The Vault of Dreamers (Vault of Dreamers Trilogy, #1)

by Caragh M O'Brien

Rosie Sinclair, who attends an elite arts school where students are contestants on a high stakes reality show, skips her sleeping pill one night and discovers that the school is really a cover-up for the lucrative and sinister practice of dream harvesting.

• ISBN10: 1250068258
• ISBN13: 9781250068255
• Publish Date: 16 February 2016 (first published 16 September 2014)
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Square Fish
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 448
• Language: English

Reviews

[cornerfolds]

It took me awhile to get around to reading The Vault of Dreamers for a couple reasons. First, I'd heard some pretty mixed reviews and I wasn't sure if it would be worth it. Second, I just wasn't sold on the description. I'd also never read anything by the author. But when I got the chance to listen to the audiobook I jumped at it! It seems that audiobooks are the only way I'll spend time "reading" certain books...

The main character in this story is Rosie and right away we know that she's a rule breaker. From the first moment we meet her, Rosie is running off doing what she's not supposed to be doing when she shouldn't be doing it. But that's part of her charm, right? I honestly did like Rosie for the most part! I didn't really have any serious issues with her other than her complete inability to trust anyone, but I guess she's come by that honestly.

Shortly after the story begins, Rosie meets Linus, a dishwasher in the school cafeteria. Their romance was satisfying enough for most of the book, but it just wasn't... great. In fact, all of the relationships in The Vault of Dreamers seemed a little inauthentic.

What I did love about this book was the story - it was totally unique! The Forge School seemed super fishy from the get go and it made me wonder why the students and their parents weren't a little more inquisitive about the whole sleeping regimen... but whatever. I can suspend my belief that much. A reality show as the cover for the whole operation was a really unique way to approach it, and never getting a moment of privacy definitely added to Rosie's problems. The creep factor as Rosie slowly uncovered the mystery of the Forge School was pretty awesome and I'll admit I was a little weirded out by it, which is good.

I also felt like the world building was pretty great! The stark contrasts presented throughout the book were tangible. Caragh M. Obrien certainly does a fantastic job of putting together a setting that feels real.

Unfortunately, despite the positives, The Vault of Dreamers just wasn't what I hoped it would be. Maybe my expectations were too high despite the mixed reviews, but I just wanted MORE from this book. The way Rosie interacted with, well, everyone was just weird to me - and not in a good way. I also wish a little more had been explained about the dreams and their purpose... The way the book ended left me totally unsatisfied, especially the way things went with Linus.

Overall, this was a decent book. I might read the second one just to find out what happens next, but I definitely don't feel any hurry to get to it.

[inlibrisveritas]

What? You can't end there...seriously!?

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The Vault of Dreamers brings two different ideas together for one weirdly fascinating ride. On one hand we have a very typical dystopian, “Everything is too perfect to be perfect” type story, and on the other we have a “Big Brother is always watching” story. They’ve been blended together in a way that makes the progress seem like a high stakes gamble,

I really enjoyed O’Brien’s book Birthmarked because her writing style is sort of comforting, so I immediately knew she would give me a story that I would enjoy reading and I wasn’t wrong. I did have some issues with it as far as believability goes, but I appreciated the overall story too much to dwell on it. Our setting is the exclusive Forge School, a institution devoted to cultivating the most creative minds in the country. These individuals are given complete creative freedom in their work all while under the constant camera coverage of the Forge Show. This is where people can watch their favorite students work and go about their normal lives on the campus. But all is not as fantastic as it seems and Rosie is on the fast track to find out just how screwed up Forge is under the surface.

The story itself starts out really great, with some interesting world building and character building but it does slow down toward the middle…making that portion a bit difficult to trudge through. I liked the idea of the school and even the vault of dreamers, because they are both such wild ideas that I haven’t too many similar ideas out in the book market right now. I do wish we had been able to see a more fleshed out version of her family, other than the little bits of flashbacks, but I did enjoy having Rosie as a narrator. She even had me wondering at times if she was a reliable one or not, which made the book even more fun.

Fair Warning: This book ends on a massive cliffhanger! Like a screaming at the top of your lungs, “How could you stop there?!” kind of cliffhanger. I can’t even believe it and unfortunately i can’t even hint at what it is because so much of the books fun lies with not knowing.

In conclusion The Vault of Dreamers is a fun thrill ride of a dystopian! It might now be the most plausible story, but I still enjoyed it and I look forward to seeing how the series will continue.

[Angie]

The Vault of Dreamers was definitely something different and kind of bizarre. That ending...what?! Did not see that coming, at all! The Forge School is a prestigious art school, but it's also the set of The Forge Show, a reality show that follows the students around all day. Rosie is one of the new students vying for a permanent place at the school and on the show, but once her place is secure, she risks it all based on some suspicions. Rosie doesn't like being forced to sleep for twelve hours straight, so she skips her pill, and notices that things aren't exactly normal in the dorm room. Someone comes in and hooks an IV up to another girl, they wheel their sleep pods out, and Rosie's not convinced it's for health concerns. Something strange is happening here.

I was really excited for The Vault of Dreamers, because I love school settings, and the reality TV angle boosted my interest even more. Thankfully, it didn't disappoint! It does kind of drift into weird territory in the middle, and I was worried for a few chapters, but then that ending happened. I just couldn't believe it! I love unexpected, unhappy endings, where the author takes a risk! My mind did conjure up some crazy twist, which was kind of right, but not really, but it ultimately ended with a typical YA Dystopian ending. This is not that! And I'm glad! It makes it stand out, and I was pretty disturbed by it.

A lot happens in The Vault of Dreamers, but I don't want to talk about it all for fear of spoiling something! You think the story is going in one direction, then something happens, and you think maybe not, and then it goes somewhere else entirely! It's impossible to tell who to trust when everyone is competing for rankings, even the school staff want drama to occur! There was a point where I didn't even trust Rosie! Totally mind boggling! I will say that I was a bit disappointed in the secret the school is hiding. It wasn't nearly as sinister as I was hoping, it was mostly just creepy.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[shannonmiz]

This book was one of those that I simply could not put down. It kept me up well into the night, long past when I should have gone to sleep. I was completely immersed in it, from beginning to end. Since I was reading an ebook, I was absolutely floored when I realized it was over 400 pages, because it simply did not feel long in the least. It sped by, in a good way.

The setting of the book is The Forge School, which is both an elite art school and a reality show that allows viewers to decide who stays to continue their education and who gets sent packing. The students are filmed 12 hours a day, and the other 12 are designated for sleep. Is it creepy that this seems completely plausible to me? It did. It sounded like something that I could seriously imagine happening in the not-so-distant future. As if high school wasn't stressful enough, the students/contestants have "blip scores" that will ultimately decide who stays and who goes. The students are constantly obsessing over the scores, since attending this school is a seemingly amazing opportunity. Of course, rarely are things what they seem.

The main character, Rosie, is quite likable, though I would have liked to delve a little deeper into her personality. She comes from a very rough upbringing in Arizona, and for her to be at the Forge School is an opportunity that she doesn't want to squander. But Rosie is also very curious by nature, and willing to take risks, which of course lead to her making some startling discoveries about the school and its leaders.

Rosie was a bit of a loner when we first meet her, but she ends up making some friends and even finding a bit of a romantic interest in Linus, who is on the kitchen staff at the school. Her new group of friends aren't particularly fleshed out, which is fine (I think it would have added more confusion to the story), but one group member, Burnham, has more of a storyline than the others and is quite likable. Rosie's family is shown through some phone conversations, and of course some of Rosie's own thoughts about them. While we don't know a ton about them, we do get an idea via their limited communication of what Rosie dealt with growing up.

The plot gets creepy as Rosie starts to skip her sleeping pill and try to figure out what is going on at the school. I won't get into it because obviously I don't want to spoil things, but I didn't know where the plot was headed at times (which was a huge bonus for me, and kept me wanting to keep reading).

The only thing for me that was missing was more character/world development. There were times that I felt like I needed to know much more about Rosie than I did so that I could connect better to her. I also wish I knew a bit more about the world around Rosie, the world that is fine with watching teens at school and voting on their fates, a world that allows some pretty intense stuff to take place without accountability. Perhaps it would have seemed more believable if we'd had more information.

At the end, things get really crazy. The book's ending is very fast paced, and ends in a huge cliffhanger, one that left me reeling. When I read this book, I had assumed erroneously that it was a standalone, and I was mad. But after looking into it, on Caragh O'Brien's website, she confirms that it is a trilogy, and I felt much better about the whole thing. I definitely will be reading the next book, as I cannot wait to find out what is going on and how things will play out for Rosie, Linus, Burnham, and The Forge School in general.