Review: The Dreamers

The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Shades of Stephen King, in both the lyrical descriptions and many interweaving characters, in this novel about a strange plague hitting a small town. I was riveted, following along as they try ... and many ultimately fail ... to keep themselves and their loved ones healthy. It's always fascinating seeing how different people react to situations like this and I didn't see anything that rang false to me; all the reactions seemed very probable. I'll be watching out for more novels by this author as I think there are many successful novels to come for her.


Receiving an ARC did not affect my review in any way.


The first cemetery, long since closed to new arrivals, is packed with the dead of the Spanish flu. Some say their ghosts still roam the mansions on Catalina Street, now shabby and subdivided for students. The people of Santa Lora had known it was coming, that flu. They'd heard word of it traveling west from town to town. They tried to block the one road into town, but the sickness got in anyway, and then it spread through the town like news. Twice as many people died of that flu here as in the next town over, leading some to suspect, back then, that Santa Lora was cursed.
The idea still sometimes surfaces in certain superstitious minds. Whenever a teenager drowns in the lake or a hiker goes missing in the woods, some in Santa Lora wonder if this is a land destined for catastrophe. What if misfortune can be drawn to a place, like lightning to a rod?

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