In the dry, oppressive heat of the summer in LA girls are showing up dead, arranged into macabre displays that horrify and fascinate the public. However, Anya Morris–an aspiring actress made claustrophobic by her circumstances–is not focused on dead girls. Running on cunning and ambition, Anya receives a mysterious but promising opportunity to work for one of the industries most influential families. Beneath the veneer of Hollywood glamor though all is not well with the de Witt family, particularly their troubled son they keep hidden away whom Anya is tasked with watching over.
I’d like to start off with a quote from the acknowledgements because I think it’s kind of iconic: “This book put me through a meat grinder; at this point, whether it’s any good is frankly none of my business.”
Whether or not you like this book is heavily reliant on whether you like Olivie Blake’s style, particularly her more experimental stuff like Alone With You in the Ether. For me, she is one of the only authors writing experimental stuff that actually works for me, and Dreamland was no different. I don’t agree that this book is overwritten, in fact other than the beginning and some of Jude’s segments I think it’s pretty minimalist. There’s an element of stream-of-consciousness to Blake’s writing style, and I’m not usually a big fan of that but as I think I mentioned in my review for her book Gifted and Talented Blake’s version of stream-of-consciousness is a lot closer to how my brain works than most other versions, which is probably not true for everyone.
Plot wise, this book is weird as hell. Maybe a little fever dream-y, but not in a way that takes away from the stakes which is a big pet peeve of mine. Jude’s segments aren’t my favorite part of the book, but they still have real stakes and tension because it’s unclear how much of the events of Jude’s dreams are reflected in the actions his body is taking in reality. When Jude hurts someone in a dream, there are still stakes for the reader because he might actually also be hurting someone outside of the dream, so there’s a real sense of consequences and the events of the dream aren’t just being used for drama or shock value (The God of Endings similarly does this well). Also, I like the weird messed-up little romance! I don’t care that it’s weird and angsty and melodramatic, because it’s fun and you can understand that for Anya it functions both as a relationship with more depth than she can achieve with anyone else since all of their cards are on the table and as a form of self-destruction because the constant game she has to play to get ahead has really dissolved her sense of self. It’s not a murder mystery (thank god), it’s a dramatic gothic thriller that isn’t going to pander to the reader and make it easy for them. Regardless of whether I understood everything, I was engaged the whole time.
That being said, there were definitely things that went over my head. Or should I say…Ova my head…haha…..Point being that I still don’t know who Ova is. I don’t know if she’s real or if she’s a demon or a ghost or if she’s just another character referred to by multiple names. I don’t know if I’m supposed to know who she is, but I don’t. I also think having two characters who are mother and daughter both be named Emmanuelle when we’re already dealing with kind of a weird family tree with three generations was unnecessarily confusing, though maybe intentionally. I’m not mad about it, but it was distracting because I was sitting there like “Is there some incest going on here or am I just confused?” By all means, let me know if you have concrete answers.
Dreamland is a challenging book, but it’s also propulsive, unique, weird, and in my opinion worth doing the work for if you’re up to it! I always look forward to seeing what Olivie Blake comes up with, because somehow I know whatever he next book is I’ll never see it coming.
Thank you to Olivie Blake and Tor Books (my beloved) for this ARC in exchange for my full, honest review!
Happy reading!
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