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Chloe (778 KP) rated The Dream Defenders in Books

Apr 14, 2020

The Dream Defenders

Neal Denhartog | 2019 | Young Adult (YA)

7.0

(2 Ratings)

Book Rating

Imaginative (3 more)

Clever

Interesting

Good concept

Further development (1 more)

Lacking characters

The title "Dream Defenders" explains the content of the book. Basically the Dream Institute works to protect dreamers through powers they have learned/been taught. Dreamers are recruited when they show a particular acumen for managing their dreams.

The concept is very clever because it is something that could happen in real life, that we are not aware of. It's a very imaginative story with some quite funny bits in places. Love the Sandman name, very clever little note.

The characters and bad guys are well thought out but could have further development e.g. Marshall seems to only like books and that's all I can really say about him. Aeryn is supposedly trained in dream weaving but shows very limited skill. The story felt rushed and I definitely think the concept could do with some embellishment.

I'm not sure whether this is young adult, I felt like it was for children perhaps a similar age to goosebumps. Ocassionally the humour felt forced and in the wrong place. There often seemed to be unnecessary words for example, one sentence states "Nolan's stomach twisted, this time not from the Wispe travel". The events of the previous sentence clearly states what caused the stomach twisting.

Just a note, I think on Page 254 the word dream stream is used when it should be death stream.

I obtained a free copy from Voracious Readers Only!