Friday, June 3, 2016

Dreamology, by Lucy Keating

Max is the boy of Alice's dreams. Literally. Ever since her father took her to the Center for Dream Discovery (CDD) to help rid her of her nightmares, she's been dreaming about Max. Each night, they eat Oreo pizzas in museums while wearing black tie attire, ride pink elephants along the Great Wall of China, bounce on clouds amid technicolor hot air balloons, and have many a trippy nighttime adventure. Then Alice moves from New York to Boston and... SURPRISE! Who should show up in her class but Max. In the waking-world flesh. After some awkward encounters where Max swears he doesn't know Alice, he finally admits he remembers his dreams of her as well. Unfortunately for the Dream Couple, Max has a girlfriend who is supernice and is becoming friends with Alice. And class clown Oliver (Max's former BFF) is interested in Alice as more than just a friend. So Max and Alice must keep their attraction a secret. But of course secrets like this don't stay secrets for long. What follows is a hot mess of Drama.

And if you think that sounds convoluted, just wait: 

As their waking and dreaming worlds begin to blend together in some very odd ways (bulldogs riding motorcycles, anyone?), Max and Alice realize they're in danger of losing their sanity. They track down Dr. Petermann, the scientist who worked the CDD when they were patients there, and he referrs them to Professor Yang, another (former) CDD scientist...just as he is arrested for illegal parrot smuggling. 

Soon Max and Alice, along with Oliver and Alice's NYC BFF Sophie, are road tripping from Boston to Maine to track down Dr. Yang, who is apparently the one responsible for their condition. But will she be able to stop Max ans Alice's dreams before they permanently lose their grip on reality? 

To find out, you'll have to read!

Dreamology, the debut novel for author Lucy Keating, was a quick and fun read I breezed through in less than 48 hours (I took several breaks in between sessions). Unfortunately, it wasn't very deep. The romance lacked chemistry, characters lacked dimension, and the dream sequences seemed forced-weird (and were so frequent that they actually kind of took away from the story). Overall, Dreamology was a decent first book effort for Keating. But as is with most dreams upon waking, it isn't particularly memorable. --AJB

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