Book Review: Wanderers by Chuck Wendig
Copyright 2019 Solaris Books
I’m a sucker for post apocalypse stories. If you’ve read our ten favourite books post (and you should!), you’ll see that I picked The Stand by Stephen King as one of my top ten. It is my favourite book of all time because of the way King wonderfully shows the characters navigating the bleak landscape of an America devastated by a super flu. Other books like Joe Hill’s The Fireman and M.R. Carey’s The Girl with all The Gifts (another one of my top ten books) also do this really well, bringing to life worlds infected from a viral epidemic and a zombie outbreak in a vivid and captivating manner.
The central premise to Chuck Wendig’s 2019 novel Wanderers is about a world where suddenly people go into a sleepwalk-like trance and walk off in seemingly no direction. It focuses on four diverse characters and how this strange situation affects them. Each character feels fleshed out and has their own voice, their own personality. The main character is Shana, a teenager from a small town whose sister is the first person to go into the trance. Another is Dr Benji Ray, a disgraced doctor who used to work for the CDC and is roped back into helping with the situation by an AI called Black Swan. The third character is Paster Matthew who believes the sleepwalkers to be a sign from God. Finally, we have Pete Corley, a decadent rock star who hides his true self from his fans and family and sees the situation as a way of staying relevant.
Wanderers feels epic in scale but also incredibly intimate. Wendig does an excellent job of telling the story through the eyes of his characters. Their smaller conflicts play out against the backdrop of this worldwide pandemic in a really compelling way. At times it does feel like Shana's and Beni’s storylines get more attention than the others but the way the stories connect at the end is very clever and satisfying. The story also touches on real world fears and issues such as the rise of white supremacy and social media spreading disinformation. Wendig’s reflective writing captures these subtexts in a nuanced and poignant manner.
As the story changes gear into a more post apocalypse narrative, it becomes really gripping and tense. Wendig takes the story to some sinister and unexpected places. One big twist involving a major character is especially shocking because it upends what had been previously thought about that character. There’s a strong feeling that death could be lurking around the corner for any of the characters, making the already dire situation even more distressing. He also manages to hit the significant emotional beats beautifully. Characters reconnecting and an antagonist finally getting the comeuppance they so rightly deserve feel so rewarding.
Wanderers is a moving, grand tale about being human and survival that one minute has you laughing and the next fearful. Its characters are immensely relatable, their fears and dreams universally recognisable. The enthralling story with its twists and turns make it hard to put down and one that definitely needs to be read.