THE DREAMERS

A teen’s life is turned upside down when she’s abducted for an unethical experiment.

Apart from her father’s death a few months ago, 17-year-old Stella leads an ordinary life. She gossips with her best friend and argues with her mother. But everything changes when Stella is kidnapped and brought to the Manor de Rêves, a laboratory run by the formidable Ms. Withers. There, Stella finds out she’s a Dreamer—people with a genetic mutation that allows them to “dream the future.” Under Ms. Withers’ direction, the Dreamers’ REM sleep is recorded and harvested for intel. Stella befriends fellow Dreamers Caleb and Nora and wonders about the mysterious Charlie, a boy she swears she recognizes. The four teens are determined to escape and get back to their normal lives, but watching eyes are everywhere. Tepid prose and stilted dialogue bog down an otherwise interesting concept. The chapters are mostly composed of filler, with scenes narrated by Caleb, Nora, and Charlie describing their lives before they arrived at the Manor. These interludes fail to sufficiently establish the characters’ backstories and detract from the more intriguing escape plot. Blossoming romances among the protagonists feel forced and lack chemistry, and worldbuilding details—such as how the Manor records dreams and what it does with the information it gains—are glossed over, which may leave readers frustrated. Most characters are cued white; Nora has “caramel skin and dark features.”

A frustratingly shallow peek into an intriguing world.