Review: Dream a Little Dream

Publication: Henry Holt and Co. 

Genre: Fantasy

Format: Hardcover, 322 pages

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Olivia Silver has just arrived in a new country. Again. Children of divorced parents living in different countries, she and her sister are no strangers to travel- especially because their mother insists on moving to a new country more or less every year. Almost immediately, this move is different. For one thing, their mother is dating someone, and expects the girls to interact- and live in a house with- him and his children. For another, Liv's dreams are getting more vivid, and more bizarre. Especially when she starting running into people in her dreams before meeting them in real life. 

Ugh. This book was just frustration after frustration. It was originally written in German, and I kind of feel like the underlying flaws in the story might have been exacerbated by the translation. The end result was a book that was absoloutely without anything to catch or hold my interest.

The most frustrating part of this story for me was Liv herself. She is one of the least sensible or aware characters I have ever encountered (and that's a pretty low bar, given some of my reading experiences). The girl doesn't seem to have the slightest sense of self preservation, she doesn't think things through- she doesn't really appear to think at all. I really didn't enjoy being in her head, it was just so infuriating sometimes!

I also didn't like any of the other characters. I didn't like Liv's family- especially her mother, who was... just kind of negligent, really. The boys Liv meets at school- and in her dreams- were all not character that I liked. The romance wasn't believable... talk about insta-love!

Another thing that bothered me about this book was the plot. There wasn't really a consistent atmosphere, or a consistent flow for that matter. Some plot lines just dropped off for measures... sometimes a chapter or two. This, coupled with there wasn't much sense to the plot at all, and I really didn't find myself pulled in at all.

Overall, this isn't a series that I think I'll continue with, it just really didn't work for me. I somehow felt like I couldn't turn off my inner editor the whole time I was reading it, and that really detracted from the reading experience.

Kelly

I'm a reader and reviewer from Ontario, Canada, which mean that sometimes library trips take place place through a foot or so of snow. I'm going into my third year of university, studying Environmental Sciences, which I juggle with my almost constant reading. I've been blogging at at my own blog since 2012, and I'll be helping Yani out here on Paper Boulevard as a co-blogger.