DREAMQUAKE

Dreams captured for healing and entertainment fuel a profitable industry in this dense, literate fantasy. Fledgling dreamhunter Laura Hame surreptitiously broadcasts a horrific nightmare, certain that the ensuing riot would provoke an investigation into the use of dreams to torture convicts. Her plan backfires, suggesting even more sinister schemes against the Place, the source of dreams. As her friends and family seek to outmaneuver the plotters, Laura and her golem-like creation Nown unearth the real secret of the Place—and are faced with a heartbreaking choice. A slow start recapitulates much of the first book, and painstakingly sets out clues for the forthcoming dark discoveries. Names and events are heavy with symbolic portent, while legendary and literary allusions add depth and light. About halfway through, subterfuge, danger and passion begin to propel the narrative, until the climactic revelations tremble on the knife edge of bathos. A slyly ambiguous epilogue rescues the tale from sentimentality, making it an essential purchase for libraries owning the first volume. (Fantasy. YA)