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Let's Talk!: Dreamland by Robert Anderson
9/11/2015Dreamland
Pages: 336
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release date: September 22nd 2015
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?
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I got this book via Edelweiss from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Dreamland was an interesting book, if I shall say. I really enjoyed this book. It had some light, cute moments and other moments the intensity of the book hit's you in the face and you are left with such a emotional feeling and all you want to do is KEEP. READING. Overall, I really enjoyed this book but there were some things that bugged me.
Our main character, Dea, lives with her mom and they move around a lot. Not only that but her mom doesn't have clocks or mirrors in their living space. Already you can tell there is definitely more to Dea's mom than a crazy lady with weird motives. One thing that could have been improved with this book was Dea getting more character-personality-put into her. I finished this book and tried to come up with three words to describe her. I look back on those three words and kind of cringe because of how boring and common they were. (Words like happy! And kind!) I wish I could have put better words to describe her. I am expecting this book to have a sequel so I am hoping to learn more about her personality in the next book.
Even if I felt like Dea didn't have much character, the character development she went through was great. In the beginning of the book, she is so clueless about her past and where she comes from. By the end of the book, she knows all this information about her roots is all revealed and that really changed her for the better.
Here is the part I enjoyed the most: the plot of this book. It all went at a really nice pace and not at all did I feel like it was being rushed. The dream-walking aspect of this book was also something I really enjoy about this book. Dreamland really gave a glimpse of the history and roots of dreamwalking and what it's about it is the coolest thing. I really enjoyed the concept of walking dreams and am very much hoping to see me or that in maybe future books? The ending was also something I very much enjoyed reading. It was kind of bittersweet I could say.
Now, what brought my rating down? Just two things and one of them is a small thing: Dea got a bit reckless when doing something. This something plays a big part in the book and the last thing Dea could have done was get reckless about it. I despise it when characters get reckless and stupid with their actions and at one point, Dea was doing exactly that. The other reason is because she was a bit plain and I felt like she didn't have much character. (See: boring and common)
I gave this book 4 stars. I really enjoyed everything about it but Dea's character did and I thought she needed a bit more character.
The ending was probably my most favorite part of the book. Like I mentioned, it was bittersweet and I loved seeing Dea getting to still interact with Gollum and Connor after she goes to the dreamworld. It kind of teases the (hopefully) next book with the war and everything.
The fact that she used her dream-walking to find out who really killed Connor's mom and brother was really cool and I am kind of not surprised to find out her killed them? I really just want to know why he did so and finding out why he did what he did would be awesome.
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