Dan Chaon is an incredible writer, and Sleepwalk gripped me from the start. I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to read it ahead of it's release, because this is one I'll be recommending all summer.

I have really enjoyed Dan Chaon's prior work, but this one fell really flat for me. I hated the writing and the main character didn't feel real to me.

My third Dan Chaon novel after Await Your Reply and Ill Will,, and Sleepwalk once again proves why I'm always excitedly anticipating what he'll come up with next. For the uninitiated, Chaon writes dark, twisty crime thrillers that are highly original and unpredictable, usually featuring seedy anti-heroes and his trademark midwestern noir. Sleepwalk, as far as I can tell, seems to be his first time dipping into science-fiction and dystopia, but it also finds the author right on form with outrageous characters, wild plot developments, and a vibe that falls somewhere between the surveillance-state paranoia of Philip K. Dick, and a stoner "Never Let Me Go." Whether this always works is something I'm still mulling over, but the book is a lot of fun, and even frighteningly prescient about where technology and its abuses could be headed.

Some of this book I really enjoyed and some of it was just not for me.

I mostly disliked the use of the word "retarded" and was very shocked that that word is still being used. I think a lot of people will be upset by that.

I loved the parts about him and his daughter and that's what kept me going. The book is broken up into short 2-3 page sections which make it really easy to read quickly.

Ultimately, I think a lot of people will enjoy the fast-paced story telling, but I won't be able to recommend it.

Thanks so much to Henry Holt for the chance to read and review this book prior to release. This will be available for purchase on May 24th.

What a wild ride.

Dark, near-future dystopian novel that doesn't dwell on the setting or reasons for the downfall of society. Instead, we hook up with Will Bear as his passenger as he traverses the country as an Uber driver for the criminal world. He's a gruff, hired thug at times, yet Chaon throws some dark humor in the mix to make an engaging, wild ride of a novel. This will be a tough one to recommend to the right reader, but when you do...

I love everything Dan Chaon writes and this was no exception. I wish there had been more meat around the cults and the end of the world but realize that wouldn't have fit Billy's character.

This goes from slow burn to what the heck is going to to crazy town. A wild ride with eccentric characters. Set in a future USA where Manhattan has flooded and martial law has been enacted, Will is introduced as a bounty hunter/fixer of some sort as he careens across the country. The imagery is vivid, and very, very funny:

"And now I am pretty clearly being pursued by a swaggering two-story drone whose every gliding movement somehow communicates joie de vivre. Still, I do not want to die under the hydraulic foot of the Pokey-man."

Drones, chases, pink sunglasses, a communicative chimpanzee. DNA ancestry implications, cults, megalomaniacs. Shades of The Matrix, shades of Orphan Black, with a little bit of The Road and Mad Max thrown in for good measure. But 100% unique.

My thanks to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Sleepwalk takes place in a dystopian, near future. Billy Bear has been living off the grid since he was eighteen. He works as a henchman where he travels around the country collecting people for various reasons. One day, he gets a call from a woman named Cammie, claiming to be his daughter. They begin conversing and start to trust each other. After he begins this interaction with Cammie, Billy learns things he never knew about his past.

This was a fast-paced dystopian story that had some of the characteristics of a mystery or thriller. From the beginning, it is obvious that something is not quite right in Billy’s life and he has this feeling as well. As the story unravels, so does more of Billy’s past. I enjoyed the short chapters of this book, but it took me a little while to become invested in the plot. It was really dark at times which required taking breaks occasionally. There are a lot of interesting ideas about the future of our society that were explored by the author through Billy’s story. Billy himself was a flawed, but entertaining narrator.

I received this from Netgalley.com.

Set in the not too distant future, "Will Bear thinks of himself as the Barely Blur, and spends his time hopscotching across state lines in his beloved camper van."

Good story. I can see this made into a movie with Jesse Plemons as lead. The story is told in snippets moving back and forth in Will's life as he travels around the country with Flip, his canine companion.

4.25☆

Readers are usually in good hands when proceeding through a Dan Chaon novel, and Sleepwalk is no exception. Mr. Chaon retains many of the elements from the thriller/crime dramas he is known for, but also expands into something a little more literary and definitely more dystopian. And it works. The narrator and his dog make a great guide for this world Mr. Chaon has created and the narrator makes for an interesting protagonist. Well past middle age, big, tough and cerebral but with a soft side, a killer engaging in mysterious errands in the criminal underworld while driving all over the country to achieve these sordid tasks. The novel, however, really centers on the relationship between this narrator and his heretofore unknown daughter, the consequence of ill advised sperm bank deposits in the narrator's youth. To give away anymore, would be to give away too much. I will say that the narrator is so appealing, in part, because he is completely off the grid -- no home, no phone number, no social media, not even a social security number. He lives in a motor home and he drives and drives and drives and the book can sometimes feel like you're sitting in the passenger seat next to the narrator, with his curious dog looking up at you from the floor, as you venture out on to this peripatetic road trip. It is a lovely narrative device. And he is funny. There are, however, some odd non-sequiturs into racial commentary that can feel like pandering and does not serve the story at all. But overall it is a thrilling read grounded by a heartfelt story and a fascinating protagonist.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Henry Holt and Company for an advanced copy of this thriller set in a America a few years from now.

Every so often a reader comes across a book that speaks so much to the soul of that reader that the first thought is "Where has this book been all of my life", with the second thought being "How am I so late to reading anything by this author". A vision of America maybe ten minutes in the future when the idea of Canada setting off an EMP pulse to stop traffic on a bridge, and that organ thieves are fairly ethical cause they only take what you have two of are just some of the things that appear in this book. And these are just asides. Other authors would have an entire series based on this, or at least a season on Netflix. Sleepwalk by Dan Chaon is a book that will sneak up on the reader, and consume the rest of the reader's day or night, whatever it takes to get to the end of this journey.

Our narrator has so many names and aliases that he just refers to himself as the Barely Blur Living off the grid for almost half his life, Blur works as a modern mercenary, delivering babies, indentured servants, cleaning up crime scenes, whatever he needs to do to survive. One day one of his numerous burner phones rings, which should be impossible. Soon all the phones are ringing. A voice tells him that she is his daughter, that she has many siblings, and that he is not alone in the world. And that they can help each other.

A simple start but the book is never simple. The plot is tight and goes from 0-100 mph quickly, but never leaving the reader behind, or info dumping too much stuff. Everything is explained, sometimes just enough to make you want more, but the book never stops moving. This is a real gift as the America here is a slowing dying husk, where only the highways and rest stops seem to work. The characters are all well developed, including Flip the dog, who should have a sequel, he deserves it.

A road novel filled with big ideas in a dying country, maybe even a world. So many ideas and so much inventiveness on every page. Fans of Mark Leyner or Steve Erickson will definitely enjoy this. Fans of the comic writer Grant Morrisson and listeners of the podcast Last Podcast on the Left will like this too. This is the first book by Dan Chaon I have read, but not the last. A book I had no idea what to expect and was surprised and enraptured the whole way through.

This is an interesting novel. Set in the near future, it focuses on Will, who after a questionable past that he partially does not remember and partially chooses to actively forget, now spends his life crisscrossing the United States performing tasks for a shadowy and powerful operation that Will knows little about. He is considered valuable to the operation because his identity is unknown to authorities. His only regular companion is a rescue dog that is dealing with its own traumas. Out of nowhere one day, he is called on one of his burner phones by a woman claiming to be his daughter. The caller says the two of them are products of a vast international conspiracy involving some of the world's most powerful figures, and that she needs Will's help to survive. Will does not know what to make of the caller. As they remain in communication, he gradually beings to believe her -- or at least parts of her story -- leading him to confront parts of his life he has long hidden.

This was both a terrific thriller and an interesting exploration of the dimensions of family and other personal relationships. Highly recommend this highly original novel.

I really liked this book. It has a “Delivery man meets Orphan Black” type vibe to it with a taste of conspiracy. The main character Will manages to play a fun balance between 50 something year old with lived experience and bodies buried, to stoner dude in his 20’s, and it was really easy to resonate with him. Bonus points also because Will’s trusty sidekick is his beloved dog Flip. I also hugely appreciated that Will’s developing relationship with his daughter is the closest thing to a love story in this book. This has really campy vibes and I definitely recommend it!

Will (or whatever his real name is) sleepwalks through a dystopian nightmare from which he may never wake up. Throughout, he is gently coaxed into contemplating his traumatic past and life choices by a disembodied voice claiming to be his biological daughter. With this as his premise, Chaon gives us a remarkable meditation on the dangers of isolation and the human need for identity and connection.

His setting is the near future in America. With our present in mind, Chaon congers up a menu of catastrophes that seems not only likely but inevitable. These include pandemics, economic recession, decaying infrastructure, climate deterioration, rampant crime, corruption, run-amok technology, and the prevalence of dangerous conspiracy theories. His narrative suggests mankind may be recovering from some vague apocalypse (possibly an ill-advised conflict between superpowers) where people have come to accept as necessary inconveniences, surveillance by robots and drones along with menacing blockades.

Chaon’s protagonist is a middle-aged loner working as a fixer/errand-boy for an obscure outfit with the ambiguous title of “Value Standard Enterprises.” Despite almost constant travel, the novel has a claustrophobic feeling. Its protagonist lives off the grid in a camper he lovingly refers to as “The Guiding Star.” Communicating exclusively via burner phones, his sole contacts are with a woman at the home office named Experanza and Cammie, a young woman who purports to be the product of a youthful sperm donation. Chaon intersperses these conversations with Will’s recollections of a bizarrely dysfunctional youth.

Will has loads of shortcomings, including a complicated past resulting in traits suggestive of PTSD. He is a paranoid skeptic, who self-medicates with marijuana, alcohol, and LSD. Moreover, he steals and murders with no apparent remorse. Notwithstanding these flaws, Will is a hairy good-natured frump who is quite likeable. Caring relationships with two traveling companions characterize his most endearing qualities. Flip is a fighting pit bull that Will rescued from an abusive situation and Cammie is his putative daughter who tracked him down to warn him about some vague dangers. These two damaged characters are wonderful creations, who provide opportunities for comic relief from what is otherwise a dark and pessimistic novel. Notwithstanding chaotic plotting with too many frayed loose ends, this is an exceptionally entertaining reading experience.

Dan Chaon never fails to amaze me with his stories. In this one, a man known by multiple names (collectively the Barely Blur) lives outside of the government's eye in a near-future American, even more broken than our own, but not quite apocalyptic. This almost-but-not-quite similarity to the present makes his world that much more frightening as it seems like it could be a possibility any day now. When a young woman breaks through his carefully constructed personas to tell him she's one of his over 150 children from his donations to a sperm bank, his carefully constructed world starts to fall apart. Is this woman really his daughter, or just a con artist? If she is his daughter, what does he owe her? Or should he just kill her and move on like his boss instructs?

When I saw "off the grid" and previously unknown biological daughter, that was enough for me to want to read it. I had no idea where the actual story was going and the further I read, the more caught up in it I got. I had no idea how it was going to end. The whole fractured America is way too realistic. The story is perfect for fans of Mr. Robot.

Grateful for the opportunity to read this book in advance. Dan Chaon is one of my most favorite authors and SLEEPWALK was one of my most anticipated releases of 2022. It did not disappoint.

As in Chaon's previous work, there is a current of darkness that runs throughout the novel, which follows a many-aliased man as he criss-crosses a dystopian America performing tasks for the shadowy organization that employs him. It's a high-concept plot, but I found it easy to digest, especially as the pacing kept it moving along so smoothly. My favorite was the sly way he unveiled the state of the world—a mention of robots, for instance, as if the existence of such things were normal.

Right up until the last page I couldn't shake the feeling that there might be a big twist waiting somewhere just a little further out of view. The question of what's real and what isn't permeates everything, and it kept me guessing.

This book was really original and innovative. It did have a really slow pacing, but I kept reading because the main character was so compelling.

This book is a wild ride. The writing is easy, accessible and intelligent. It takes place sometime in the future where there doesn't seem to be a rule of law. The main character, Billy and his trusty dog, Flip traverse the country doing jobs for his nefarious boss. Along the way, his burner phones start ringing and it is a young woman that claims to be his daughter. You don't know who to believe or trust but you tag along for the ride. And what a ride it is! This book is part Mad Max part Elmore Leonard. It's all adventure story. I think it would make a great movie. I do feel it dragged in places but the writing is so smart, I kept with it. It's witty and funny.

I read Ill Will and enjoyed it, and was excited to receive an ARC of this new book thanks to the publisher. Likeable but complex main character, and a surreal atmosphere. Not incredibly fast moving so it might not be for all readers.