Vault of Dreamers by Caragh M. O'Brien
Grade: C-
Release date: September 16, 2014
This e-galley was provided by Roaring Book Press and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Summary: From the author of the Birthmarked trilogy comes a fast-paced, psychologically thrilling novel about what happens when your dreams are not your own.
The Forge School is the most prestigious arts school in the country. The secret to its success: every moment of the students' lives is televised as part of the insanely popular Forge Show, and the students' schedule includes twelve hours of induced sleep meant to enhance creativity. But when first year student Rosie Sinclair skips her sleeping pill, she discovers there is something off about Forge. In fact, she suspects that there are sinister things going on deep below the reaches of the cameras in the school. What's worse is, she starts to notice that the edges of her consciousness do not feel quite right. And soon, she unearths the ghastly secret that the Forge School is hiding—and what it truly means to dream there.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Well, this book was...interesting. I snagged it when it was available as Read Now for a select number of members; otherwise, I'm not sure I would've read it. It ended up being a good read, but kind of weird, too. I can definitely note that it took awhile for Rosie to even unearth the secret mentioned in the synopsis. I noted at 61% of the way in that I felt like more should've happened by that point. This was also a book whose plot was better developed than its characters. I'm still not sure what Linus's or the other dude's (I can't remember his name) deal was. I couldn't tell you much about Rosie's personality beyond that she seems to love to break rules and she's overly curious. (Seriously, did she want to die???) Also, Dean Berg was beyond creepy and that ending... That's when it got really weird. There are some sick minds out there, and I'm not sure any of them should read this book, lest they get some ideas. I would've liked to see more of the students actually learning in class. Film is such an interesting field, and I never got the sense that Rosie was truly interested in it. It was just a means of fulfilling certain plot elements. Janice was a cool character, though; I mean, she was gender-bending Hamlet!
Not much foul language that I can think of. Romance stayed pretty clean.
The Verdict: Lovers of sci-fi and thrillers may like this more than I did. I think this a book everyone will have to judge for themselves.
No comments:
Post a Comment