Rosa Rankin-GeeRecensioni

Dreamland is a very accurate representation of life degradation due to both economic and climate crisis. It has a strong and intelligent family plot carrying everything that could go wrong in the next few years, with a lot of small clues and details throughout the book guiding the reader to the peculiarity of each character. It’s a must read.

Post-apocalyptic fiction set in Margate, mostly Arlington. I really enjoy knowing the areas described. The teenagers in the story without money, hanging out, and looking after each other. The story is modern; a teenage mother, gay sex, drug use, the sense of feeling invincible, coping with death, trust and love. A memorable tale worthy of a re-read. To being with I wondered about the grammatical errors, whether they were part of the story, with the colloquial speech? But overall I was surprised how much I enjoyed the book.

Set in a partly plausible near future run down British seaside resort (Margate), this is a story of growing up in a bleak environment, first love and unintentional betrayal. But this near future is not plausible as it ignores too much technology, especially communication, and this suspension of disbelief asks too much, making the book feel part political allegory (although well constructed upon current reality).
However, if you can accept the implausibility, this is an engaging story of growing up in a deprived town. It has an open, possibly too optimistic ending for the overall tone of the book, but it has a good narrative and is well written. A depressing story told with beautiful language.

I think Station Eleven and Louise Welsh’ Plague Times’ trilogy are both better stories of potential futures, but Dreamland is a better exploration of a probable future that you could imagine (ignoring lack of realism over the internet, phones, TVs, radio).

I've reviewed this beautiful book here: https://niklas.reviews/2021/04/26/dreamland_review/

a rollicking and entrancing read, a dark and devastating funhouse ride through curtailed innocence and apocalyptic experience. And- most uniquely- a love letter to the waning magic and melancholy of British seaside towns. The final chapters petrified me! It is its own twist on the lucid dystopias of Diane Cook, Kirsten Roupenian and Emily St Jon Mandel. The book is also deeply cinematic- I was reminded, throughout, of Terry Gilliam's waterlogged neo-noir fantasy Tideland, as well as the dreamy realism of the films of Andrea Arnold and Lynne Ramsay. I have spent quite a lot of time in Folkestone and around Margate and Ramsgate- so the images and atmosphere resonated deeply.½

Interesting Coming of Age Story, The story is about 3 Teenagers from different backgrounds spend the summer together on Sark. A Polish cook, an English tutor and the son of the family who hired the girls. Someone reviewed that it fell apart mid way - I think it fell apart towards the end. Somehow, the book changed toward the end and had a somewhat haphazard ending that otherwise could have been great

I included this in my reading because of the setting on Sark, one of the Channel Islands, from which my mother-in-law’s family emigrated,(Guernsey), and because it has lovely cover.

The story follows three teenagers over the course of a summer on Sark. It’s beautifully written but the plot ends about halfway through and then the book drones on and on.

2 stars

not my kind of book