Shana wakes up one morning to discover her little sister in the grip of a strange malady. She appears to be sleepwalking. She cannot talk and cannot be woken up. And she is heading with inexorable determination to a destination that only she knows. But Shana and her sister are not alone. Soon they are joined by a flock of sleepwalkers from across America, on the same mysterious journey. And like Shana, there are other "shepherds" who follow the flock to protect their friends and family on the long dark road ahead. For as the sleepwalking phenomenon awakens terror and violence in America, the real danger may not be the epidemic but the fear of it. With society collapsing all around them--and an ultraviolent militia threatening to exterminate them--the fate of the sleepwalkers depends on unraveling the mystery behind the epidemic. The terrifying secret will either tear the nation apart--or bring the survivors together to remake a shattered world.
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0 0Published in 2019, it’s like Wendig predicted the future. A global pandemic sparked by bat to human contact in Texas, fungal parasitism that caused humans to slowly devolve into dementia, political upheaval and a coup by extremist (and extremely racist and xenophobic) right-wingers, characters using religion to manipulate the masses (and someone behind it who doesn’t really even believe), artificial intelligence deciding who to save, and why.
I enjoyed the writing, it was clean and polished and well-constructed, but the first 2/3 or so of the novel felt extremely plodding, and like it could have been tightened up quite a bit for a more punchy and impactful reader experience. There was good character development, but not many of the characters felt fully fleshed out/like real people, particularly for a nearly 800 page novel.
Check CWs, as there are MANY for this novel.
Pacing: slow/medium. First 2/3 of the novel are quite slow with moments it picks up, final 1/3 or so is medium-paced nearly throughout.
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