Fearsome Dreamer | Laure Eve | Review
“We need the powerful ones… Because it’s coming. It’s coming and they can stop it.”
What if dreams are more than just that? What if they were real? What if they were dangerous?
Vela Rue is a hedgewitch in training from a land called Angle Tar. Her life is simplistic and bar occasionally treating troublesome patient, the only thing that feels out of the ordinary from her quiet rural life is her dreams. Rich, vivid, and terrifying, she has no idea what they mean, except that they feel too real to be mere stories from her brain’s imagination.
White is running. A teenage boy with an astonishing power, he’s ostracised by the people of the plugged-in society called World. White is finally forced to escape, heading towards Angle Tar and into the arms of Frith.
Frith is man holding more secrets than he lets on. Part teacher, part government spy, he seeks those with gifts just like White and takes him under his wing. A boy prodigy but also a powerful weapon, White may be the very person he’s looking for. But when Rue thrown into the mix, Frith is unprepared for the explosion that comes from these two worlds, Rue and White colliding.
Fearsome Dreamer is set in a society of two clashing worlds with clashing people and clashing cultures. There’s World, grey and mechanical, with the only shining light amidst this being Life – a virtual reality where the citizens of World plug themselves into and become whatever they desire (Ready Player One vibes here!). Then there’s Angle Tar, averse to changing it’s ways to that of the booming technological hub of World, but somewhat richer and more rooted in it’s culture and history than the former.
So what’s my verdict?
My oh my how I wish could’ve written more in the synopsis to give you an idea of what this book is about but nope, too much info to spoil!
I mentioned the clash of people and Fearsome Dreamer as a novel is just that, with the book’s chapters rotate themselves around the three characters and perspective of Rue, White and Frith.
Rue is confident at first, she's a self confessed loud mouth and comfortable with herself despite want to reach out to the wider world. Outside her little comfort blanket corner of the world, Rue feels to me like naive little fish in the big pond that is the Capital, World and the previously unspoken parts of Angle Ta
White remains for the most part of the book a conflicted outcast. He broods and acts much older than his teen years. His power is something he has long accepted, knows he’s good at, yet is careful not to push its boundaries – yet.
Frith is the most interesting character to me. Cool, collected and with a master Jedi vibe to him, Frith is seen at first as the catalyst of the whole operation. However, as the book goes on we see that Frith may not be a powerful as other perceive him to be but merely a pawn in the greater scheme of things. We've seen some great parts of backstory for him, but I'm oh so keen to see much more! The constant rotation of voices allows the reader to gain a rounded view of not just the world the characters live in, but of the situations and philosophies they follow.
With Part One of the novel being mostly expositional, a lot of the story and tension doesn’t arrive until Rue and White’s worlds actually collide during Part Two. Some may find this first part a tedious wait until you get to the action packed Part Two but the exposition in my mind was necessary. We need to see the character’s roots to see what really motivates their actions towards the end of the novel. When Rue and White do meet, you better bet there’s some romantic chemistry there. This isn't quite love, but something more animalistic and raw, which is actually refreshing for me to see in a YA novel and is fitting considering the wild nature of their abilities.
All in all Fearsome Dreamer is strong start to what is hopefully set to be an intriguing series. It’s a heady mix of magical fantasy and technological dystopia, which is definitely something I haven't quite seen before and I feel like we've only just scratched the surface with these characters. More please, Laure Eve!
Reading Soundtrack:
Northern Wind: City and Colour; Cruel City: Augustines; Bad Blood: Bastille; Eyes Closed: The Narrative; Falling: The Civil Wars; This Is Gospel: Panic! At The Disco; Shelter: Birdy; Figure 8: Ellie Goulding
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