Book Review: Dreamland by Nick Clausen

Even though this book is intended as a horror, or at least a spooky story, I found it very emotional. Emotion is not really something you associate with horrors but it worked very well here.

Blurb

Dreamland* by Nick Clausen introduces us to Dreamland. Dreamland is where Louis goes to meet his father, who died when he was a baby. However, Dreamland is not the magical place it first promised to be…

Review

Essentially this is a book about grief. The grief of Louis losing a father he never knew and his mother, who believed that bottling up her grief and never discussing her late husband was the best thing to do for her young son. However, this backfires on her as Louis’ father in Dreamland recounts things about their marriage that only her would know. This pushes her grief almost to the edge but also provides the catalyst to move on. It makes for an utterly heartbreaking read.

While it was the emotion that truly drew me to this book, there are many other great aspects of Dreamland. For instance, there is Dreamland itself where not only does the author’s vivid imagination come to play, but also where we learn the lesson that things are not always what they seem.

I must also praise how well this book in written. It is not hard to imagine a short story being a quick read. However, the problem with short stories can often be that the reader isn’t left satisfied. They feel that they are only told part of the story. This is not the case with Dreamland. In much fewer pages than a novel, we get, well, a novel. The story is well-rounded and I didn’t feel like I was missing anything or was cut short. On top of that, the reader is provided ample information about the characters.

Two final things to sum up this wonderful book: it is simply written but with impact and the vivid imagination of the author is fascinating.

Does this sound like a book you would enjoy?

I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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