by Chuck Wendig
Review by Aimee
I started reading this just before the pandemic really kicked off. Not great timing…
It is a hefty book, some 800 pages long, and it’s very dark, very disturbing, and given it’s about a pandemic, very relevant. I read this back in March when the UK was going into lockdown. I had just finished work as my workplace was closed, and we didn’t really know a great deal about the pandemic, other than how it was spread, and a few guesses at where it originated.
Given everything was so unsure, this was not the book to be reading. It’s about a pandemic that spreads throughout the world, originating from a coronavirus (there’s the first uh-oh). Further to that, throughout the book you discover the origins of the coronavirus – bats (another uh-oh). It ticked all the boxes for how the pandemic started, along with how countries dealt with it. It’s unsurprising to say the USA did not deal with it well, and still aren’t. Given the UK aren’t in a much better position, it isn’t much to brag about, but there were so many similarities between the narrative of Wanderers and what was going on in the world.
I found a weird sense of comfort from this book. Despite all the similarities, and the sheer terror of living through a pandemic, this book took the pandemic so far that it made me realise what we have isn’t so bad. Taking the right precautions, and caring for our communities means that we can still live relatively fulfilling lives. I say this from a very privileged position. Other than being at home for the past 5 months, my life has not been touched by the pandemic. I’ve not lost anyone close to me, and I’m working from home so I still have an income. I know that this pandemic has been incredibly hard for a lot of people. So I recommend this book with a severe trigger warning.
There are some key differences from our pandemic to this fictional version. The outbreak is fatal for those infected, and it spreads so fast that the CDC can’t catch up with it. There is no vaccine, gang warfare comes into play quite heavily as major global powers start collapsing, and what makes it all the weirder is that there’s an AI that is terrifyingly in control of the population. The title Wanderers comes from those immune to the disease. They don’t catch it, but they do become walking, practically immortal zombies. Their skin can’t be pricked by needles, and they continue walking at a steady pace towards a seemingly endless destination.
I can’t explain the whole 800 pages here, and I wouldn’t want to because there are so many wonderful and disturbing twists that I’d have to write the whole book out to explain it. I just know that I found some weird kind of comfort in knowing that whatever is going on in the outside world, it’s not as bad as on these pages. This book is brilliant, and I beg people to read it, but with a word of warning: make sure you’re strong enough for this level of devastation. It hurts, it’s twisted and disturbing, but it’s fantastic.
Book Details
Publisher: Rebellion
Date Published: 11th July 2019
RRP: £18.99 from Waterstones, or check with your local library
ISBN: 9781781088104
Synopsis: Taken from Waterstones
The story is an epic tapestry of humanity, told in a chorus of disparate voices, including Shana, a young girl who wakes up one morning to discover her sister in the grip of a strange malady.
She appears to be sleepwalking. She cannot talk and cannot be woken up. And she is heading with inexorable determination to a destination that only she knows. But Shana and are sister are not alone.
Soon they are joined by a flock of sleepwalkers from across America, on the same mysterious journey. And like Shana, there are other “shepherds” who follow the flock to protect their friends and family on the long dark road ahead. For on their journey, they will discover an America convulsed with terror and violence, where this apocalyptic epidemic proves less dangerous than the fear of it.
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