Wow. Chuck Wendig manages to wend a tale of climate disaster, AI, and radical white supremacy into a beautiful story of love, survival, and hope.

A fascinating, unique journey through a near future scenario that chilled me to the bone. I stayed up WAY past my bedtime to finish this one. Will enjoy passing the story along to library patrons.

The Wanderers Review

I read The Wonderers, a new novel by the multitalented Chuck Wendig courtesy of Net Galley. They sent me the ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

Given the author's reputation and my previous encounters with Wendig's books, I had high hopes. I continued to be excited by the book through the first two chapters. A young girl wakes up to discover her sister is missing. She appears to be sleepwalking. She cannot talk and cannot be woken up. Where is she walking to, no one knows but soon others join her. Many others. They walk and walk, not stopping whatever the obstacle. Intriguing, mysterious and compelling. To a point. The group's journey drags on for some 400 pages, and I do mean 'drag.' There are some interesting moments with white supremacists, politicians and others, but as the novel slowly works its way to an environmental armageddon, it gets caught up in computer gobblygook, mysticism and just way too many plotlines and characters to keep track of . Unless you are a diehard 'end of the world as we know it' fan, you may find yourself getting bored by the first 100 pages.

Shana believes her sister Nessie has run away when she sees her marching from their farm to the road in a comatose state. Nessie can’t communicate, only stares straight ahead and when Shana attempts to physically stop her, Nessie’s temperature rises to a boiling point and she starts shaking. As soon as Shana lets go, Nessie continues to march. Along the road other “sleepwalkers” join Nessie until they’ve become quite a flock, and family members who walk beside to protect them are their shepards. In the meantime cave bats are disturbed because of illegal construction and as they fly out they bite those nearest to them. Within two months the bitten become very ill, with dementia, and develop strange fungus growing on them. The disease is highly contagious and leads to a world wide pandemic that can’t be stopped.
There is so much going on in this novel, so many sub plots, such as right wing and left wing politicians, and the type of people who support the right wing, as well as the many back stories of the main characters. Most of the plot could happen today and is believable, and some portions of the story are truly sci-fi.
An enjoyable read that goes on for too long and I think the plot could be tightened , and its a little too graphic for me at times.