Book Log: Dreamhunter, Dreamquake
I just finished Dreamquake by Elizabeth Knox. It is the second book in the Dreamhunter Duet--the first book is Dreamhunter.
It is ridiculous how good these books are. It's really hard to describe them properly. When I read the description for Dreamhunter, I wasn't interested. I only picked them up because Dreamquake won a Prinz honor. I am so glad I did, because these books are mindblowingly brilliant. I really don't think I can heap enough praise upon them. Or describe them properly. But I'll try, because I really want all of you to go out and read them.
Laura Hame is a child of priviledge. Her family is well-known, and wealthy. Her mother is dead, but she lives with her father, Tziga Hame, the most famous dreamhunter of all, and her Aunt Grace and Uncle Chorley, and cousin Rose. Laura and Rose are best friends, and they are both absolutely certain that when they turn fifteen and it is their turn to Try, they will be dreamhunters together.
Because there is a Place that only dreamhunters can enter. Some are dreamhunters, some are not--there is no way to determine it without trying to enter the Place. Dreamhunters walk through its borders and into another world; to everyone else, it is as if the Place does not exist. Within the Place are fabulous, wonderful dreams, and dreamhunters can "catch" them, and then bring them out and share them with others. Laura's aunt Grace is one of the most popular dreamhunters to perform at the Rainbow Opera.
But there is something sinister going on beneath the surface. There is government conspiracy, and there are gross misuses of things that should be sacred. And when Laura's father dissappears days before Laura's Try, everything begins to change.
Laura will learn of things she never imagined in her worst nightmares. And her family will be pulled deeply into a conspiracy that threatens everything they hold dear.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
This book is packed. The worldbuilding is intricate and perfect--every detail feels right--it feels like I'm reading historical fiction, about real people who lived in a real place. The details are spot-on, lush, vivid, real.
But one of my favorite things, one of the things that makes me love these books so very much, is the interactions between the characters. Laura and Rose, Laura and her father, Rose and her parents. They feel real. They are entirely three-dimensional relationships. When the status quo between Laura and Rose changed, I was so worried that they would stop being close, the way girls so often do in books. But instead of their relationship breaking, it changed. I love the way people interact with the people they love and care for. It's real and genuine and honest and it makes my heart ache.
When I hit the brilliant revelation towards the middle end of the second book, I was stunned, because it was so perfect and fit so neatly, and I had not seen it coming at all. And as I neared the end, I was afraid that Knox wouldn't be able to end her Duet as brilliantly as she had started it. I really couldn't see any way for her to pull it off.
And she did. The ending was a brilliant as the beginning and the middle.
These books are a work of art, from start to finish. Go read them. Read them now. You won't be sorry. I only wish there was more of them.