Holy moly. I want to live in Chuck Wendig’s brain.

I don’t usually write my reviews as soon as I’ve finished a book. As much as I try to, I’m terrible about it. But this review almost needed to be written.

I loved the world that Wendig gave us all. Was the book a bit slow in places? Sure. Of course. But I think it needed to be. There were characters to meet. Places to be explained. Golden retrievers. Motives and pitfalls and failsafes and I don’t think this book would have been nearly as enjoyable (or as understandable) had it not been exactly the way it was.

And yes… the ever-present comparisons to The Stand.

Be prepared, though. This being a sequel, you’re going to have the read Wanderers first. And both books are about 900 pages a piece. Don’t let that scare you. It’s worth it. I’ve finished and I’m still sad that it’s over.

Also, to Mr. Wendig… may we have a Gumball the Great spin-off? I friggin loved that dog.

Thank you to NetGalley, Del Rey Books and Chuck Wendig for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Chuck Wendig has done it again. I loved Wanderers and didn’t want it to end, even though it was just shy of 800 pages so I was super anxious for Wayward.

Reading about pandemics is always a little uncomfortable and it was super weird that Wendig wrote so much of what happened to us in 2020 YEARS before it happened.

You’ll want to read Wanderers before starting Wayward. If you loved The Stand, you will love this too. There’s so much to digress into with everything that went on in the story, but I don’t want to ruin it since it is the sequel. Wendig has the ability to develop characters so well, that you can’t help but feel attached to them, Benji and Pete being my favorites. All the answers that were left hanging in Wanderers were addressed in Wayward, and honestly I didn’t see some of it coming. I laughed, I damn near cried, and I enjoyed all of the 800+ pages. Many thanks to Chuck Wendig, Ballantine and Del Rey for my review copy. Wayward is out now. 🖤

I really loved the Wanderers. This was a good sequel, and I enjoyed revisiting the characters. I do feel like the 800 pages could have been condensed, but overall the book gave great closure to the story. I received a free copy of this book from netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

The Sleepwalkers have made it to Ouray and woke up, and now we need to figure out exactly what Black Swan is and what to do about it. And we spend a lot of time getting to know Black Swan and we learn about how it came to be and its motives now that it has "saved" humanity. But...did it save humanity? And how is that affecting Black Swan?

If you enjoyed Wanderers, you'll enjoy this. We get to hang out with most of our favorite characters again. Shana actually has a baby (!) but then Black Swan kidnaps the baby using her sister. So of course now we have to go on a post apocalyptic roadtrip instead of getting our super-human fast growing baby back. I guess in the context of the book and world it makes sense....but this is what happens when men write women characters. Sometimes they get things *really* really wrong.
But I really enjoyed the roadtrip, so I'm glad we got it--I absolutely want to go visit that diner and hang out with Dot and Pete. I liked the exploration of how people would react to a world ending apocalypse, from scavenger to innovator. Algae as plane fuel (and thankful for that algae otherwise we might have been starting down the barrel of a 1k page book lol), jerry-rigged solar cars, large cities that break down into neighborhood like groups that may or may not be at war with each other. It was really well done. Then we get to figure out what is going on with Black Swan, answering most (I think most) of the questions we may have had from Wanderers.

But then we have...that ending. 1600 pages and THAT is the ending we get? A page and then a cheeky "where are they now" ala 80s movies epilogue? I mean, it was nice to see where all of our favorite characters end up, but...I don't know, it just felt like soooooo much build up for very little payoff. Regardless, I really did enjoy this book and found it to be a good sequel to Wanderers. 3.5 stars rounded down because that ending.

After readings Wanderers prepandemic and really loving it and it's characters, I wasn't sure about this sequal post pandemic. But the characters pulled me back in. Beautiful and heart wrenching, too believable unfortunately. Should be ready in order for sure.

Wanderers was such a fantastic book, and its timing was eerie (a story about a global pandemic released right before a real global pandemic? Yikes!) and I loved it. Here we have the sequel, and it's almost as good. A bit long and could have been trimmed down a little, but it's still a wonderful story as only Chuck Wendig can deliver. I liked revisiting the characters and the setting, but I don't want to say too much about it because I wouldn't want to spoil the nice surprises within. Suffice it to say, it's a wonderful sequel, so if you enjoyed Wanderers you're going to love this one.

This probably be a real brief review because I want to reign myself in from spouting off too much and spoiling this for anyone that hasn’t gotten to it yet. But this was definitely one that I was greatly anticipating so when I got approved on @NetGalley, I was so PUMPED!

I’m such a big fan of Wendig and tackled rereading Wayward in preparation for the debut of this sequel. I know some people have certain feelings about pandemic reads after ya know, living in one but l think when done in such an artistic way, I find them cathartic. I think Wendig had such a graceful yet realistic approach to such a tough topic. His ability to capture the human condition and reaction to such a life altering event was done so incredibly well.

Are the books chunky? Yes. But I assure you that the pacing does not waste time moving the plot along and I never felt like I came across moments where I would think they could be cut down. I found myself tearing through it completely enthralled hence why I’ve been recommending it to anyone I can. Seriously, you’d be surprised how easy it is to get through.

I’m so excited to get into more from Chuck Wendig as well as how I’m excited to get my paws on a physical copy to grace my shelves.

The world of The Wanderers continues with Wendigs next installment. As thick as the first book, Wayward continues with high creativity and a unique world where the Shepard continue to live out their utopia. I personally feel like this book could have been cut down quite a bit, but ultimately we have to let the amazing mind of Wendig spread its wings however necessary. Overall, this is a great addition and as a lover of The Wanders, thoroughly enjoyed catching up with our on old cast of characters.

CHUCK WENDIG CAN WRITE A SEQUEL TO BLOW THE DOORS OFF!!!

Wow. I finished this beauty yesterday and I am SO impressed!! If you haven't read Wanderers, go do that NOW. If you have read Wanderers and HAVEN'T started Wayward, what even are you doing with your life right now??

Okay...so, Wendig brings us right back to the world of Shana, Benji, Nessie, The Flock, and The Shepherds but in THIS book we get to learn WHY everything went down like it did...everything went down = world-ending cataclysm by way of the virus we learned is WHITE MASK. Wendig does everything in his power to answer burning questions of the how, what, who, when, and why but still...so much intrigue abounds in this second novel.

And Pete...oh, Pete Corley. You rocked my world in Wanderers. In Wayward, you stole my rock n' roll loving heart. And we'll leave it at that.

This book, much like the first novel, gets political but that does not bother me. Wendig calls a spade a spade and with no hesitation. It's one of the reasons why he's one of my top 5 favorite authors. The parallels to the Covid-19 pandemic will be a little freaky, but READ THE acknowledgements at the end of the book - some of these parallels freaked out Wendig as well! He informs his readers he did not set out to write a book about the future, but that's kiiiiinda what happened.

In closing, READ THIS BOOK. And if you haven't read Wanderers, do that now. Like, right now. Both books are TOMES but WELL worth the time you will spend reading them. And if you enjoyed Wanderers, Wayward is like winning the best kind of prize, in my opinion.

FIVE STARS. Wish I could give more. Thank you, Wendig. Thank you for this.

Huge thanks to Netgalley, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Del Rey, for early access to this stunner of a sequel.

I really liked the pacing and characters of this, but the plot was lacking and honestly I did find myself getting bored often. But still the writing was really good.

What a great read. To be honest, I had to definitely refresh my memory after Wanderers since it had been a WHILE since I had read it. However, I was not disappointed. The story picks up 5 years after the end of the previous book and we are in Ouray once again with our same characters. The story was well-written and engaging, much like anything and everything Chuck Wendig has created. The characters were just as complex and interesting and relatable as before, and the book was just as "edge-of-your-seat" exciting as the previous in the series. Full disclosure - it's long. Is it too long? Maybe, but the entire time it is enjoyable and exciting and I thought that was what mattered most of all.

This ebook was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

What: sequel to the sci-fo/dystopia/eco-fiction epic that is Wanderers
About: the start of this book is a MAJOR SPOILER for the end of Wanderers. Let's just say it continues the quest started in the first book to get AI-infected survivors of the White Mask plague to a safe location in the Rockies, beset by religious maniacs and a megalomaniacal president…and book 1 came out in…2019!
Features: complex interpersonal relationships, political machinations, zealotry, unending tension
Assets: picks up right where Wanderers ends. Jump right back in with characters you cared deeply about.
Obstacles: picks right up where Wanderers ends — a reread might be in order before starting Wayward. (I read this pre-release in 2019, and read it again in 2022. I had a completely different read this time with 2020/2021 in the rearview — even more prescient/powerful.
Who it’s for: if casual readers can look past the book's length, it's an extremely accessible continuation of the hero's journey/quest novel with some good science and well-developed characters.

As any reader of Star Wars books knows, the diversity and range of authors is as vast as the galaxy itself. Author of the Star Wars Aftermath trilogy, Chuck Wendig, published his novel Wanderers back in 2019. That book was freakishly prophetic in that it revolved around a global pandemic amidst great political turmoil in the United States. In short, Wanderers followed a mysterious flock who was making a trek across the country. Seemingly indestructible, this group was followed by shepherds, family members of the flock who wouldn’t leave the sides of their loved ones. As the country dealt with the catastrophic White Mask pandemic, the leaders of the United States took advantage of the flock for their own political gains. An unlikely group of shepherds banded together to protect the flock as they try to figure out just what exactly is going on.

Wanderer’s sequel, Wayward, continues the story and takes things to even more disturbing places (let’s hope Wendig’s not as successful in predicting actual world events this time around!). Before I go much further I think it’s important to note that reading Wanderers before Wayward is basically a requirement as these two stories tie directly into one another.

Wayward centers on Benji, a scientist struggling through grief to lead the residents of a mountain town in Colorado; Marcy, a former police officer who only wants everyone to get along; and Shana, the teenage girl who became the first shepherd—who finds the responsibilities of young adulthood almost too much to bear. A vile man who wormed his way to the presidency, Ed Creel, becomes even more powerful as the world crawls its way out of the White Mask pandemic. Ever present is Black Swan, the freaky A.I. being who’s nanobytes have kept the flock alive but as it evolves into an emotional being, risks the freedoms our heroes have worked so hard to fight for. Amidst a changed country, Benji and Shana go on another journey across the country with a mission to take down Black Swan and save their loved ones and quite possibly the world.

Wendig succeeds in telling a gripping and often horrifying tale about America figuring out how to be a country in a post-pandemic world. His main characters Benji and Shana are ones that I grew to really love and Wendig definitely puts them through the ringer in Wayward. This is one of those books where the unraveling of a mystery is most of the fun, but Wendig does a great job of drawing readers into the emotions of the lead characters and had me cheering them on the entire time. Wendig’s prose, while clear, well written and oftentimes humorous, can sometimes get a tad verbose for my taste (both Wayward and Wanderers are almost 800 pages each). There are a number of side characters and storylines that I wouldn’t say are completely unnecessary, but I found myself wanting to get back to the main story beats often. As a note, Wayward is solidly for adults only and includes language and depictions of violence. It’s not grotesque, but if it was a film it’d be R rated.

Ultimately, Wayward is a book I simply couldn’t put down for its combination of science fiction, dystopian fiction, fantasy, mystery, and thriller elements. I hear that the TV rights have been sold to these books, so we might be seeing these characters on screen in the near future too! I give Wayward by Chuck Wendig 🧢🧢🧢🧢/5 – recommend!

This is a follow up or sequel to Wanderers. It would be very readable on its own though.
It has everything you could ask for in a sci-fi novel. It touches on humans, computers, military, religion and a great many topics from the current world. Politics, pandemics, even best selling novels and rock and roll too!
In short, this is about a micro swarm, computer based, which develops to save humanity….except computers are not human…..this leads to problems of course…….
It starts rather slowly the first two or three chapters….but don’t give up. It is worth the read.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher gor allowing me this ARC.

QUICK TAKE: I liked it, but not as much as WANDERERS. Creel is a fantastic mustache-twirly villain, but Black Swan is kinda a dud, and I found myself rolling my eyes during all of its scenes. The Creel stuff though is really great, and I could have spent an entire book at Atlas Haven, or whatever the bunker was that they stuffed all the world leaders in. Ultimately, i think Wanderers and Wayward could have been squished into one book, but as a hardcore fan of post-apocalyptic, I am all in when it comes to 800 page books.

For those who read Wanderers, this becomes an auto-pick just like me and I definitely needed to know what happened to all those characters. They all have progressed in their lives after waking up and now are lookign for answers about the apocalypse. Again the size of the book was intimidating, but the need to know how they find answers kept me hooked. It was definitely a heavy read dealing with some relavent topics regarding technology in the current world. The who details about Black swan were interesting as sci-fi reader. Perfect for readers who enjoyed Wanderers!!!

Finally finished this one! Wayward comes in at 816 pages and is the predecessor of Wanderers. You have to read these books in order. Wanderers was one of my favorite books a couple of years ago. While Wayward is good, I did not enjoy it as much as the first book. Maybe due to pandemic fatigue on my part.

I did enjoy finding out what happened to Benji, Marcy, and Shana. The story did continue on with the lives of all the survivors, sleepwalkers, and shepherds. The people in Ouray learned more about why Black Swan put them together. The book does make you think about the A.I technology that is currently out there and what could come in the future. The message in this book is "the only way to survive the end of the world is together". Let's hope this sentiment catches on and we can come more together instead of being mean to each other and such a divided in thoughts and actions.

I will read every dystopia book Chuck Wendig writes. His vision and writing is fascinating and enjoyable. This is worth reading but expect a long haul on this book.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. #Wayward #NetGalley #ChuckWendig

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Wendig hit it out of the park with this follow up novel. Hands down one of the best books this year. Thanks to NetGalley for the advance reader copy!

Chuck Wendig has brought another "too close for comfort" thriller to readers with "Wayward," a sequel to his acclaimed 2019 "Wanderers" novel. In the first novel, we met Shana and the Flock, a group of traveling sleepwalkers mysteriously directed to a Colorado town after an epidemic. Shana and other "shepherds" protect the Flock until they're revived.

"Wayward" is a jump forward, The Flock is awake and thriving in their own way. Shana is pregnant with the first child, but something's wrong. The artificial intelligence that brought the flock together is determined to live on through Shana's child.

This novel takes readers much further into the creation of Black Swan, the artificial intelligence that imagined the apocalypse. We learn more about the self-proclaimed president who drew upon society's fears and now must pay the consequences. And as Shana and friends search for answers, we're introduced to a society that's barely standing.

Yes, this is a sci-fi novel. It has otherworldly elements, super powers and creatures from beyond. It's compelling. What makes it stand out, though, is how close it comes to current society. How we depend on technology, the decline of free thought, and the fear of climate, environment and health dangers. Wendig is a pro at intwining fear, the impossible and the possible.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for this arc!

Love, love “Wayward.” If you enjoyed “The Wanderers,” this is a must read. Definitely puts off some “The Stand” vibes and is beautifully written. I’m really enjoying Wendig’s work and can’t wait for the next book!