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A review by kierstenevan
The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker
4.0
Should I have read a book about a mysterious pandemic in the midst of an actual real-life pandemic? Maybe not, but I’m not known for my excellent decision making skills.
The Dreamers opens on a college dorm floor, where a freshman girl falls asleep after a night out partying and doesn’t wake back up. A couple days later, another girl on the same floor falls asleep too, and several more after her. Pretty soon, the students on that floor are quarantined to contain the unidentified virus. When the students escape though, the virus starts to spread throughout the community and the entire city is locked down, patrolled by the National Guard.
While The Dreamers did have some parallels to the past year - the uncertainty and being stuck inside alone, the heartbreak - I loved how vague a lot of the story was. The story centers on various characters - a couple of students from the dorm floor where the virus started, a father and his two daughters, a young couple and their newborn daughter, and an elderly man whose husband has dementia - and because of the various points of view, we never learn much about any individual character (or, for that matter, about the virus itself).
Parts of the ending were a little off-topic and were left unresolved, but given how much I enjoyed the rest of the book that didn’t bother me too much.
The Dreamers opens on a college dorm floor, where a freshman girl falls asleep after a night out partying and doesn’t wake back up. A couple days later, another girl on the same floor falls asleep too, and several more after her. Pretty soon, the students on that floor are quarantined to contain the unidentified virus. When the students escape though, the virus starts to spread throughout the community and the entire city is locked down, patrolled by the National Guard.
While The Dreamers did have some parallels to the past year - the uncertainty and being stuck inside alone, the heartbreak - I loved how vague a lot of the story was. The story centers on various characters - a couple of students from the dorm floor where the virus started, a father and his two daughters, a young couple and their newborn daughter, and an elderly man whose husband has dementia - and because of the various points of view, we never learn much about any individual character (or, for that matter, about the virus itself).
Parts of the ending were a little off-topic and were left unresolved, but given how much I enjoyed the rest of the book that didn’t bother me too much.