When the Boy of Your Dreams Becomes Reality...

Title: Dreamology
Author: Lucy Keating
Series: stand-alone
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication Date: April 12, 2016
Source: received from publisher
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Audible

For as long as Alice can remember, she has dreamed of Max. Together they have traveled the world and fallen deliriously, hopelessly in love. Max is the boy of her dreams—and only her dreams. Because he doesn’t exist.

But when Alice walks into class on her first day at a new school, there he is. It turns out, though, that Real Max is nothing like Dream Max, and getting to know each other in reality isn’t as perfect as Alice always hoped.

When their dreams start to bleed dangerously into their waking hours, the pair realize that they might have to put an end to a lifetime of dreaming about each other. But when you fall in love in your dreams, can reality ever be enough?

I've always been fascinated by dreams. I used to keep a dream journal when I was younger and I'd write in it every time I woke up with a dream I could remember, then I'd try to figure out what it meant. Pretty soon, though, I realized that I didn't really like trying to decode my dreams; I didn't like that the wild adventures my dreams took me on could be boiled down to something as mundane as that I was worried about an exam. So maybe you can see why the merest mention of this involuntary nighttime brain function in a book's summary would result in an immediate add to my TBR.

I loved the secret, imaginary friend aspect of Sarah Rees Brennan's Unspoken more than any other aspect of that series, which is probably why I was so drawn to this book, since it has a similar premise. I still remember that first awkward meeting between Kami and Jared, and though Alice and Max's first meeting is substantially less awkward since they can't talk to each other with their minds, it is no less jarring for them to realize that the person they've been dreaming about their entire lives is a real person, made of flesh and blood.

Dreamology started off very strong. Alice was jaded and snarky and altogether the kind of protagonist I usually love. And I did like her character...most of the time. Okay, maybe mostly just at the beginning and the end of the story. Because she makes some pretty hurtful decisions and says some pretty dumb things along the way, all in the name of love. I know...love can make you pretty stupid at times, but it shouldn't cause you to disregard the feelings of those that you call friends.

So, yeah, the middle of Dreamology wasn't exactly what I was hoping for. It didn't drag, but it was infuriating as hell. It seemed that some characters were only included for the drama that could be inflicted upon them or that they themselves could inflict. Also, the "science" behind the characters sharing the same dreams was so vague that I would just rather it have been some fluke. I get the psychology of why they shared dreams and were in each other's dreams, but I would rather it not have been "scienced" away like it was.

I appreciated the hand-wringing the characters did at the end, though. Could their real selves ever really be enough when they'd had the magic of their dream selves? And who could blame them for wondering that when their dreams were so vibrant? I've had many a dream that I wished I'd never had to wake from. But for their own sanity, it was imperative that they separate themselves from their dreams, and in doing so, explore what they really meant to each other.

Lucy Keating does an amazing job creating vivid dreamscapes but also of meshing wakefulness and dreams. It's obvious she's a dreamer and likely has many more adorable stories like this one to tell. I can't wait to read more of her whimsical and evocative writing.

GIF it to me straight:

About the author:

Lucy lives in Los Angeles, California. She grew up in Boston, Massachusetts, attended Williams College in the Berkshires, and still misses the East Coast very much.

When she's not writing, Lucy can usually be found obsessing over the latest music, inventing new flavors of ice cream, or having what she feels are perfectly acceptable conversations with her dog, Ernie.

Find Lucy:

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