The characters were my biggest struggle in ‘Wanderers’. They are great in concept. We follow a girl whose sister is a sleepwalker, a CDC scientist, an evangelical preacher, and a few others who are not as directly impacted. Shana, the sister, drove me crazy. I do not believe that the author could write a female teenager well. She was so much like ‘I’m not like other girls’, so edgy and rebellious. You can make a character like that but also not make their chapters a major eye roll. I felt no strong emotional pull to these characters, but Benji, the scientist, and Matthew, the preacher, were my favorites to read from. I loved that we got to see the apocalypse from so many perspectives: religious, scientific, and then your normal everyday person.
I always love it when a science fiction novel takes place in our real world. This is very much an American-centric novel, but we do get bits and pieces of what is happening in other parts of the world. The reader goes on a great cross-country journey with these characters, and you can really feel the struggles of the atmosphere around them.
The writing is another aspect that I had a bit of a hard time with at the start of the story but grew more accustomed to as the novel went on. The dialogue wasn’t realistic; the way characters talked was just strange—people don’t really talk like that. This book was comedic at times, and I don’t know if those instances of dialogue, mainly Shana’s chapters, were supposed to be like that on purpose. Going along with that, the reader gets every little detail of the characters’ thought process, which I found to be unnecessary. This is a very heavy book, not just by subject matter, but the scientific discussions might go over the head of some. I found them to be interesting, so that did not hinder my experience, but this is a very heavily written book.
Here is a rare statement to come in a book review written by me: The plot was the highlight. This is one of the best science fiction plots that I have read in years. It is so logical and therefore scary by how real it feels. I do not have any clue how this book was published before the COVID pandemic because the author hit the nail on the head on how Americans react to a pandemic. There is a lot of commentary on politics and society. Yeah, if you are not a political person and read for escapism, maybe don’t pick this one up. There were so many twists and turns that I did not expect—some made me gasp, while others just made me sit back in almost despair. It is hard for me to sum up this plot by how epic it was.
The characters were my biggest struggle in ‘Wanderers’. I always love it when a science fiction novel takes place in our real world. The writing is another aspect that I had a bit of a hard time with at the start of the story but grew more accustomed to as the novel went on. Here is a rare statement to come in a book review written by me: The plot was the highlight. I loved this book even though at times, I did contemplate not finishing. I am glad that I stayed on and finished the journey with the characters. This was a great book, and I loved it, but it is not a new favorite.
by beaniebaby729