Mindee Arnett
TOR Teen, 2013
$17.99, Hardcover
978-0765333339
Genre: Fantasy
Age: 13+
Description: Sixteen-year-old Dusty Everhart has it rough. She attends
Arkwell Academy, which is a private boarding school for magical and
supernatural beings. Unfortunately for her she happens to be a Nightmare and
the daughter of the most infamous student ever to attend—her mother. She also
happens to be shunned by most students because she is a Halfling—her dad was a
human. As a Nightmare she is required to enter people’s bedrooms at night and
enter their dreams. In doing so she receives a kind of spiritual nourishment
that she needs to survive. One night she enters the room of someone she wishes
she’d never seen again—Eli—a boy from her old, normal high school whom she didn’t
get along with well. When she enters his dreams and sees a girl get murdered and
Eli actually acknowledges her presence and kicks her out of his head, she
realizes something has gone horribly wrong. But she’s not going to get rid of
Eli so quickly as he has been enrolled as the first human at Arkwell Academy
because he and Dusty has a very rare connection between Nightmare and Dreamer—while
in his dreams she can see prophetic visions. Now Dusty is being forced to team
up with Eli in order to stop a cruel murderer before he kills again.
Opinion: When I first saw this book a while ago I loved the cover
but I wasn’t too enthralled by the description. It sounded like another
paranormal romance. However, when my group of teens received this as an ARC for
our YA Galley Project I decided to give it a read because, knowing my teens,
the book would be a hit among them. I was pleasantly surprised. While there
will be conclusions drawn that it is similar to Harry Potter (a magic boarding
school), it is anything but. Arnett creates an interesting world that Dusty
herself is new to and poor Eli gets thrust into. All of the characters are well
drawn and likeable (or despicable if they are a baddie). There are also unique twists of magical
characters. Dusty is a Nightmare and the negative stereotype of her kind (which
is rare now) is that of the evil succubae and incubi. Her best friend, Selene,
is a siren who is sick and tired of the stereotypes that sexualize them and show
them getting everything they want so she rebels against the objectification and
tries to be tomboyish and not use her powers. There are plot twists galore that
will keep readers guessing till the very end. While this first book doesn’t end
on a huge cliffhanger it will be interesting to see more adventures of Dusty in
the future.
Here’s
what one of my teens had to say:
Emily,
14, says, “Dusty goes to a school for supernatural children.
She is a Nightmare—in order to survive she needs to ‘feed’ on the stuff dreams
are made of which requires her to sneak into houses and sit on people to enter
their dreams. However, her world is turned upside down when she enters the
dreams of Eli and witnesses the murder of a fellow student. Turns out Dusty and
Eli are one of those really rare pairings that can possibly see into the future
in dreams. With her not-so-powerful powers (she’s still learning!) and her
friends she is recruited by the school to attempt to solve the murder and stop
evil from taking over. I liked the color and the font on the cover. The cover
had various elements that appear in the book, such as Dusty in the graveyard
where her whole life turns upside down and the mysterious phoenix. The most
compelling aspect of the book was how the author combined folklore and mystery
together for a unique plot. Please tell me this is the beginning of a new series! It ended wrapped up
nicely but I want Dusty’s adventures to continue!”
*Thanks to Juliet Pederson-Klug at
TOR Teen for providing an ARC of this title for the YA Galley Group project!*
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