#benji ray

Wanderers

Chuck Wendig

780 pages

Del Rey, 2019

Shana Stewart’s younger sister Nessie is suffering a weird illness. She seems to be sleepwalking away from their farm and can’t be woken up. As she walks, never sleeping, never eating, never going to the bathroom, Nessie seems to be drawn to something. Other sleepwalkers join her and soon there are dozens and more, trekking across America’s heartland. Along with this flock of sleepwalkers, family members (dubbed ‘shepherds’) join in, walking toward who knows what. The CDC sends people to try to figure out this malady, the President doesn’t know what to do, and right-wing politicians start listening to religious conspiracy theorists that the sleepwalkers are the work of either Satan or terrorists. The flock of sleepwalkers and shepherds continue westward as another mysterious illness grips the country, leaving violence in its wake. And through it all the sleepwalkers continue their determined hike. 

There is a lot going on in this book. Between the mystery of the sleepwalkers, the shepherds unwavering support of their family members, the politics of treating people with an unknown illness, and one very smart super-computer, it almost seems like this book should be overwhelmed with too much going on - especially at a whopping 780 pages. 

And yet, somehow it isn’t too much. In fact, it’s just the right amount of everything. Characters as diverse as a disgraced CDC Doctor, a small-town midwestern Pastor, an aging rock star, a gun-toting white supremacist, and a farm girl who never stopped smarting from her mother’s abandonment, (and many more) every single character’s story is hugely important and has an undeniable impact on the plot.