Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books


Saturday, August 22, 2015

Review: Dreamstrider by Lindsay Smith

Posted by 8 Comments

I received this book for free from Roaring Brook Press in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Review: Dreamstrider by Lindsay SmithDreamstriders by Lindsay Smith
Published by Roaring Book Press on October 6, 2015
Genres: Action, Fantasy, YA
Source: Roaring Brook Press
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads
four-stars

A high-concept, fantastical espionage novel set in a world where dreams are the ultimate form of political intelligence.

Livia is a dreamstrider. She can inhabit a subject's body while they are sleeping and, for a short time, move around in their skin. She uses her talent to work as a spy for the Barstadt Empire. But her partner, Brandt, has lately become distant, and when Marez comes to join their team from a neighborhing kingdom, he offers Livia the option of a life she had never dared to imagine. Livia knows of no other dreamstriders who have survived the pull of Nightmare. So only she understands the stakes when a plot against the Empire emerges that threatens to consume both the dreaming world and the waking one with misery and rage.

A richly conceived world full of political intrigue and fantastical dream sequences, at its heart Dreamstrider is about a girl who is struggling to live up to the potential before her.

I think I read this book in a span of two days. TWO DAYS! In a book nerd’s dictionary, that’s pretty much a synonym for “SO KICK-ASS I FLEW THROUGH THE PAGES”, and no, it’s not just because of the cover, which I agree is absolutely mesmerizing. To be honest, this is my first book by this author (I had wanted to read SEKRET before, but I haven’t gotten the chance to buy it yet… a travesty, I know, don’t remind me), so I didn’t know what quite to expect. Would it be purple-prose-y? Would it be underwhelming? Would it have a main character who would make me want to put them into sandwiches so I can eat them to oblivion? Okay, that probably didn’t make sense. I’m so not funny.

The opposite actually happened.

I wanted to hug and love the heroine because she was so flawed, and thus, perfect.

Are you tired of special snowflakes? Are you tired of reading about heroes and heroines who are chosen by someone (or something?!?!) to wield a special power, and then be exceptionally good at it despite lacking the necessary training and experience? Are you just exhausted of these individuals who seem to solve problems left and right without seemingly lifting a finger? Are you weary of these characters who are so flawless and loved by everyone, and you’re like, “THIS IS INSANITY!”

Meet Livia, a girl who grew up as a Tunneler – a person from the poorer, more dangerous side of the Kingdom. Her childhood consisted of a mother who was too high on a dreamless-inducing drug to care for her, of years crawling and struggling to survive, of dreaming of a better life. One day, she met Professor Hesse, who introduced her to the world of dreams, Oneiros, who she could be whoever she wanted to be, where she could go wherever she wanted to go. However, it turned out the Professor had other plans for her… in exchange for giving her the chance to buy her freedom, she would be doing something for the Ministry: dreamstriding, the ability to enter the body of another person through the dreamland, the ultimate form of espionage.

First of all, Livia is such an amazing heroine to read. Usually, when you have a premise that’s pretty much about government conspiracies and political espionage, the hero or the heroine is the star of the team and has swag and confidence and pretty much everything. Clumsy spies are oftentimes skipped in lieu of these individuals who can charm the reader with their smiles and swagger, but Livia has none of that. She is clumsy, error-prone, and insecure; there are people who hate the very sight of her because of her mistakes, and the people who hired her in the first place are not always confident of her abilities, but are forced to use her anyway because there is no one else with the same abilities.

And I just love reading about her narration and her ways of coping with her frustrations. Her POV is definitely vivid and personal and real – when she is the dreamworld, and when she is in the real world. I love how she felt at ease in Oneiros – her love for flying over places, of being able to enter a whole new world, and being closer to the Dreamer. I also felt scared for her when she was in the Nightmare Wastes, a place in the dreamworld where a lost soul can find itself getting lost in, forever trapped in the hellish abyss. Just the descriptions of what she felt by being in the vicinity of the being that kept making her demotivated and sending her malicious thoughts… I get the chills, dude. I also love how even though she wasn’t the brightest or the most confident person around, she didn’t let other people push her around. They were her demons to face, but she’d try to get the job done… scrapes and bruises and hurt egos and all.

I also love how this book wasn’t romance-centric at all. Yes, we do get the “I love yous” here and the kind of kisses that would make you go, “YAAAASSS!” but it never took center stage. Livia never pushed her feelings to someone else, never forced them at all. I love that at the end of the day, we got a more personal and intimate look into her character development first – how from someone who felt so small and useless, she transformed into someone who became a stronger and confident person, driven by her need to protect those who are dear to her, even if it meant putting her life on the line. Plus, the fact that there are queer girls? YAHOO!

I do wish that there’s more world-building, though. I do agree that the writing sets up the atmosphere really, really nicely. The writing has this surreal aura that really makes you feel that you are in the dream. The descriptions are amazing, and the feelings of the main character are well-written – the kind that would pull your heartstrings because you just feel what she is feeling. But I wish we got a better picture of the Kingdom’s society and their norms and their culture. Like, there are supposedly High Priests, but information about them is really scarce, and I wanted to know more about their roles in the grander scheme of things… the Emperor, too, and even the neighboring countries. That’s just me, though – because I always want my fantasies to be very, very immersive. I also wish that Livia’s backstory is more shown… we never really get to see more intimately how she coped when she was younger. I know that she pretty much crawled through mud in order to survive and her mother was next to useless, but other than that, her past feels quite detached.

Other than those complaints, though, this book is très fantastique! I love the details of character’s observations of her surroundings and her internal feelings, her believable journey to become a better and stronger person, and how dreams were used in order to achieve higher agendas and goals. Everything feels so real and vibrant and bright and terrifying, here. Plus, did I mention the very non-special snowflake character? 😉

four-stars

4 Hot Espressos

Review: Blood Will Tell by April Henry

Review: Blood Will Tell by April Henry

Posted by on 06/01/2015 • 0 Comments

I love a good mystery, and I did enjoy the first book in this series. I guess it’s not really a series as much as companion novels, but whatever. This was actually a really cool one since you actually know rather quickly who the killer is, but all evidence points to the wrong person. So instead of trying to figure out who did it, you are trying to find out how it all points to someone who is innocent. Much like the first book, this is told in numerous POV’s, which took me a bit away from the story, but it also gives you a full picture of what is going on. I have to say, I had no clue how in the world the evidence could be possible until…

Review: The Winner’s Crime by Marie Rutkoski

Review: The Winner’s Crime by Marie Rutkoski

Posted by on 03/09/2015 • 7 Comments

I really enjoyed the first book in this series, and was so excited to read the second one. I had a few issues with it, but I still thought it was pretty great. With the way the last one ended, I was really curious where this one would go. I loved the story progression, but I couldn’t help but feel that at times Kestral was being really dumb. I still really liked her character though. The stake are high in this installment of the series and there is a lot of stuff going on so it was quite an exciting read. Being that this is a sequel, I will try not to give anything away.

Kestral is set to marry the prince. Obviously, she does not want to, but…

Review: I’ll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios

Review: I’ll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios

Posted by on 02/23/2015 • 34 Comments

It’s been a little bit since I have read a contemporary, especially one that sucked me in and I read the book in one day. This book did just that. Well, almost. I actually started the book late at night and only got a few chapters in, then when I picked it up the next day I didn’t stop until I was done. I really liked the characters and their stories were hard, but amazing. I understood where both the MC’s were coming from, even if sometimes their behaviors did irritate me. Most of all, the overall story was just great. All of it, from beginning to end. And I loved that it was dual POV so we get to be in both Skylar and Josh’s head.

Skylar was…

Review: Beastkeeper by Cat Hellisen

Review: Beastkeeper by Cat Hellisen

Posted by on 01/22/2015 • 2 Comments

I am always up for a fairytale retelling, so of course I had to read this book. Especially since it has a dark twist to it. This was a book that was so easy to get into and get lost in. I loved uncovering all the secrets and find out how everything would end up. This is middle grade, but it the writing was very mature. the characters were great, though we don’t get to know many of them very well aside from Sarah and Alan. We learn about the other characters, but don’t really know them on an emotional level. Either way, this was a great book.

Sarah is a young girl, but wise beyond her years. She has moved around a lot and she is a bit…

Review: The Ghosts of Heaven by Marcus Segdwick

Review: The Ghosts of Heaven by Marcus Segdwick

Posted by on 12/15/2014 • 20 Comments

This is one of those books that I really have no clue how to review. The writing was beautiful and lyrical, and the stories were intriguing and kept me interested, but I feel like maybe I wasn’t smart enough for this book. Now, I’m not a stupid person (I don’t think anyways), but I just didn’t get it. I liked how we start way back in time with the first story, and progress through time and even into the future in the next three. I enjoyed seeing how each previous story tied into the next. I just didn’t quite get it all. I can’t really explain it. I understood what the spiral means and signifies, but how the stories were told had me scratching my head.

The first story…

Review: A Little Something Different by Sandy Hall

Review: A Little Something Different by Sandy Hall

Posted by on 08/08/2014 • 24 Comments

Awww! What a cute and sweet read. A Little Something Different is exactly that – a romance story that is different from any I’ve read before, and one that leaves you with a silly smile on your face. The perfect rainy-day read, that’s for sure!

In short, this is a love story about two people who keep misreading each other. One is extremely shy, the other is quiet and reluctant, not realizing they’re both into each other. What makes this book unique, though, is the way it’s told. We don’t go into this story with the perspective of our main characters, but rather everyone around them, even including a squirrel and a bench who, unsurprisingly, talks a lot about butts. The number of perspectives is at a whopping 14, rotating…

Review: The Truth About Alice by Jennifer Mathieu

Review: The Truth About Alice by Jennifer Mathieu

Posted by on 06/03/2014 • 19 Comments

A very important story told through several outer point of view that is ultimately about not believing everything you hear. The Truth About Alice takes on stereotypes and rumours and high school life in general, and unravels its layers to show the truth underneath. To show that not everything – or everyone – is as it seems. It’s pretty brilliant in that way: in its raw honesty, in its bluntness in showing us us how quickly and easily truths get distorted. And most importantly, how bullying is very real in all kinds of forms.

The Truth About Alice is narrated by several characters, not of the victim herself, which I find is part of the brilliance of this story. I initially feared four POVs would be overwhelming, but they are…