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?
ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Dea lives in a small town with her mother. Kids at school avoid her, because they find Dea and her mother to be too weird. They’re not wrong. Dea’s mother is always antsy. Dea has been to tons of schools, because her mother always moves them to a new town. They just pack up and leave like there is always someone chasing after them. Her mother also has weird antics. Mirrors are banned. There are always tons of locks on their doors. Clocks.
Dea has one friend in school, Gollum. Her real name is Eleanor, but they all call her Gollum. Kids are mean. One day, a boy named Connor moves to the house close to Dea’s home. He’s handsome and funny, so Dea is automatically attracted to him. She’s hesitant to get close to him at first, because she knows all the rumors said about her. She doesn’t want to get her hopes up with Connor; but Connor is a really nice guy. He doesn’t care about all the rumors, because there are rumors about him too.
Dea has a secret. Dea was six years old, the first time she ever walked a dream. She was sick a lot back then, she had an irregular heartbeat, but the first time she walked someone’s dream, her heart beat normally. There are rules when dream walking; rules that should never be broken.
1. Don’t change anything or intervene in a person’s dream
2. Don’t walk the same person’s dream more than once
3. Never ever be seen
But Dea broke all these rules when she met Connor. Faceless men haunted Connor’s dreams. Connor’s baby brother and mother were murdered when he was little. He never saw who murdered them, because he was hiding in the closet, but he did hear their voices.
This story is full of mystery. I kept reading because I wanted to understand more about everything going on, and I wanted to learn all the answers to my questions.
I was so interested in the land of dreams, and I wish the author explored that concept a bit more. I was just fascinated with it, so I was disappointed when I didn’t get to read more about it.
Overall, this book was an interesting read that will make readers want to dream and explore.
