A review of author Brent Hartinger's latest novel and first foray into fantasy.
Dreamquest: Tales of Slumberia by Brent Hartinger
Starscape, May 2007
Ages 9-12
Do you ever wonder where your dreams are formed? Are they bits and pieces of your actual experiences, maybe, just thrown together as you sleep? Or, perhaps, they are the part of your mind you don’t have the courage to access in your waking life? Or, really, could dreams be just harmless, random images popping around your brain as the remainder of your body rests? Author Brent Hartinger lets us in on his theory of dream generation with his first foray into the realm of fantasy, Dreamquest: Tales of Slumberia.
Eleven-year-old Julie is having nightmares. It’s bad enough Julie’s waking life is a nightmare—her parents are constantly fighting, putting her right in the middle and pulling her in half as they try to destroy each other. Now, she is having nightmares so horrible, so graphic, she doesn’t even get a break from her daytime life when she sleeps. But, what can she do? She has no control over her dreams, right?
Wrong.
Hartinger explores the duality of personalities in the characters of Julie and Vivian, the actress who “plays” Julie in her dreams. His inventive storyline challenges friendships, questions the reality of reality, and investigates the truth of love—old, lost, and newly found. But, he does this on a level that kids and tweens can understand, in the context of a fantastic psychological thriller to which we can all relate: What if I could actually become a part of my dreams?
Dreamquest: Tales of Slumberia is an excellent entry into tweener thriller fantasy; Hartinger has another success on his hands!
