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Sweet Dreams
Charlie is a dreamhacker, able to enter your dreams and mould their direction. Forget that recurring nightmare about being naked at an exam - Charlie will step in to your dream, bring you a dressing gown and give you the answers. As far as she knows, she's the only person who can do this. Unfortunately, her power comes with one drawback - Charlie also has narcolepsy, and may fall asleep at the most inopportune moment.
But in London 2022, her skill is in demand. And when she is hired by a minor celebrity - who also happens to be the new girlfriend of Charlie's lamented ex - who dreams of a masked Creeper then sleepwalks off a tall building, Charlie begins to realise that someone else might be able to invade dreams.
But in London 2022, her skill is in demand. And when she is hired by a minor celebrity - who also happens to be the new girlfriend of Charlie's lamented ex - who dreams of a masked Creeper then sleepwalks off a tall building, Charlie begins to realise that someone else might be able to invade dreams.
314 pages, Paperback
First published September 21, 2017
12 people are currently reading
633 people want to read
About the author
Tricia Sullivan
34 books75 followersTricia Sullivan (born July 7, 1968 in New Jersey, U.S.) is a science fiction writer. She has also written fantasy under the pseudonym Valery Leith.
She moved to the United Kingdom in 1995. In 1999 she won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for her novel Dreaming in Smoke. Her novel Maul was also shortlisted for the same award in 2004.
Sullivan has studied music and karate. Her partner is the martial artist Steve Morris, with whom she has three children.
She moved to the United Kingdom in 1995. In 1999 she won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for her novel Dreaming in Smoke. Her novel Maul was also shortlisted for the same award in 2004.
Sullivan has studied music and karate. Her partner is the martial artist Steve Morris, with whom she has three children.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
September 24, 2017
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This book was trippy. Really trippy.
Following a drug trial that went wrong, Charlie can now 'hack' dreams - meaning she can alter what happens during a dream, and mould them into anything she wants. Normally her clients for these kind of services are dull, and want help getting over a childhood phobia or to quit smoking. Until she meets Mel Tan - a harpist with a serial stalker problem. Only, her stalker is in her dreams. And this stalker does not appreciate Charlie stepping on his turf.
I was first drawn to this novel because of the concept. The idea that sleep, something we naturally see as a comfort, or someplace 'safe' is flipped on its head and becomes the very enemy that must be avoided at all cost. I thought this was a very unique idea, and the author does a great job at creating a very unsettling atmosphere throughout the whole novel. The idea that Charlie also suffers from narcolepsy adds an additional layer of tension, especially as it's normally brought on by stress, as I found myself urging Charlie not to fall asleep.
I really liked the character of Charlie. She desperately wants to be 'normal', and is never perceived as this 'perfect' woman. She has flaws, and she (for the most part) owns them. At times I did find her rather irritatingly naive however. She repeatedly states that she isn't trusting of anyone, yet time and again she lets people into her life (and mind) that you know she shouldn't. Of her friends, I liked O - the cantankerous, rich, anti-brain technology landlady the best. There was something very enigmatic about her character. I loved that in an age of brain telecommunication, she was still using carrier pigeons. I also really liked Roman - one half of the self-titled 'Dream Police', and I appreciated that there was a suitable hint of a love interest rather than full-on romance. I did find however, that a lot of the character development took a backseat in favour of the plot. I would have loved to have had more time with Shandy, Roman etc.
The plot is slow at first, as it tries to establish the futuristic technology and various 'big wig' companies found in the world. There's also a lot time spent trying to explain how dreams 'work', with a lot of detail into R.E.M. and sleep paralysis. While I did appreciate this later on in the novel as the plot progressed, I found it quite difficult to wade through so much information and quite often I ended up very confused as to what all this technology could actually do/was doing to the brain and sleep. I don't mind a world that's well explained, but perhaps this was a case of information overload. A little, well detailed piece of information goes a long way. For most of the novel I was also a little unsure of the time period. It was only from about mid-way through, with a few suitable popular culture references, that I realised this was a near-future London.
As the plot progresses, the story takes on more of a 'noir'-esque murder mystery rather than a sci-fi novel. Charlie somehow becomes embroiled with the 'Dream Police' and begins to investigate a series of 'dream suicides' that appear to be linked to the stalker that haunts Mel's dreams. Although this took me a little by surprise, as I was expecting a sci-fi novel, it was a nice surprise. The second half of the novel is well-paced, and the action is continuous. I will say however, that towards the end the story does take on another level of weird. The dreams become increasingly trippy, and the conclusion left me a little bewildered - although not entirely unsatisfied.
A decent novel, that I have difficulty categorising. I'd welcome a sequel in this world.
This book was trippy. Really trippy.
Following a drug trial that went wrong, Charlie can now 'hack' dreams - meaning she can alter what happens during a dream, and mould them into anything she wants. Normally her clients for these kind of services are dull, and want help getting over a childhood phobia or to quit smoking. Until she meets Mel Tan - a harpist with a serial stalker problem. Only, her stalker is in her dreams. And this stalker does not appreciate Charlie stepping on his turf.
I was first drawn to this novel because of the concept. The idea that sleep, something we naturally see as a comfort, or someplace 'safe' is flipped on its head and becomes the very enemy that must be avoided at all cost. I thought this was a very unique idea, and the author does a great job at creating a very unsettling atmosphere throughout the whole novel. The idea that Charlie also suffers from narcolepsy adds an additional layer of tension, especially as it's normally brought on by stress, as I found myself urging Charlie not to fall asleep.
I really liked the character of Charlie. She desperately wants to be 'normal', and is never perceived as this 'perfect' woman. She has flaws, and she (for the most part) owns them. At times I did find her rather irritatingly naive however. She repeatedly states that she isn't trusting of anyone, yet time and again she lets people into her life (and mind) that you know she shouldn't. Of her friends, I liked O - the cantankerous, rich, anti-brain technology landlady the best. There was something very enigmatic about her character. I loved that in an age of brain telecommunication, she was still using carrier pigeons. I also really liked Roman - one half of the self-titled 'Dream Police', and I appreciated that there was a suitable hint of a love interest rather than full-on romance. I did find however, that a lot of the character development took a backseat in favour of the plot. I would have loved to have had more time with Shandy, Roman etc.
The plot is slow at first, as it tries to establish the futuristic technology and various 'big wig' companies found in the world. There's also a lot time spent trying to explain how dreams 'work', with a lot of detail into R.E.M. and sleep paralysis. While I did appreciate this later on in the novel as the plot progressed, I found it quite difficult to wade through so much information and quite often I ended up very confused as to what all this technology could actually do/was doing to the brain and sleep. I don't mind a world that's well explained, but perhaps this was a case of information overload. A little, well detailed piece of information goes a long way. For most of the novel I was also a little unsure of the time period. It was only from about mid-way through, with a few suitable popular culture references, that I realised this was a near-future London.
As the plot progresses, the story takes on more of a 'noir'-esque murder mystery rather than a sci-fi novel. Charlie somehow becomes embroiled with the 'Dream Police' and begins to investigate a series of 'dream suicides' that appear to be linked to the stalker that haunts Mel's dreams. Although this took me a little by surprise, as I was expecting a sci-fi novel, it was a nice surprise. The second half of the novel is well-paced, and the action is continuous. I will say however, that towards the end the story does take on another level of weird. The dreams become increasingly trippy, and the conclusion left me a little bewildered - although not entirely unsatisfied.
A decent novel, that I have difficulty categorising. I'd welcome a sequel in this world.
August 23, 2023
somehow this managed to be confusing and boring at the same time. not for me.
September 21, 2017
As you can see, this is set in the very near future where virtual reality is being taken into some disturbing areas… I happen to know someone who suffers from narcolepsy – where the sufferer will fall fast asleep anywhere at any time, particularly when stressed. It doesn’t take much imagination to realise that this sleep disorder drives a tank through any attempt to lead a normal life. Charlie’s ability to hack dreams starts after her drugs trial with BigSky, when she also starts to suffer from narcolepsy, lose her job and a lot of her hair through stress. Unfortunately, due to the small print on the contract she signed when she took part in the trial, she has no recourse to any form of compensation. So she also ends up homeless. However, she is lucky to have a loyal friend in Shandy and find herself living as a companion to a cranky old lady in a wheelchair, known as O, by cooking and cleaning her pigeons for her. O is also very supportive of her new job as a dreamhacker.
I very much enjoyed Charlie’s character. She could so easily have moaned her way through the novel and although she is often depressed and undermined by her misfortunes, she is also feisty, with a nice line in sardonic humour. I also liked her impulsiveness and occasional lapse of judgement – it can be rather wearing to read of a protagonist who invariably takes the sensible option.
As for the crime aspect – it was really creepy to experience the way the Creeper infiltrated Charlie’s dreams and as I hadn’t read the rather chatty blurb, which I’ve tweaked, I hadn’t realised there was a suspicious death. Unravelling the murder mystery was enjoyable with plenty of suspects and though I guessed part of it, I didn’t appreciate the final part of the puzzle. This was a thoroughly enjoyable, engrossing read and recommended for fans of near future whodunits. While I obtained the arc of Sweet Dreams from the publisher via NetGalley, this has in no way influenced my unbiased review.
9/10
I very much enjoyed Charlie’s character. She could so easily have moaned her way through the novel and although she is often depressed and undermined by her misfortunes, she is also feisty, with a nice line in sardonic humour. I also liked her impulsiveness and occasional lapse of judgement – it can be rather wearing to read of a protagonist who invariably takes the sensible option.
As for the crime aspect – it was really creepy to experience the way the Creeper infiltrated Charlie’s dreams and as I hadn’t read the rather chatty blurb, which I’ve tweaked, I hadn’t realised there was a suspicious death. Unravelling the murder mystery was enjoyable with plenty of suspects and though I guessed part of it, I didn’t appreciate the final part of the puzzle. This was a thoroughly enjoyable, engrossing read and recommended for fans of near future whodunits. While I obtained the arc of Sweet Dreams from the publisher via NetGalley, this has in no way influenced my unbiased review.
9/10
April 5, 2019
I borrowed this book from the library because I needed a book about dreaming for a reading challenge. The premise is very interesting. Charlie is a dreamhacker who can enter other people's dreams and modify them. She also suffers from narcolepsy, which makes her life rather complicated. When sleepwalkers begin to die, Charlie finds herself in the middle of a murder mystery.
For some reason I struggled with this book. Even though it is not a very long one, I fell asleep more than once in the middle of a chapter (which, considering the subject matter, is rather ironic) and it took me over three weeks to finish.
The world building just isn't that great. The book is set in the near future, but there is so much new asvanced technology in everyday use that I found it hard to keep track what was supposed to be possible and what was not. There are different corporations, scientists et cetera doing a lot of things and I'm not sure I really always understood who was doing what and why and with whom (of course, reading the book one or two chapters at a time and not picking it up for several days in between didn't exactly help me remember all the details).
I was somewhat disappointed with the ending, which is a bit surreal for my liking (what I really wanted was a clear motive for all that happened). Then again, what can you expect from a book in which most of the action happens when people are dreaming?
For some reason I struggled with this book. Even though it is not a very long one, I fell asleep more than once in the middle of a chapter (which, considering the subject matter, is rather ironic) and it took me over three weeks to finish.
The world building just isn't that great. The book is set in the near future, but there is so much new asvanced technology in everyday use that I found it hard to keep track what was supposed to be possible and what was not. There are different corporations, scientists et cetera doing a lot of things and I'm not sure I really always understood who was doing what and why and with whom (of course, reading the book one or two chapters at a time and not picking it up for several days in between didn't exactly help me remember all the details).
I was somewhat disappointed with the ending, which is a bit surreal for my liking (what I really wanted was a clear motive for all that happened). Then again, what can you expect from a book in which most of the action happens when people are dreaming?
August 15, 2022
Sweet Dreams by Tricia Sullivan reads almost like the secret dream diary of an accidental dream-hacker. I feel I don't do any service with this review to the complexity of what's it like to visit dreams and while reading, to sleep in between and wake up, almost surging out through what other beings are dreaming.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dream-hacker named Charlie is the (im)perfect heroine of this particular moment we live in. It's wonderful to read and feel the fullness of an inner floating world suddenly accessible - yet somehow so constructed & so built up. You can access this world via Charlie's dream diaries that start like reports and spread out into a city-like architecture.
She's got everything staked against her somehow - she's never in charge of her physiology nor her love life, her waking time is riddled with absences & blanks. She stumbled into her life's mission: staying tuned to nightly visions because of a burdensome condition a disability of sorts - narcolepsy. She can't keep awake enough to escape the dream world. Her 'normal' life has been made impossible & also incredibly exciting by this paralysis of the body. What anybody would consider a crippling incapacity - not being able to stay awake, always falling asleep anywhere and wherever. She falls back to sleep mostly out of stress during difficult moments.
The very conditions of her employment, entering the sleep of others are just side-effects of her being part of a chosen test group experiments using nanotech for fix various neurodegenerative diseases. At the same time she never chose this. This is the SF trope -of 'powers' that are not designed but the accidental result of a serendipitous experiment.
Even as she makes a living out of her newfound powers she feels powerless in front of various events and forces, at the mercy of unknown agencies and people that are always ahead of her, always smarter, always anticipating or always using her abilities for unknown, even criminal purposes. It's refreshing to read about a unique heroine of dream labor - going against all those smug, secure, tech-savvy and know-it-all prototypes.
Like many of us, she is totally at the mercy of outside forces and technologies that surpass & overpower her.
At the whim of her own affliction, her weakness actually becomes a doorway to a new, almost too well-constructed world - a dream city, flying inside a built dreamscape filled with various pitfalls and opportunities. At some level, she's also blocked and paralyzed, but at the same time she's active and she's strong. She slides in and out of sleep, eluding into people's dreams and experiencing their dreams from the inside out. She's employed to give them much sought-after nightly peace & and intervene in their dreams when needed.
This almost therapeutic detective activity is out of her immediate control, it happens almost without her knowledge or acquiescence, doubled and complicated by the most devious vested dream murders, interests, and corporate takeovers, strategies, battles over patents, and outright dream assassination attempts. Augmented Reality meets dream hacking in this totally connected world where one can never go offline, even while sleeping. One is always liable to be mind hacked by a dream bot employed by who knows who that can literally takeover of mind/body and push you to act out the dreams in real life with deadly results.
The very social structure of trust - friends, lovers, protectors seems more dreamlike than ever, and each, one by one, dissolves into a mirage. Even those cherished certainties have a tendency to melt down during "Sweet Dreams". It's almost like an onion (mentioned even by the dream hacker herself) where every layer peeled doesn't seem to uncover the final one +there's always the risk that we'll never know for sure. In the end when we know more we might feel compelled to distrust or deny the outrageous answer.
As usual, I feel grateful towards such thinkers/mindwalkers like Tricia Sullivan, going to the bottom end of a premise, pushing and following implications, feeling her way across ramfied possibilities so well. Isn't this what SF does at its best? Large scale, experimentally and experientially impossible situations get explored. One such example is what today has been called the 'age trap' of developed countries. The larger role played by an ever-expanding elderly population does not get much coverage in the SF genre. In Sweet Dreams the aging population is maintained almost because of their boomer value. It's good to think this through SF enhancements. Anti-aging, diseases associated with aging and various therapies are just cover-ups. Various age-related ailments and the need for health and social assistance in such a general state of mental decrepitude, expose this growing aging population to new if dark possibilities. Instead of placid asylums or occult conspiracies, elderly populations transform into dangerous pioneers in areas that today seem to actively exclude aged persons.
There's been a steadily growing interest in dreaming, and dream-worlds, going in many directions starting with mapping of the so-called science of sleep. Sleeping well is at a premium nowadays. Selling mattresses & curing sleeplessness is an industry in our world. Overwork & bad sleeping habits get more media coverage & become pervasive across cultures and countries. Various documentaries exists about dreaming under capitalism. Lucid dreaming looms larger than ever before, as well as a larger role played by sleep-related syndromes such as sleep paralysis. Not to talk about a plethora of monstrous (dream) manifestations and creepypasta characters that have sprung up in order to explain it.
I think Sweet Dreams by Tricia Sullivan should be taken as a key text in this new dreaming curriculum. Maybe it was inevitable that we've reached the gates of sleep, or that lucid dreaming has such an attraction for us today. 'Dreamers' have now taken center stage, at the time when every minute of our waking hours is being avidly quantified. It is also a world where skepticism about mindfulness apps increases. Sweet Dreams overturns the nightmares of Davos (for-profit) dreams by the captains of industry or tech gurus by placing at the center those that are forced to play a role in someone else's dreams (like Deleuze said once). As new technologies are dreamed up, the core of emergent superintelligences/archilects stays firmly outside the bounds of waking life. In a world where dreamers are hackable, nobody is on top of the situation. Their weakness might hold the key & offer us a close and intimate insight into gaping illusions & (mortal) delusions filled minefield. a It is a morphing world that is increasingly made inhabitable by a host of ëerie sentiences. Not sure yet how this squares out with the nightmare of being surpassed, drifting into obsolescence & palpable fears regarding an 'intelligence explosion' that still needs human dreamers. All these inscrutable aspects of other dreaming minds we are building and will never probably understand are somehow part and parcel of Sweet Dreams.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dream-hacker named Charlie is the (im)perfect heroine of this particular moment we live in. It's wonderful to read and feel the fullness of an inner floating world suddenly accessible - yet somehow so constructed & so built up. You can access this world via Charlie's dream diaries that start like reports and spread out into a city-like architecture.
She's got everything staked against her somehow - she's never in charge of her physiology nor her love life, her waking time is riddled with absences & blanks. She stumbled into her life's mission: staying tuned to nightly visions because of a burdensome condition a disability of sorts - narcolepsy. She can't keep awake enough to escape the dream world. Her 'normal' life has been made impossible & also incredibly exciting by this paralysis of the body. What anybody would consider a crippling incapacity - not being able to stay awake, always falling asleep anywhere and wherever. She falls back to sleep mostly out of stress during difficult moments.
The very conditions of her employment, entering the sleep of others are just side-effects of her being part of a chosen test group experiments using nanotech for fix various neurodegenerative diseases. At the same time she never chose this. This is the SF trope -of 'powers' that are not designed but the accidental result of a serendipitous experiment.
Even as she makes a living out of her newfound powers she feels powerless in front of various events and forces, at the mercy of unknown agencies and people that are always ahead of her, always smarter, always anticipating or always using her abilities for unknown, even criminal purposes. It's refreshing to read about a unique heroine of dream labor - going against all those smug, secure, tech-savvy and know-it-all prototypes.
Like many of us, she is totally at the mercy of outside forces and technologies that surpass & overpower her.
At the whim of her own affliction, her weakness actually becomes a doorway to a new, almost too well-constructed world - a dream city, flying inside a built dreamscape filled with various pitfalls and opportunities. At some level, she's also blocked and paralyzed, but at the same time she's active and she's strong. She slides in and out of sleep, eluding into people's dreams and experiencing their dreams from the inside out. She's employed to give them much sought-after nightly peace & and intervene in their dreams when needed.
This almost therapeutic detective activity is out of her immediate control, it happens almost without her knowledge or acquiescence, doubled and complicated by the most devious vested dream murders, interests, and corporate takeovers, strategies, battles over patents, and outright dream assassination attempts. Augmented Reality meets dream hacking in this totally connected world where one can never go offline, even while sleeping. One is always liable to be mind hacked by a dream bot employed by who knows who that can literally takeover of mind/body and push you to act out the dreams in real life with deadly results.
The very social structure of trust - friends, lovers, protectors seems more dreamlike than ever, and each, one by one, dissolves into a mirage. Even those cherished certainties have a tendency to melt down during "Sweet Dreams". It's almost like an onion (mentioned even by the dream hacker herself) where every layer peeled doesn't seem to uncover the final one +there's always the risk that we'll never know for sure. In the end when we know more we might feel compelled to distrust or deny the outrageous answer.
As usual, I feel grateful towards such thinkers/mindwalkers like Tricia Sullivan, going to the bottom end of a premise, pushing and following implications, feeling her way across ramfied possibilities so well. Isn't this what SF does at its best? Large scale, experimentally and experientially impossible situations get explored. One such example is what today has been called the 'age trap' of developed countries. The larger role played by an ever-expanding elderly population does not get much coverage in the SF genre. In Sweet Dreams the aging population is maintained almost because of their boomer value. It's good to think this through SF enhancements. Anti-aging, diseases associated with aging and various therapies are just cover-ups. Various age-related ailments and the need for health and social assistance in such a general state of mental decrepitude, expose this growing aging population to new if dark possibilities. Instead of placid asylums or occult conspiracies, elderly populations transform into dangerous pioneers in areas that today seem to actively exclude aged persons.
There's been a steadily growing interest in dreaming, and dream-worlds, going in many directions starting with mapping of the so-called science of sleep. Sleeping well is at a premium nowadays. Selling mattresses & curing sleeplessness is an industry in our world. Overwork & bad sleeping habits get more media coverage & become pervasive across cultures and countries. Various documentaries exists about dreaming under capitalism. Lucid dreaming looms larger than ever before, as well as a larger role played by sleep-related syndromes such as sleep paralysis. Not to talk about a plethora of monstrous (dream) manifestations and creepypasta characters that have sprung up in order to explain it.
I think Sweet Dreams by Tricia Sullivan should be taken as a key text in this new dreaming curriculum. Maybe it was inevitable that we've reached the gates of sleep, or that lucid dreaming has such an attraction for us today. 'Dreamers' have now taken center stage, at the time when every minute of our waking hours is being avidly quantified. It is also a world where skepticism about mindfulness apps increases. Sweet Dreams overturns the nightmares of Davos (for-profit) dreams by the captains of industry or tech gurus by placing at the center those that are forced to play a role in someone else's dreams (like Deleuze said once). As new technologies are dreamed up, the core of emergent superintelligences/archilects stays firmly outside the bounds of waking life. In a world where dreamers are hackable, nobody is on top of the situation. Their weakness might hold the key & offer us a close and intimate insight into gaping illusions & (mortal) delusions filled minefield. a It is a morphing world that is increasingly made inhabitable by a host of ëerie sentiences. Not sure yet how this squares out with the nightmare of being surpassed, drifting into obsolescence & palpable fears regarding an 'intelligence explosion' that still needs human dreamers. All these inscrutable aspects of other dreaming minds we are building and will never probably understand are somehow part and parcel of Sweet Dreams.
August 4, 2020
I've been enjoying Tricia Sullivan's sci-fi novels for more than twenty years. They always feature interesting ideas, weird situations, and pleasingly eccentric female main characters. Whether I love or just like her books depends upon how the interesting idea is extrapolated. My favourite remains Maul, which is fantastic. I found Lightborn, Double Vision, and Sound Mind less involving. Occupy Me was great fun, though, and I liked 'Sweet Dreams' just as much. Here, the main character Charlie took part in a medical study because she was broke and ended up with narcolepsy, plus the ability to share other people's dreams. In classic late capitalist fashion, she manages her disability and pays the rent with a gig economy job doing 'dream therapy'. Basically, she goes into people's dreams and tweaks them to reduce anxiety, make them sexier, etc. Charlie is a great protagonist as she's kind, cheerful, and totally chaotic. Although the plot twists involving mysterious deaths were diverting, I'd have happily read a novel about her daily life in 2027 cyberpunk London. The little details were great: whenever Charlie goes into someone's home, she wonders how they can afford this much space in London. I was particularly amused when she went into a bleak flat with no furnishings and her first thought was how amazing that the inhabitant could afford to live alone! The virtual reality and dream technology isn't overexplained; instead the first person narrative gives a feel for it. The descriptions of dreaming didn't evoke my actual experiences of dreaming, but that didn't matter as they were still suitably strange and eerie.
The baseline mayhem of Claire's everyday life was excellent, the characters distinctive, and the plot and world-building weirdness combined to make a very diverting rainy staycation day read.
The baseline mayhem of Claire's everyday life was excellent, the characters distinctive, and the plot and world-building weirdness combined to make a very diverting rainy staycation day read.
May 21, 2023
The concept and the story/plot were very up my alley. I’ve been interested in the study of dreams since I was a kid and tried to teach myself lucid dreaming (unsuccessfully). I kept dream journals of all kinds and got into ASMR and bineural beats. Eventually my life caught up with me and I had to switch my focus.
But the writing of the story was just not my style. It was all over the place and rambling. While the pop culture references were neat (story is placed in 2027), the sex scene was absolutely unnecessary and read like a sad, self-insert fan-fiction. It had no bearing on the plot whatsoever and it was just…not fun to read.
The ending got a bit confusing as it started to go in circles. And tbh I’m not really sure I understand it. I believe there is great potential for this story, but I think it just got away from the author in the end. It might have done better as a two-part story with another book.
But the writing of the story was just not my style. It was all over the place and rambling. While the pop culture references were neat (story is placed in 2027), the sex scene was absolutely unnecessary and read like a sad, self-insert fan-fiction. It had no bearing on the plot whatsoever and it was just…not fun to read.
The ending got a bit confusing as it started to go in circles. And tbh I’m not really sure I understand it. I believe there is great potential for this story, but I think it just got away from the author in the end. It might have done better as a two-part story with another book.
Read
June 24, 2018This was so terrible. I genuinely regret pushing though and wish I’d abandoned it.
September 26, 2020
This was the strangest crime book I've read. The random references are jarring and the writing style isn't to my taste. At all.
The word 'juiced' just has no place in a sex scene.
The word 'juiced' just has no place in a sex scene.
January 16, 2020
Originally published at Risingshadow.
Tricia Sullivan's Sweet Dreams is an excellent combination of science fiction and surrealism with elements of humour, thriller, mystery and horror interwoven into the story. It's a wonderful exploration of dreams and dream world with an emphasis on entertaining and thought-provoking storytelling. It's an utterly fresh and thrilling reading experience.
I was impressed by Sweet Dreams, because it's not your normal kind of speculative fiction, but something different. It's an addictive near-future thriller that took me by surprise with its quirky and unusual story that is speckled with many details. I'm happy to say that this novel is one of the best and most entertaining speculative fiction novels I've read during the recent months.
Tricia Sullivan is clearly an author who is not afraid of experimenting with speculative fiction and writing something different, because this novel is wholly original and wonderfully imaginative. What I find perhaps most intriguing about this novel is that it has a perfect balance between style and substance. All the details, characters and happenings have a purpose in the story and the author spices things up with a few carefully chosen brutal and sexual elements.
Here are a few words about the story:
Sweet Dreams tells of Charlie, who is a dreamhacker. Charlie can enter people's dreams and manipulate things inside the dream. If you're having a recurring nightmare, Charlie can change the course of the dream and make your life easier. As fas as she know, she's the only one who has this ability. She also suffers narcolepsy, which means that she can fall asleep at the most inopportune moment. When Charlie is hired by the famous harpist Melodie "Mel" Tan, who happens to be her ex's current girlfriend, her life becomes complicated, because the woman dreams of a masked Creeper and then sleepwalks off a tall building. Charlie realises that she may not be the only one who can enter dreams and affect them. She finds herself under investigation for Mel's murder and the Creeper's next target...
The characterisation in this novel is excellent, because all of the characters are intriguing and will have an impact on the reader with their uniqueness. I love the author's way of creating eccentric, quirky and memorable characters who are not perfect, but flawed like real people, because they bring depth and freshness to the story.
Charlie is an especially intriguing protagonist due to her ability to step into people's dreams and change them. Her life is somewhat extraordinary, because her uncontrollable narcolepsy may leave her vulnerable and weak in a wrong place or at a wrong time. When she dreams, she visits the surreal Dream City that is unlike the real world (the author's vision of the Dream City is stunningly vivid). Charlie's life is not easy, but she has coped as well as she can under the circumstances.
O, the elderly lady who helps Charlie, is a compelling and well-created supporting character. She finds clients for Charlie and has helped her in many ways. Although being completely different, O somehow reminds me a bit of the fictional character Clarissa Mullery from the British crime TV series "Silent Witness".
The scenes featuring Charlie and the Creeper are intense and unsettling. The author brings plenty of suspense to these scenes by making them approriately mysterious and foreboding.
The concept of dreamhacking intrigued me a lot. Hacking people's dreams comes with a responsibility, because a dreamhacker can do a lot of good to people and can help them overcome their fears and phobias, but can also cause harm to people and kill them.
The bits and pieces of humour the author has added to the story makes this novel compelling, because humorous elements lighten the atmosphere in a thrilling way. One of the things that impressed me about this novel is the author's effortless way of writing about embarrassing and personal things in a surprisingly natural yet quirky way. This is something that is not often seen in speculative fiction.
It's difficult to compare this novel to other speculative fiction novels, because it differs quite a lot from them, but it has a few elements that are reminiscent of E. J. Swift's Paris Adrift and Tony Ballantyne's Dream London and Dream Paris. If you're familiar with these author and their novels, you'll most like love this novel and will find it compelling.
If you're in need of something original and immersive to read, you should read Tricia Sullivan's Sweet Dreams as soon as possible. It's a little slice of excellence for readers who love captivating and well written stories that differ from the norm. Its imaginative story and colourful characters will impress and satisfy many readers.
Highly recommended!
Tricia Sullivan's Sweet Dreams is an excellent combination of science fiction and surrealism with elements of humour, thriller, mystery and horror interwoven into the story. It's a wonderful exploration of dreams and dream world with an emphasis on entertaining and thought-provoking storytelling. It's an utterly fresh and thrilling reading experience.
I was impressed by Sweet Dreams, because it's not your normal kind of speculative fiction, but something different. It's an addictive near-future thriller that took me by surprise with its quirky and unusual story that is speckled with many details. I'm happy to say that this novel is one of the best and most entertaining speculative fiction novels I've read during the recent months.
Tricia Sullivan is clearly an author who is not afraid of experimenting with speculative fiction and writing something different, because this novel is wholly original and wonderfully imaginative. What I find perhaps most intriguing about this novel is that it has a perfect balance between style and substance. All the details, characters and happenings have a purpose in the story and the author spices things up with a few carefully chosen brutal and sexual elements.
Here are a few words about the story:
Sweet Dreams tells of Charlie, who is a dreamhacker. Charlie can enter people's dreams and manipulate things inside the dream. If you're having a recurring nightmare, Charlie can change the course of the dream and make your life easier. As fas as she know, she's the only one who has this ability. She also suffers narcolepsy, which means that she can fall asleep at the most inopportune moment. When Charlie is hired by the famous harpist Melodie "Mel" Tan, who happens to be her ex's current girlfriend, her life becomes complicated, because the woman dreams of a masked Creeper and then sleepwalks off a tall building. Charlie realises that she may not be the only one who can enter dreams and affect them. She finds herself under investigation for Mel's murder and the Creeper's next target...
The characterisation in this novel is excellent, because all of the characters are intriguing and will have an impact on the reader with their uniqueness. I love the author's way of creating eccentric, quirky and memorable characters who are not perfect, but flawed like real people, because they bring depth and freshness to the story.
Charlie is an especially intriguing protagonist due to her ability to step into people's dreams and change them. Her life is somewhat extraordinary, because her uncontrollable narcolepsy may leave her vulnerable and weak in a wrong place or at a wrong time. When she dreams, she visits the surreal Dream City that is unlike the real world (the author's vision of the Dream City is stunningly vivid). Charlie's life is not easy, but she has coped as well as she can under the circumstances.
O, the elderly lady who helps Charlie, is a compelling and well-created supporting character. She finds clients for Charlie and has helped her in many ways. Although being completely different, O somehow reminds me a bit of the fictional character Clarissa Mullery from the British crime TV series "Silent Witness".
The scenes featuring Charlie and the Creeper are intense and unsettling. The author brings plenty of suspense to these scenes by making them approriately mysterious and foreboding.
The concept of dreamhacking intrigued me a lot. Hacking people's dreams comes with a responsibility, because a dreamhacker can do a lot of good to people and can help them overcome their fears and phobias, but can also cause harm to people and kill them.
The bits and pieces of humour the author has added to the story makes this novel compelling, because humorous elements lighten the atmosphere in a thrilling way. One of the things that impressed me about this novel is the author's effortless way of writing about embarrassing and personal things in a surprisingly natural yet quirky way. This is something that is not often seen in speculative fiction.
It's difficult to compare this novel to other speculative fiction novels, because it differs quite a lot from them, but it has a few elements that are reminiscent of E. J. Swift's Paris Adrift and Tony Ballantyne's Dream London and Dream Paris. If you're familiar with these author and their novels, you'll most like love this novel and will find it compelling.
If you're in need of something original and immersive to read, you should read Tricia Sullivan's Sweet Dreams as soon as possible. It's a little slice of excellence for readers who love captivating and well written stories that differ from the norm. Its imaginative story and colourful characters will impress and satisfy many readers.
Highly recommended!
September 29, 2017
I received a free e-copy of this book from the publisher on Netgalley in return for an honest review.
While many crave sleep at the end of the day for Charlie her problem is sleeping too much. After developing narcolepsy after taking part a drug trial the year before, not only does she find herself falling asleep in stressful situations, she has discovered a unique ability that she has gained, she is able to enter other people’s dreams. Charlie wishes to use this ability to help others who suffer from nightmares but there are others who are looking to exploit Charlie, will she discover the truth before the pile of bodies mounting up contains her own?
Charlie is certainly relatable, not so much in that she can enter people’s dreams but, in her emotions and actions. From the start she is a well thought out character who you – I – start to empathise with and root for. At times, yes, she is extremely needy which makes her the ending all the more satisfying when she finally gains some independence. O, short for Olivia, quickly grew on me as well. Charlie’s elderly roommate who is helping to kick start Charlie’s business certainly has a unique character about her and has also very clearly been well thought out. Their interactions reminded me of a grandmother-granddaughter relationship. The other characters were well written but not nearly as memorable. Shandy’s quirkiness is what makes her memorable, not her character arc or actions. With a plot that can be extremely complex (especially towards the end) I’m glad there weren’t too many characters to focus on but I think some of them weren’t as thought out as Charlie and O.
It is set in a not so far into the future, where people are wired in to the web all of the time. Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality are daily for all people and the corporations selling the software seem intent on keeping people connected. This doesn’t sound too far off what is happening today, with Google glasses and virtual reality games making their way onto the scene this is not only a thriller, but an excellent view and commentary on where society is heading and whether having all of this technology is a good thing. The side affects, consequences and uses for evil or nefarious schemes of having such a technology at our disposal is clearly outlined within this book.
It was an interesting read and certainly well put together. The internal logic of the dreams and the development of the Agency did get confusing at the end of the novel. I was kind of expecting it but it became difficult to follow as it drew to its conclusion. The idea behind the novel is impressive, but I think more time could have been used explaining the dream space the different apps that seem to connect people while dreaming. As I said, I followed towards the ending but I think a little bit more information would have been helpful. The characters interacted well with one another and the subtle references to today’s culture certainly helped to ground the novel.
If you’re looking a thriller with a twist I would recommend this book.
While many crave sleep at the end of the day for Charlie her problem is sleeping too much. After developing narcolepsy after taking part a drug trial the year before, not only does she find herself falling asleep in stressful situations, she has discovered a unique ability that she has gained, she is able to enter other people’s dreams. Charlie wishes to use this ability to help others who suffer from nightmares but there are others who are looking to exploit Charlie, will she discover the truth before the pile of bodies mounting up contains her own?
Charlie is certainly relatable, not so much in that she can enter people’s dreams but, in her emotions and actions. From the start she is a well thought out character who you – I – start to empathise with and root for. At times, yes, she is extremely needy which makes her the ending all the more satisfying when she finally gains some independence. O, short for Olivia, quickly grew on me as well. Charlie’s elderly roommate who is helping to kick start Charlie’s business certainly has a unique character about her and has also very clearly been well thought out. Their interactions reminded me of a grandmother-granddaughter relationship. The other characters were well written but not nearly as memorable. Shandy’s quirkiness is what makes her memorable, not her character arc or actions. With a plot that can be extremely complex (especially towards the end) I’m glad there weren’t too many characters to focus on but I think some of them weren’t as thought out as Charlie and O.
It is set in a not so far into the future, where people are wired in to the web all of the time. Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality are daily for all people and the corporations selling the software seem intent on keeping people connected. This doesn’t sound too far off what is happening today, with Google glasses and virtual reality games making their way onto the scene this is not only a thriller, but an excellent view and commentary on where society is heading and whether having all of this technology is a good thing. The side affects, consequences and uses for evil or nefarious schemes of having such a technology at our disposal is clearly outlined within this book.
It was an interesting read and certainly well put together. The internal logic of the dreams and the development of the Agency did get confusing at the end of the novel. I was kind of expecting it but it became difficult to follow as it drew to its conclusion. The idea behind the novel is impressive, but I think more time could have been used explaining the dream space the different apps that seem to connect people while dreaming. As I said, I followed towards the ending but I think a little bit more information would have been helpful. The characters interacted well with one another and the subtle references to today’s culture certainly helped to ground the novel.
If you’re looking a thriller with a twist I would recommend this book.
September 18, 2017
Well, this was a little different to my usual reads. Charlie has the ability to enter people's dreams and manipulate them. She does this in a therapeutic way, selling her services to help those afflicted by bad dreams and nightmares. Her ability started just after she took part in a medical trial and appeared hand in hand with uncontrollable narcolepsy the combination of which has the power to leave her vulnerable. She lives with a rather interesting landlady, having answered an ad for a live in carer, O, who also helps her with arranging clients. As we meet Charlie at the start of our story, she is being questioned. It appears that one of her clients, Mel, is dead. Not just that, but it transpires that the death occurred whilst she was still in dreamland, with Charlie. But, she's not just any client, she's a well known musician and, if that's not enough, she's Charlie's ex's current girlfriend. Is that motive enough for something fishy to be happening? Is Charlie involved in the death? Certain things happened when Charlie entered her dream though, things that shouldn't happen, coincidences that shouldn't be? Mel's Dreamscape was familiar, she described a person that Charlie also has nightmares about. Are the two of them connected more than just having shared a boyfriend and if so, how? What the heck is going on?
This was a strange book for me. I would definitely put it into the category I so loving call bonkers. But it was also brilliantly so. I love the concept of dream hacking - yes I also enjoyed the film Inception - and found the fact that someone could sort of astral project them self into someone else's dream quite intriguing. I also loved the diary / log entries that Charlie keeps as records of her work. Especially the more interesting dreams and hurdles she encounters early on.
As for the rest of things, well, you'll just have to read the book as to say more would just spoil it as certain things have to be discovered at the right times for the whole to work, and others have to stay secret for the jokes (and yes, there are quite a few of them along the way) to be funny. Suffice to say that it is rather convoluted and it would do you good to have your wits about you throughout!
The characters were brilliant. With characters such as those found in this book, being quite larger than life (to say the least in some cases) there is a danger that they could come across as caricatures. Luckily, although she sails close to it at times, the author doesn't quite cross it.
All in all, a rather interesting book that delivered for me on all levels. A substantial read that had it all but also didn't take itself too seriously. One which has definitely piqued my interest in this author enough to see what else she has written.
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.
This was a strange book for me. I would definitely put it into the category I so loving call bonkers. But it was also brilliantly so. I love the concept of dream hacking - yes I also enjoyed the film Inception - and found the fact that someone could sort of astral project them self into someone else's dream quite intriguing. I also loved the diary / log entries that Charlie keeps as records of her work. Especially the more interesting dreams and hurdles she encounters early on.
As for the rest of things, well, you'll just have to read the book as to say more would just spoil it as certain things have to be discovered at the right times for the whole to work, and others have to stay secret for the jokes (and yes, there are quite a few of them along the way) to be funny. Suffice to say that it is rather convoluted and it would do you good to have your wits about you throughout!
The characters were brilliant. With characters such as those found in this book, being quite larger than life (to say the least in some cases) there is a danger that they could come across as caricatures. Luckily, although she sails close to it at times, the author doesn't quite cross it.
All in all, a rather interesting book that delivered for me on all levels. A substantial read that had it all but also didn't take itself too seriously. One which has definitely piqued my interest in this author enough to see what else she has written.
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.
July 23, 2019
Received free of charge in exchange for an honest review from Titan Books.
Read the full review here.
f you watched Inception and thought, “man, this would be cooler if it had been a YA book written by Joss Whedon” then hold tight because I have a book for you!
This book, to be specific.
Sweet Dreams by Tricia Sullivan was an interesting read to be sure. I was in the mood for sci-fi when this showed up, courtesy of Titan Books, and I will be forever grateful for the opportunity to have read it. Sullivan runs with some very interesting themes in this novel, more than a few even manage to border on Asimov-levels of creative pseudo-science. It was a wild ride, though unfortunately, it does end up falling somewhat short on the mystery element. Let me explain:
Charlie is a dream hacker. She can enter the dreams of those nearby and alter them to the specifications of the dreamer. Charlie wasn’t born with these abilities, they are the result of a sleep study experiment gone wrong years before. Ergo, she is trying to use her “powers for good” sort of speak, but things almost immediately take a turn for the worst, as they are often want to do, when during one of these sessions Charlie’s newest and most prestigious client turns up dead. It wasn’t Charlie, but a strange masked killer known only as The Creeper.
...
I wish Sullivan had fleshed this world out just a little bit more. I wish we’d understood the politics behind the tech industries that seem to be controlling the world, and I wish we’d been allowed to see a more technical side of the things that were being talked about in the book. Company names like BigSky and the titular app Sweet Dreams (which oddly ended up not playing nearly as big of a part as one would presume given that fact) seemed to be background features to Charlie and her obsession with finding The Creeper. There was also the fact that there are literal Dream Police, which sounds like a crappy offshoot of X Files but was actually quite interesting. Or at least, it should have been, considering that they were freelancers akin to Scooby-Doo and friends.
...
Ultimately, I enjoyed the book, but it could have used more polish and a lot more prioritizing on world-building. I hope I’m wrong, but I feel like most people are going to end up sleeping on Sweet Dreams.
Read the full review here.
f you watched Inception and thought, “man, this would be cooler if it had been a YA book written by Joss Whedon” then hold tight because I have a book for you!
This book, to be specific.
Sweet Dreams by Tricia Sullivan was an interesting read to be sure. I was in the mood for sci-fi when this showed up, courtesy of Titan Books, and I will be forever grateful for the opportunity to have read it. Sullivan runs with some very interesting themes in this novel, more than a few even manage to border on Asimov-levels of creative pseudo-science. It was a wild ride, though unfortunately, it does end up falling somewhat short on the mystery element. Let me explain:
Charlie is a dream hacker. She can enter the dreams of those nearby and alter them to the specifications of the dreamer. Charlie wasn’t born with these abilities, they are the result of a sleep study experiment gone wrong years before. Ergo, she is trying to use her “powers for good” sort of speak, but things almost immediately take a turn for the worst, as they are often want to do, when during one of these sessions Charlie’s newest and most prestigious client turns up dead. It wasn’t Charlie, but a strange masked killer known only as The Creeper.
...
I wish Sullivan had fleshed this world out just a little bit more. I wish we’d understood the politics behind the tech industries that seem to be controlling the world, and I wish we’d been allowed to see a more technical side of the things that were being talked about in the book. Company names like BigSky and the titular app Sweet Dreams (which oddly ended up not playing nearly as big of a part as one would presume given that fact) seemed to be background features to Charlie and her obsession with finding The Creeper. There was also the fact that there are literal Dream Police, which sounds like a crappy offshoot of X Files but was actually quite interesting. Or at least, it should have been, considering that they were freelancers akin to Scooby-Doo and friends.
...
Ultimately, I enjoyed the book, but it could have used more polish and a lot more prioritizing on world-building. I hope I’m wrong, but I feel like most people are going to end up sleeping on Sweet Dreams.
January 2, 2020
Review originally published in SFX magazine, issue 292 (November 2017)
--
Just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean your dreams aren't out to get you.
It takes dreamhacker Charlie Aaron a while to realise this, because she's not a paranoid person, by nature. Indeed, she's so trusting that she gets nicknamed Polyanna (well, her best friend calls her 'Horse', for reasons that go delightfully unexplained), and by her own admission she's not very observant. The latter, she can't help; after taking part in a mysterious (i.e. clearly dodgy) clinical trial, she's developed narcolepsy and now falls asleep when stressed. Unfortunately, given that Charlie's job sees her tangling with a shady corporation (is there any other kind?), running from a creepy dream invader, and getting interrogated in a kebab shop by the dream police after one of her clients sleepwalks to death, stress pretty much comes with the territory.
There's always been a touch of dream logic to Sullivan's work, even if Maul - with its hilariously, horrifically violent girl-gang shoot-out at a cosmetics counter - was the kind of dream you have after eating too much cheese. Her plots don't so much twist as coil like capricious and possibly malevolent springs that periodically snap back in your face. Sweet Dreams is less off-the-wall, but its narcoleptic heroine is a great device for moving the action forward in disorientating jumps, and the city she visits in dreams is gleefully odd, if in a lower-key way than seasoned Sullivan readers might expect. Instead, the book has a quieter strength: Charlie's journey from pawn (of plots she can't see, and clients she can't afford to turn down) to player. Caught up in a murder mystery conspiracy thriller, she has to face down her fears, and take control of both dreams and real life. Ends are left dangling, but Charlie's tale - which makes excellent use of its near-future London setting to ramp up Charlie's social and financial vulnerabilities - is a satisfying one.
--
Just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean your dreams aren't out to get you.
It takes dreamhacker Charlie Aaron a while to realise this, because she's not a paranoid person, by nature. Indeed, she's so trusting that she gets nicknamed Polyanna (well, her best friend calls her 'Horse', for reasons that go delightfully unexplained), and by her own admission she's not very observant. The latter, she can't help; after taking part in a mysterious (i.e. clearly dodgy) clinical trial, she's developed narcolepsy and now falls asleep when stressed. Unfortunately, given that Charlie's job sees her tangling with a shady corporation (is there any other kind?), running from a creepy dream invader, and getting interrogated in a kebab shop by the dream police after one of her clients sleepwalks to death, stress pretty much comes with the territory.
There's always been a touch of dream logic to Sullivan's work, even if Maul - with its hilariously, horrifically violent girl-gang shoot-out at a cosmetics counter - was the kind of dream you have after eating too much cheese. Her plots don't so much twist as coil like capricious and possibly malevolent springs that periodically snap back in your face. Sweet Dreams is less off-the-wall, but its narcoleptic heroine is a great device for moving the action forward in disorientating jumps, and the city she visits in dreams is gleefully odd, if in a lower-key way than seasoned Sullivan readers might expect. Instead, the book has a quieter strength: Charlie's journey from pawn (of plots she can't see, and clients she can't afford to turn down) to player. Caught up in a murder mystery conspiracy thriller, she has to face down her fears, and take control of both dreams and real life. Ends are left dangling, but Charlie's tale - which makes excellent use of its near-future London setting to ramp up Charlie's social and financial vulnerabilities - is a satisfying one.
November 26, 2017
I've had lucid dreams. Dreams where you know you are dreaming, and can alter the events, rewinding and replaying for a different outcome. Charlie does that for a living in Sweet Dreams by Tricia Sullivan (review copy from Gollancz). She is a dreamhacker: paid to go into other people's dreams to help them overcome phobias and anxiety. It's not a job with a big client list, and it doesn't pay well, but it fits well round the narcolepsy Charlie was left with as a side-effect of a drug trial she participated in while penniless at university.
One of Charlie's few clients is a famous musician who is suffering from extreme nightmares that are beginning to affect her career. She is visited each night by The Creeper - a mysterious masked figure determined to cause harm. When the musician dies one night, Charlie finds herself under investigation for the death, but also the the Creeper's next target. Desperate to deal with the Creeper and clear her name, Charlie finds herself uncovering a conspiracy.
Sweet Dreams is a great near-future thriller, looking at themes about the integration of technology in our lives, its increasing sophistication, and how we choose to approach it.
One of Charlie's few clients is a famous musician who is suffering from extreme nightmares that are beginning to affect her career. She is visited each night by The Creeper - a mysterious masked figure determined to cause harm. When the musician dies one night, Charlie finds herself under investigation for the death, but also the the Creeper's next target. Desperate to deal with the Creeper and clear her name, Charlie finds herself uncovering a conspiracy.
Sweet Dreams is a great near-future thriller, looking at themes about the integration of technology in our lives, its increasing sophistication, and how we choose to approach it.
September 23, 2021
Charlie is a dreamhacker, able to enter your dreams and mould their direction. Forget that recurring nightmare about being naked at an exam - Charlie will step in to your dream, bring you a dressing gown and give you the answers. As far as she knows, she's the only person who can do this. Unfortunately, her power comes with one drawback - Charlie also has narcolepsy, and may fall asleep at the most inopportune moment.
But in London 2022, her skill is in demand. And when she is hired by a minor celebrity - who also happens to be the new girlfriend of Charlie's lamented ex - who dreams of a masked Creeper then sleepwalks off a tall building, Charlie begins to realise that someone else might be able to invade dreams.
But in London 2022, her skill is in demand. And when she is hired by a minor celebrity - who also happens to be the new girlfriend of Charlie's lamented ex - who dreams of a masked Creeper then sleepwalks off a tall building, Charlie begins to realise that someone else might be able to invade dreams.
December 18, 2020
I loved the whole idea behind this story.
It was a very hard book to get through the start of though, it makes sense by the end of the book why it had to be that way, but honestly it took until just after half way to get to the 'can't put down' stage.
There is a sex scene in this book, and slightly detailed so be aware for younger readers, for older readers not that bad of a scene. In the end a great read, but lost a star as it took too long to get the to good stuff (even if for a reason :D )
It was a very hard book to get through the start of though, it makes sense by the end of the book why it had to be that way, but honestly it took until just after half way to get to the 'can't put down' stage.
There is a sex scene in this book, and slightly detailed so be aware for younger readers, for older readers not that bad of a scene. In the end a great read, but lost a star as it took too long to get the to good stuff (even if for a reason :D )
December 27, 2018
I received a copy of Sweet Dreams from Hachette Australia to review.
Rating of 3.5.
I did a short review of this book in the Canberra Weekly:
https://unseenlibrary.com/2018/12/27/...
Originally reviewed back in November 2017, I have re-published this review on my blog as part of my Throwback Thursday series.
For other interesting reviews, visit my blog at:
https://unseenlibrary.com/
Rating of 3.5.
I did a short review of this book in the Canberra Weekly:
https://unseenlibrary.com/2018/12/27/...
Originally reviewed back in November 2017, I have re-published this review on my blog as part of my Throwback Thursday series.
For other interesting reviews, visit my blog at:
https://unseenlibrary.com/
June 2, 2025
The concept of this book was really good and there were good parts but there were also parts that were just repetitive and boring unfortunately.
It wasn't very long in the first place but there were still parts that could have been cut out/refined.
I also feel there was no need to have anything about how big Antonio's penis was. It didn't add anything to the story and just felt extremely random. It was not that type of story so there was no need and it was just cringey.
It wasn't very long in the first place but there were still parts that could have been cut out/refined.
I also feel there was no need to have anything about how big Antonio's penis was. It didn't add anything to the story and just felt extremely random. It was not that type of story so there was no need and it was just cringey.
February 27, 2018
Despite more than you might think being based on reality, the Dream City for example has been encountered by numerous people and about 20 years ago something kicked me out of a dream, this is generally uninteresting, the plot goes almost nowhere, the reason behind the villain is told to Charlie by other people rather than being discovered and the ending makes very little sense.
June 1, 2020
This book had a lot of potential and the idea behind the story was interesting. I just found the beginning was very choppy and took sometime to actually understand what is going on. Then I found the end to be very lack luster, I was waiting for the big reveal of why but it just ended. Not sure if it was supposed to have a deeper meaning but I was disappointed in the ending.
April 12, 2019
An entertaining sf / whodunnit / whodunwhat story set in a world of dreams. Our clueless but good hearted heroine finds herself in the centre of a series of murders. Who can she trust?
I really enjoyed this book. It was very well written, with a watertight plot and entertaining characters.
I really enjoyed this book. It was very well written, with a watertight plot and entertaining characters.
August 7, 2019
An interesting if occasionally frustrating read. It never quite seems to strike a happy balance between whodunnit and speculative science fiction and its ending had unfortunate echoes of 'The Matrix' films, at least for me. Still it's compelling in its narrative and a decent time-filler.
October 28, 2019
This book is like a cross between Inception and Paprika, but not necessarily in a good way. A very strong start was let down by a questionable second act and poor finale. So much potential felt squandered for want of a decent editor.
November 24, 2024
This book has great potential but it took a long time to get to the point. I started to get to the point where I just wanted to be done, I no longer cared about the plot. The twist the author added were random and didn’t add anything to the plot itself.
December 31, 2017
Won from goodreads
Won interesting enjoyed it not sure about ending just my opinion worth a read
Won interesting enjoyed it not sure about ending just my opinion worth a read
October 26, 2018
Clever & entertaining
A wonderful set of characters, a twisty, tight plot, great writing. Despite the high-concept plot, everything is so grounded by the characters. Terrific.
A wonderful set of characters, a twisty, tight plot, great writing. Despite the high-concept plot, everything is so grounded by the characters. Terrific.
December 18, 2018
intriguing and different.
April 29, 2019
Loved the book but found the ending a little disappointing unfortunately
July 7, 2019
Great concept but I got bored half way through.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews