Dreamfall (Dreamfall Series #1)

by Amy Plum

Overview

"Remarkable, riveting, disorienting and dark." —Madeleine Roux, New York Times bestselling author of the Asylum series

A Nightmare on Elm Street meets Inception in this gripping psychological thriller from international bestselling author Amy Plum. Seven teenagers who suffer from debilitating insomnia agree to take part in an experimental new procedure to cure it because they think it can’t get any worse. But they couldn’t be more wrong.

When the lab equipment malfunctions, the patients are plunged into a terrifying dreamworld where their worst nightmares have come to life—and they have no memory of how they got there. Hunted by monsters from their darkest imaginations and tormented by secrets they’d rather keep buried, these seven strangers will be forced to band together to face their biggest fears. And if they can’t find a way to defeat their dreams, they will never wake up.

Dreamfall is perfect for fans of dark and edgy young adult novels from authors like Danielle Vega, Natasha Preston, Kendare Blake, and Madeleine Roux. It is the first book in a spine-tingling duology full of action, suspense, and horror that's sure to keep readers on the edge of their seat until the very last page.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062429872
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	05/02/2017
Series:	Dreamfall Series , #1
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.20(d)
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Amy Plum is the international bestselling author of the Dreamfall series, the Die for Me series, and the After the End series. She spent her childhood in Birmingham, Alabama, her twenties in Chicago and Paris, and several more years in London, New York, and the Loire Valley. Now she lives in Paris and swears she’ll never move again. You can visit Amy online at www.amyplumbooks.com.

Editorial Reviews

03/20/2017
The premise of Plum’s thriller is intriguing, if not entirely original: seven teenagers struggling with debilitating insomnia are chosen for an experimental program that hopes to cure them; instead, it plunges them into dreamscapes that represent their nightmares. Observing the procedure is Jaime, a Yale premed student who plans to write a paper on the project. Plum (the After the End series) alternates among the perspectives of Jaime, 16-year-old Catalina Cordova, and 18-year-old college student Fergus Willson, maintaining a quick pace as the teens bounce through each other’s nightmares, facing off against their fears, while Jaime digs into their backgrounds. However, the scientists’ actions after the death of one of the participants in the project is head scratching, and while the nightmares are mildly scary, the gore (of which there is a fair amount) seems forced. Overly familiar character types don’t help (Catalina is a token “stubborn” girl, while another teen, Ant, harbors a secret that won’t surprise anyone), and the jarring cliffhanger ending may leave readers more irritated than anxious to learn what happens next. Ages 14–up. Agent: Stacey Glick, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. (May)

Publishers Weekly

PRAISE FOR DREAMFALL: “Plum has done something remarkable with Dreamfall, it feels simultaneously like classic horror but also undeniably modern. The mind prison she creates is claustrophobic and terrifying, disorienting and dark. Horror readers will love the fresh premise and fast pace.” — Madeleine Roux, New York Times bestselling author of the Asylum series

“Dreamfall is a gorgeous nightmare and an ominous mystery, a compulsively riveting read that delivers twist after twist. I can’t wait to enter this dream again!” — Rachel Caine, #1 internationally bestselling author of the Morganville Vampires series

“A beautiful nightmare. Horrifying and impossible to put down.” — Danielle Vega, author of the Merciless series

“Dreamfall is a chilling descent into madness, where dreams become reality. You’ll never sleep again!” — Kimberly Derting, author of the Body Finder series

“Surreal and terrifying, Dreamfall is an adventure wrapped in a nightmare.” — Gretchen McNeil, author of Ten and the Don't Get Mad series

“Plum crafts a wicked dreamscape.” — Natalie C. Parker, author of the Beware the Wild series

“Reminiscent of Neal Shusterman’s FULL TILT, this novel is a fast-paced nightmare come to life.” — School Library Journal

“Deftly and concisely blending hard-edged action, suspense, and a well-crafted cast of characters, Plum delivers a compelling must-have science fiction/action/horror mash-up that will leave readers anticipating the next instalment.” — Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA)

“Will appeal to fans of nightmarish fiction looking for an easy, but scary, read with a relatable premise.” — ALA Booklist

From the Publisher

Plum crafts a wicked dreamscape.

Natalie C. Parker

PRAISE FOR DREAMFALL: “Plum has done something remarkable with Dreamfall, it feels simultaneously like classic horror but also undeniably modern. The mind prison she creates is claustrophobic and terrifying, disorienting and dark. Horror readers will love the fresh premise and fast pace.

Madeleine Roux

A beautiful nightmare. Horrifying and impossible to put down.

Danielle Vega

Deftly and concisely blending hard-edged action, suspense, and a well-crafted cast of characters, Plum delivers a compelling must-have science fiction/action/horror mash-up that will leave readers anticipating the next instalment.

Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA)

Will appeal to fans of nightmarish fiction looking for an easy, but scary, read with a relatable premise.

ALA Booklist

Dreamfall is a gorgeous nightmare and an ominous mystery, a compulsively riveting read that delivers twist after twist. I can’t wait to enter this dream again!

Rachel Caine

Surreal and terrifying, Dreamfall is an adventure wrapped in a nightmare.

Gretchen McNeil

Dreamfall is a chilling descent into madness, where dreams become reality. You’ll never sleep again!

Kimberly Derting

Exciting and tense! Prepare for the unexpected! You’ll stay up all night with this one!

Sophie Jordan

PRAISE FOR THE AFTER THE END SERIES: “Wonderfully riveting. A fascinating twist on the apocalypse, and a reminder that things aren’t always as they seem.

Marie Lu

PRAISE FOR THE DIE FOR ME SERIES “I devoured this lush, mysterious romance, which delivers a refreshingly human heroine alongside a hero truly deserving of the title.

Aprilynne Pike

Plum’s debut is the perfect combo of romance and thrills, with heart-pumping action that will make you jump and love that will make you cry out for joy. You’ll hang on every word, reading late into the night till the end.

Romantic Times

04/01/2017
Gr 7 Up–Cata, Fergus, and five other teens are test subjects in a sleep disorder treatment study. Fears or traumas have resulted in various sleep disorders, such as nightmares, night terrors, sleepwalking, and insomnia. This treatment promises the teens a cure and finally a good night's sleep. But after the test begins, a small earthquake causes equipment to malfunction, and the test goes horribly wrong. Instead of peacefully waking from the treatment, the test subjects are comatose, but in their heads, they are trapped in a communal nightmare, much more terrifying than anything each has experienced individually. The teens must navigate their way through the dream world without being killed by the monsters they face—among them zombie monks, soldiers, and sinister clowns—while Jaime, a medical student observer, tries to tell the disbelieving doctors what's really happening. Reminiscent of Neal Shusterman's Full Tilt, this novel is a fast-paced nightmare come to life, told in alternating points of view. It seems everyone, from the test subject teens to the doctors, has something to hide. Plum develops the characters just enough to keep readers guessing about their motivations. VERDICT A definite purchase for libraries serving younger sci-fi and horror fans, who will be eagerly waiting for the sequel.—Jillian Woychowski, West Haven High School, CT

School Library Journal

2017-02-20
Jaime Salvator, a top pre-med student at Yale, witnesses an unprecedented sleep experiment involving teenagers who suffer from insomnia—and how it goes dreadfully wrong. At the beginning of the experiment, an earthquake occurs that disrupts the Tower, an electrical output system that is attached to the seven subjects, who have been induced into REM sleep. Each of the sleepers has been catapulted into a shared dreamlike state filled with monsters, slime, and like scenarios based upon some of their worst nightmares. Narrative perspective alternates among the teens as they rely on one another to evade the horrors of their collective nightmare. In the experiment lab, Jaime secretly engages a hacker friend to help find information in an attempt to learn more about the patients' backgrounds. The frame story takes a wildly unrealistic turn when, after a horrific fatality occurs in the lab, the doctors conducting the experiment actually leave Jaime alone in the lab with the remaining six comatose patients. With plotting reminiscent of a teen B-movie, the author relies upon a cast of stereotypical characters that in one case borders on xenophobic, as one of the narrating subjects describes Remi, a refugee from a fictional, war-torn country in Africa, as a kid who "looks out of place in a way only a foreigner can." Jaime is probably black, implied by references to affirmative action and her origins in "one of Detroit's worst neighborhoods." Falling in line with the trend of the multivolume series, the abrupt ending to this book is not an innovative cliffhanger but a shallow contrivance to sell the next book. In this case, as each chapter is predictable, the sequel will be more of the same. (Science fiction. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews