Walker's highly anticipated follow-up to The Age of Miracles (2012) is a similar modern fantasy in which strange things that change the course of the world start to happen to everyday people. In this novel, a sleeping sickness slowly overcomes students at a small Southern California college. By the time anyone recognizes a pattern, it's too late to quarantine the campus (though they try), and the odd malady spreads to the surrounding town. Those stricken suddenly fall asleep and cannot be roused. Tests show that while they are not under any physical duress, they are having vivid dreams. The novel follows an assortment of specific victims, including a college freshman with a secret even she doesn't know, a doomsday-prepper-type and single father of two wild girls, and a mother who leaves a newborn baby and a perplexed husband behind. Readers will be drawn in by the telling as Walker manages to create spare prose that nonetheless conveys great detail, an approach that works well to add a bit of tension to this simultaneously languid and lush tale.--Rebecca Vnuk Copyright 2018 Booklist