Book Review: Dream a Little Dream by Kerstin Gier.

Product details:
Publisher: Henry Holt & Co.
Hardcover, 336 pages.
Release date: April 14th 2015.
Rating:  4 out of 5.
Ages: 12+
Source: Received from publisher for review.

 Mysterious doors with lizard-head knobs. Talking stone statues. A crazy girl with a hatchet. Yep, Liv’s dreams have been pretty weird lately. Especially this one where she’s in a graveyard at night, watching four boys perform dark magic rituals.

The really weird thing is that Liv recognizes the boys in her dream. They’re classmates from her new school in London, the school where’s she’s starting over because her mom has moved them to a new country (again). But they seem to know things about her in real life that they couldn’t possibly know, which is mystifying. Then again, Liv could never resist a good mystery. . . .

Like stepping into a warm embrace from an old friend, Dream a Little Dream, the first in Kerstin Gier’s Silver trilogy, was, for me, a welcome return to the world of paranormal fiction. I’d kind of abandoned all things paranormal, you see. In the way that sometimes close friends drift apart because they bore of each other or just no longer have any common interests, I thought that my time with paranormal YA was done. Not so. After so long away from the genre, Dream a Little Dream and its wilful protagonist, Liv Silver, were like a total breath of fresh air for me - which made for a page-flipping and totally fun reading experience.

In fact, if I was to summarize this book in one word, then it would be just that: fun.  This book, just like its protagonist, doesn’t take itself too seriously, and as a result it’s just so much fun.

Liv Silver’s life is unconventional to say the least. At just fifteen (almost sixteen) years old, she’s lived in more places that you could even imagine. Now, thanks to her mom’s new job – and new boyfriend – Liv, her sister Mia, and their au pair, Lottie, who is like one of the family, are settling in London. So far, so good.  Liv soon enrols in Frognal Academy, a very posh school, where the girls have names you thought only celebrities gave their unfortunate offspring, the boys are super-hot and have great hair, and where everybody who is anybody finds themselves subject to gossip courtesy of the ‘Tittle-Tattle Blog’ Frognal’s very own Gossip Girl style blog, complete with an anonymous author known only as Secrecy.

Ha! That gives me an idea. Maybe the secret author of the blog is one of those super-hot boys, all with their very own Edward Cullen hairstyles.  Hmmm…I wonder.

Anyway, even though the Tittle-Tattle blog seems mildly obsessed with her, that’s the least of Liv’s problems. You see, Liv’s been having these dreams, and granted, the dreams are not all bad: for one, they feature super-hot Henry, Liv’s number one crush, but there is an ominous sense to these dreams – like maybe these drams are the devil’s work at play. Oh, and there’s also the fact that the dreams seem totally real. Liv is not one to let sleeping dogs lie, nor is she one to forget about her dreams the very next day. So little by little, Liv starts to investigate, and along with the help of a detailed dream journal, what she uncovers is very strange indeed.

Filled with secrets and a mystery that will keep your mind ticking over, Dream a Little Dream is a charming, compelling read and a strong starter to the Silver trilogy. In Liv Silver and her snarky little sister Mia, Gier has struck gold. Our heroine Liv is inquisitive, but not reckless, level-headed and quick-witted. Also, while there is romance in this book, Liv’s life doesn’t revolve around boys. In fact, she is quick to laugh at her own soppy behaviour as she starts to fall for the enigmatic Henry, a boy whose hand she holds in her dreams, but who in reality is something of an enigma.

Dream a Little Dream contains a lot of characters, and sometimes it’s difficult to differentiate one hot boy from the next, while the mystery of the book does become a little predictable in places. Nevertheless, this is a very fun, imaginative read that delves deeply into the world of dreams. I especially loved discovering what lay behind the various ‘dream doors’ detailed in this book and I can’t wait to read all about Liv’s further adventures as the trilogy continues.

Read this if you liked The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater, Shadow Hills by Anastasia Hopcus, or C.J. Daugherty’s Night School.