakout of a strange and fatal sleeping disease. Centered around a college community, we are first introduced to the ever active and political college students who first experience the disease. Several students lead the charge to become activist heroes who embody the impassioned ideals that only the youthful can embrace. Meanwhile, children and adults alike within the community are introduced as side stories that lead you through how tragic such circumstances can be for the individual. The most haunting may be the story of two men who are partners and experience a brief reversal of fortune when one of them contracts the disease but because of his dementia finds himself getting better rather than worse. The hope embodied in these circumstances shows us just how isolated we can become in a tragedy.
Isolation plays a big part in this story as we see character after character left to go solo as friends and loved ones leave them either consciously or unconsciously. Isolation is also the only perceived way to remain healthy.
One cannot help but reflect on life today and how this book may be asking us to look around us and take stock of what we have and what the cost is to remain secure in your immediate and communal surroundings. What can you depend on? Who can you depend on and what would you do if all of that slipped away?
challenging
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
"No one is using the word -quarantine-, but Mei looks it up. From the Italian, -quaranta giorni-, forty days. Forty days: the period that ships were once required to wait before entering the port of Venice - time enough, they hoped, for a contagious disease to burn itself out".
--
"A few sick strangers... is only one of a hundred bad stories that must be overlooked every day. To close one's eyes can be an act of survival".
--
"This is how the sickness travels best: through all the same channels as do fondness and friendship and love".
- -
Very vague and mysterious in tone but matches the idea behind the story itself I suppose. A slow burn for sure regardless of how hard-hitting a contagion story is right now.
--
"A few sick strangers... is only one of a hundred bad stories that must be overlooked every day. To close one's eyes can be an act of survival".
--
"This is how the sickness travels best: through all the same channels as do fondness and friendship and love".
- -
Very vague and mysterious in tone but matches the idea behind the story itself I suppose. A slow burn for sure regardless of how hard-hitting a contagion story is right now.