Brent Hartinger Dreamquest

Dreamquest

Brent Hartinger

Starscape (Tor), May 2007, $16.95

ISBN: 0765313979

Her parents' constant fights frighten eleven year old Julie Fray. She is so scared that something bad is going to happen that even when she sleeps she suffers nightmares that she is a pawn on a chessboard with her mom as the white queen and her dad as the black king each giving orders for her to move. The dreams are getting worse and the preadolescent child has no one to turn to as her parents are too caught up with their war to see what it is doing to her. Being awake is as bad if not worse.

This time when she suffers the nightmare, Julie awakens but not to the hostility between her parents pulling on her to their side. Instead somehow she is still inside her nightmare realm. Specifically she finds herself in a studio where Julie's dreams are a big production. Production assistant Roman befriends the bewildered frightened young girl and tells her to find the producer. However Julie has a bigger problem than getting nightmares less frightening. The child actress who portrays her, Vivian has crossed over to the real world and refuses to switch back. If she fails to return to reality, she will be trapped inside her head where a studio produces the nightmare world of Julie Fray.

DREAMQUEST is a powerful character study that hooks the audience once they realize Julie is marooned in her nightmares. The story line is set up so that readers are unsure whether this is a horror tale or a psychological thriller; in either case Julie and the preadolescent audience will agree that she is in deep trouble regardless. This tale of Slumberia is a fantastic novel that will please its pre-teen crowd, but also their parents.

Harriet Klausner