Review
For my full review of the novel please visit If These Books Could Talk
Liz Drake has a feeling that something is wrong, and when you have empathic tendencies and the ability to enter Dreamland in your sleep and walk among it’s residents, you tend to act on those ominous thoughts. So when she can’t get hold of her best friend Blake, she travels across Canada to try and find him and ease her fears. Unfortunately, she finds Blake in a Vancouver hospital, comatose, the victim of a mysterious drowning that claimed his lover Alain. Along with her partner Alex, Liz familiarises herself with Blake’s circle of friends, a group of artists with occult leanings, and soon discovers that Blake was manipulated into messing with uncontrollable forces.
Amanda Downum doesn’t mess around. Right from the first chapter we’re flung into a bizarre, almost hypnotic world of unscrupulous art gallery owners, nasty dealers, and strange goings on among the shadows. Unfortunately, as brilliant as Downums world building is, ultimately, ‘Dreams Of Shreds And Tatters‘ is a bit of a let down. To start with, Downum clearly has a vast vocabulary and an imaginative way with words, but for every evocative passage that works, there are several that jar or just take too long to portray the simplest action.
I presume this is the first of a series as the novel ends with many plot aspects unresolved. At least I hope it is, or you can add that to several appalling continuity errors as aspects that really should have been picked up by the editor.
Liz Drake has a feeling that something is wrong, and when you have empathic tendencies and the ability to enter Dreamland in your sleep and walk among it’s residents, you tend to act on those ominous thoughts. So when she can’t get hold of her best friend Blake, she travels across Canada to try and find him and ease her fears. Unfortunately, she finds Blake in a Vancouver hospital, comatose, the victim of a mysterious drowning that claimed his lover Alain. Along with her partner Alex, Liz familiarises herself with Blake’s circle of friends, a group of artists with occult leanings, and soon discovers that Blake was manipulated into messing with uncontrollable forces.
Amanda Downum doesn’t mess around. Right from the first chapter we’re flung into a bizarre, almost hypnotic world of unscrupulous art gallery owners, nasty dealers, and strange goings on among the shadows. Unfortunately, as brilliant as Downums world building is, ultimately, ‘Dreams Of Shreds And Tatters‘ is a bit of a let down. To start with, Downum clearly has a vast vocabulary and an imaginative way with words, but for every evocative passage that works, there are several that jar or just take too long to portray the simplest action.
I presume this is the first of a series as the novel ends with many plot aspects unresolved. At least I hope it is, or you can add that to several appalling continuity errors as aspects that really should have been picked up by the editor.
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