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Title: DreamlandAuthor: Robert L. Anderson
Series: none
Genre: YA - Paranormal, Fantasy, Horror
Original Release Date: September 22, 2015
Publisher: Harper Teen
Pages: 336
Source: ARC via the publisher
Rating: ★★★★☆
Odea Donahue has been able to travel through people’s dreams since she was six years old. Her mother taught her the three rules of walking: Never interfere. Never be seen. Never walk the same person’s dream more than once. Dea has never questioned her mother, not about the rules, not about the clocks or the mirrors, not about moving from place to place to be one step ahead of the unseen monsters that Dea’s mother is certain are right behind them.
Then a mysterious new boy, Connor, comes to town and Dea finally starts to feel normal. As Connor breaks down the walls that she’s had up for so long, he gets closer to learning her secret. For the first time she wonders if that’s so bad. But when Dea breaks the rules, the boundary between worlds begins to deteriorate. How can she know what’s real and what’s not?
Cover up your mirrors - let's go walking
Are you ready to start walking dreams with me? Before we start, let's go over a few rules first - cover up your mirrors, stay away from the water, always know where you can find a bird, don't interfere, never be seen, and never walk the same person's dream more than once. If you follow these rules, the monsters can't find you.
Intrigued yet? When I read the synopsis for this book, I immediately dropped the book I was reading and started this one. Normally I like to go into advanced reader copies blind because I don't want to be influenced by anybody's previous reviews and I loathe spoilers (even non-spoilers like summaries - I know I'm weird), but this one immediately hooked me.
Meet seventeen year old Odea Donahue (Dea for short) and her mother Miriam. Unlike you and me, they don't dream; instead, they can visit other people's dreams. As long as they follow the rules the monsters won't find them. This has never been a problem for Dea - until she meets Connor, the new kid in town. Connor is warm and likable. I loved Connor's character. He's fun to read about and exciting to learn about. He's cheerful, warm, and somebody I would love to be friends with in real life. Dea is kind of prickly, headstrong, and almost fearful. I occasionally wanted to give her a few “snap out of it” shakes, but overall I thought she was engaging. I would imagine a person like her would be constantly irritated by Connor's optimistic "everything-is-awesome" personality, but apparently that didn’t bother her. And just like most YA novels, there's a romance. And this one was adorable. Since the romance isn't the main focus, it's not overwhelming.
This book had me turning pages. It was exciting and suspenseful. The end of each chapter made me want to keep reading - even if it was 1:00 AM. I found the plot to be original and captivating. I like how natural the dialog was between characters. The secondary characters lacked slightly in depth. I didn't really know how to picture many of the characters, that is, except for the "monsters". I'm very rarely frightened when I read books, but I was taken aback by how much the monsters disturbed me.
Let's talk about the dreams. They were vivid. Mr. Anderson did a lovely (and almost poetic) job of describing the dreams. They were colorful and detailed, but sometimes a bit too detailed. Occasionally I’d find myself skimming over the world building that I thought was going on a bit longer than my patience could tolerate. There was one concept that felt recycled. The notion that dreamers will unconsciously sense the walker and put up barriers inside the dream to force them out. It felt sort of like the movie Inception, but that is where the similarities end.
The book was written in third person limited point of view. Since we only follow Dea's point of view, there were a few passages when I wondered why the book wasn't written in first person. I was also slightly annoyed with the inconsistent use of Dea's name in the beginning of the book. For the first 15% of the book the narrative frequently swapped between referring to the main character as "Odea" and "Dea", instead of just sticking with "Dea" (like the narrative did for the remainder of the book).
One last issue I had with this book was the language. I felt that there was too much unnecessary cursing. I don't care for f-bombs in third-person narrative. I typically like to look at YA novels as "PG-13" books. You can throw one or two s**ts in there or maybe one very well timed f-bomb, but four or five of them tend to land a movie right into an "R" rating. While the book wasn't overflowing with curse words, there was enough to make me want to mention it. Again, this is simply my own personal opinion of cursing in YA novels, so please don't let this [rant] prevent you from picking up this book. Just be aware of it if you are offended by strong language or are planning to buy this for your school library.
Intrigued yet? When I read the synopsis for this book, I immediately dropped the book I was reading and started this one. Normally I like to go into advanced reader copies blind because I don't want to be influenced by anybody's previous reviews and I loathe spoilers (even non-spoilers like summaries - I know I'm weird), but this one immediately hooked me.
Meet seventeen year old Odea Donahue (Dea for short) and her mother Miriam. Unlike you and me, they don't dream; instead, they can visit other people's dreams. As long as they follow the rules the monsters won't find them. This has never been a problem for Dea - until she meets Connor, the new kid in town. Connor is warm and likable. I loved Connor's character. He's fun to read about and exciting to learn about. He's cheerful, warm, and somebody I would love to be friends with in real life. Dea is kind of prickly, headstrong, and almost fearful. I occasionally wanted to give her a few “snap out of it” shakes, but overall I thought she was engaging. I would imagine a person like her would be constantly irritated by Connor's optimistic "everything-is-awesome" personality, but apparently that didn’t bother her. And just like most YA novels, there's a romance. And this one was adorable. Since the romance isn't the main focus, it's not overwhelming.
This book had me turning pages. It was exciting and suspenseful. The end of each chapter made me want to keep reading - even if it was 1:00 AM. I found the plot to be original and captivating. I like how natural the dialog was between characters. The secondary characters lacked slightly in depth. I didn't really know how to picture many of the characters, that is, except for the "monsters". I'm very rarely frightened when I read books, but I was taken aback by how much the monsters disturbed me.
Let's talk about the dreams. They were vivid. Mr. Anderson did a lovely (and almost poetic) job of describing the dreams. They were colorful and detailed, but sometimes a bit too detailed. Occasionally I’d find myself skimming over the world building that I thought was going on a bit longer than my patience could tolerate. There was one concept that felt recycled. The notion that dreamers will unconsciously sense the walker and put up barriers inside the dream to force them out. It felt sort of like the movie Inception, but that is where the similarities end.
The book was written in third person limited point of view. Since we only follow Dea's point of view, there were a few passages when I wondered why the book wasn't written in first person. I was also slightly annoyed with the inconsistent use of Dea's name in the beginning of the book. For the first 15% of the book the narrative frequently swapped between referring to the main character as "Odea" and "Dea", instead of just sticking with "Dea" (like the narrative did for the remainder of the book).
One last issue I had with this book was the language. I felt that there was too much unnecessary cursing. I don't care for f-bombs in third-person narrative. I typically like to look at YA novels as "PG-13" books. You can throw one or two s**ts in there or maybe one very well timed f-bomb, but four or five of them tend to land a movie right into an "R" rating. While the book wasn't overflowing with curse words, there was enough to make me want to mention it. Again, this is simply my own personal opinion of cursing in YA novels, so please don't let this [rant] prevent you from picking up this book. Just be aware of it if you are offended by strong language or are planning to buy this for your school library.
Overall
I enjoyed this book. The main characters were engaging, the plot was compelling, and the writing was solid. I had a few minor hang-ups, but nothing that would prevent me from recommending this book to appropriate readers. I'm disappointed that this was presented as a stand-alone. I feel like it would make a great trilogy. I definitely recommend this book to anybody who enjoys reading something different.
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