Dreamquake by Elizabeth Knox

Dreamquake by Elizabeth Knox

SPOILERS

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Dreamquake picks up immediately after the end of Dreamhunter. The Rainbow Opera is in chaos after Laura Hame releases a terrible dream to unsuspecting dreamers: a nightmare of being buried alive that her father has been employed by the Ministry of the Interior to show to convicts.

Keeping the secret drove Tziga to take desperate action, and to reach out to Laura to expose the truth of what had been happening.

Grace Tiebold – Laura’s aunt and the erstwhile star of that night’s dreaming at the Rainbow Opera  – is taken into custody, believed – at first – to be the source of the nightmare,  Laura disappears and chaos ensues.

No one – apart from convicted felons – was ever supposed to see Tziga Hame’s dream, and the Minister of the Interior  Cas Doran finds himself with a very, very big problem on his hands.

Dreamhunter is an amazing kind of … trip through dreams, and an alternative view of New Zealand that’s incredibly creative. Dreamquake takes the worldbuilding from Dreamhunter and pretty much shatters it into tiny, tiny pieces.

My favourite part of Dreamquake is still the relationship between cousins Rose and Laura, but Laura and Nown also own a tiny piece of my heart.

It’s hard for me to explain exactly what happens in Dreamquake without rambling on and on until I make no sense, or flailing until there’s an embarrassed silence around here …

…

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*crickets*

I cannot think of a single thing about Dreamquake that I didn’t like – from the continuing strength of Laura and Rose’s relationship, to Sandy’s jealousy and guilt over hiding Laura’s letter to Nown, to Nown himself, who pretty much broke my heart in the last few pages.

The fact that Knox so carefully built up this world in Dreamhunter and then – seemingly without hesitation – was what really made the story for me in the end. She tears down her careful constructs one after the other until you’re left exhausted, emotionally wrung out, but ultimately satisfied with the result.

10/10 Could not be improved on, even by angel dust and a basket of kittens