Reviewed by Kristin
Santa Lora is a quiet little college town tucked up in the
mountains of Southern California. Most of the townsfolk know their neighbors, at
least to wave at while walking their dogs or strolling with their babies. Many
work at the college or in some supporting business around town. And of course,
the college is where the sickness starts.
One night Kara falls asleep in her dorm room and continues to
sleep through the next day. Her roommate Mei, a shy Chinese girl who hasn’t
really bonded with anyone during their first weeks at school, quietly slips out
and leaves her to sleep. When Kara hasn’t awoken by the evening, Mei realizes
that something is wrong. The girl is quickly whisked away by paramedics, but
doctors can find no reason behind her slumber and all usual methods of
stimulation fail. She is simply asleep.
Other girls on the same hall soon succumb to the sleeping
sickness. Panic arises, although perhaps not quickly enough for precautions to
be taken. No one knows how this is spreading from one person to the next. Could
it be psychological, some form of hysteria? Transmitted physically by close
contact? An airborne virus? Before long, professors and other townspeople are
also tugged into unconsciousness by this mysterious illness.
Many voices carry this story as the author sketches out
characters with a seemingly effortless hand. Mei becomes close to Matthew,
another student with strong convictions of right and wrong. Sara and Libby are
preteen girls living with their survivalist father, always wondering what
paranoid idea he will have next. Ben and Annie are new parents to weeks-old
Grace and they would do anything to protect their infant. Catherine is a
psychiatrist brought in to help diagnose the illness and is soon caught in a
quarantine situation while her own daughter is hours away with a babysitter.
The characters are vivid and drawn with beautiful language, making the chapters
flow by quickly and smoothly.
Will the Dreamers ever wake up? The number of victims begins
to grow exponentially while caretakers and resources are stretched thin. Why do
some people remain untouched while family members suddenly close their eyes and
slump to the ground? If the sleepers ever do wake up, will they recover fully? And
what of those who do remain wakeful? Living through this extraordinary
catastrophe pushes them to their limits and tests their strengths while
exposing their most vulnerable human weaknesses.
Karen Thompson Walker is also the author of the New York Times
bestselling novel The Age of Miracles.
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