Dreamland

by Robert L. Anderson

Dea 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?

• ISBN10: 0062338676
• ISBN13: 9780062338679
• Publish Date: 22 September 2015
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 22 December 2022
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: Collins
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 336
• Language: English

Reviews

[Joséphine]

Audiobook rating: 4 stars
Book rating: 3.5 stars

Initial thoughts: The premise, set-up and circumstances gripped me a whole lot more than the plot itself. The idea of dream walkers who draw their strength from other people's dreams intrigued me. I know there are other books which play on this idea of entering dreams but they still are on my TBR pile. The reason I chose to start with Dreamland (besides it requiring lower commitment as a standalone) was the promise of monsters. These monsters were indeed fear-inducing but I thought the beginning felt a lot more ominous than the conclusion turned out. I'm not a fan of horror but somehow that was the very factor that Dreamland didn't feed on enough.

At least Dea was a main character whom I found myself caring about. She definitely wasn't the wisest seeing how she didn't heed clear warnings but I still rooted for her. Connor was alright. I kinda wish Gollum would've had a bigger role than Connor. The whole mystery boy catalyses danger trope is so old, so I got a little bored with the plot which didn't include many fresh hooks besides the actual dream walking and its dangers.