The Dreamers (2019)

The Dreamers is a science-fiction novel by the American writer Karen Thompson Walker, published on January 15, 2019, by Random House. Walker's second novel details an ominous sleeping virus that sweeps over the fictional town, Santa Lora, in Southern California. The story follows a group of college students and families, and explores their experiences with everlasting sleep and heightened dreams.

The Dreamers has received mixed reviews from critics. The novel has been critiqued for its lack of characterisation and dramatic tension. However, it has also been praised for its lyrical prose and unique storyline. Walker has also been commended for the sentimental value that is embedded in her story.

Background

Walker uses writing as a way to combat anxiety and fear for possible future disasters, which influenced her decision to write her first novel, The Dreamers as a psychological realism story. Walker spent five years thinking about the plot of her novel and conducting research into the logistics of sleep. Walker noted that one of her inspirations for the storyline came as a result of this intense process, as it made her realize how humans "haven't figured out why we sleep and dream." Walker claims that what interests her as a writer is how individuals react in situations of extreme disaster, a fascination that allowed her to consider what would happen if sleep became a contagious virus. Moreover, Walker claims that Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go, was a major inspiration that had an immense impact on the way she combined aspects of psychological and emotional realism with speculation. Ann Patchett’s novel Bel Canto, was another creative influence that helped her manage a plentiful cast of characters. Walker also noted that what she loves most in literary fiction are, "the characters, beautiful sentences, and the language," which comprises the structural focus of her novel.

Additionally, Walker claims that the premise for The Dreamers grew out of her debut novel, The Age of Miracles. Her first novel explores the various ways humans would suffer from the sudden halt of Earth during orbit. Out of this idea came the question of how an individual's sleeping schedule might radically change.

Plot

The story begins with a college student, Kara Sanders, who after a night out, returns to her college dorm room with symptoms of drowsiness. The following morning, her roommate, Mei, a first year college student, dismisses her sleeping figure for tiredness. However, when Mei returns to the dorm room in the afternoon, she finds Kara in the same position she was in when she left. Mei calls the paramedics, who rush Kara to hospital, where her heart rate slows down to a complete stop and she is declared dead. Soon after, Rebecca, another girl from the same dorm floor, falls victim to the sleeping virus. Rebecca's heart rapidly slows and she is deemed unconscious; however, her pulse remains completely stable; her only symptom is deep sleep. Unknowingly, at the time of her comatose state, Rebecca is also a few days pregnant.

A janitor from the college, Thomas Peterson, who worked on the same dorm floor as the sleeping virus victims, returns home to his two daughters, Sara and Libby. He proceeds to prepare his daughters for isolation from the virus. Meanwhile, panic ensues on the dorm floor when it is believed that the sleeping virus could be highly contagious. As a result, the dorm floor is quarantined. It is announced that a third girl from the same dorm floor has lost consciousness. With each of the cases, it is confirmed through the mapping of brain activity that the sleepers are dreaming. It is also concluded that there is more brain activity in these sleepers than there ever has been in any human brain.

On the fourteenth day of the outbreak of the sleeping virus, a researcher concludes that the virus is airborne, traveling in a similar manner to the measles and the flu. The patients, nurses, and visitors from Santa Lora Hospital at the time of the announcement are all quarantined and their ventilation is cut off.

During a wildfire that breaks out in Southern California, Thomas becomes a victim of the sleeping virus and will not wake up, leaving his two daughters, Sara and Libby, alone in their house. During the fire, the college kids escape quarantine. Mei decides to take cover with Matthew in a vacant house.

Nathaniel, a biology professor at Santa Lora college, goes to visit Henry, his lover, at a nursing home. The doctors say that Henry has a counterintuitive symptom related to the sleeping virus that is not present in the other victims, as he suddenly starts talking, after being comatose for years. He is one of the only victims of the sleeping virus where the sickness works in the opposite way; it enhances life and consciousness rather than diminishing it.

In the meantime, the victim count in Santa Lora rises to five hundred. As a result, the town undergoes a cordon sanitaire to prevent the illness from spreading to other towns in California, or to the wider continental United States. On the morning of this large-scale quarantine, Ben, a college professor, finds his wife Annie sprawled on the kitchen floor with her eyes fluttering rapidly, a victim of the sleeping virus. Soon after, Ben begins having vivid dreams. He knows something absurd is happening to his memory, as he believes that he is dreaming of events to come. Ben's baby eventually gets the virus too, followed soon after by Ben. The next morning, Sara finds Libby asleep on the floor, mumbling with her eyes wide open. Mei also catches the virus, undergoing a form of sleep paralysis, characterized by the feeling of pressure on her chest and her inability to scream out for help. Although Libby's eyes are closed and she is in a far-off state, she is still conscious and aware of the world around her.