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3.47 AVERAGE
3.47 AVERAGE
I'm not sure how to start this review. Overall, the story was kind of a jumbled mess. I supposed I'll start with the ridiculous premise first: students in an art school are watched constantly, twelve hours a day, by the whole world as a reality TV show; the other twelve hours, they sleep by swallowing a pill they're given. The purpose is supposedly because it helps their creativity and their chosen art. While this may be so, and academically, they may be brilliant, I would think this set-up would be really damaging, emotionally, especially to a teenager. You're basically defined by yours ranks all your high school life. And you get money for being a higher rank. So obviously kids would want to be in higher ranks. In the story, it only focuses on it for a small fraction, but I think it would really be hard for anyone there to have a real relationship with anyone. Everyone would be looking to advance their rank. And then . . . when all these kids get out of school, a major part of their life has been spent fabricating relationships and looking good on camera. To me, that doesn't seem healthy at all.
Moving on, the other half of the story basically focuses on the fact that the owner of the school is doing illegal experiments on the students. That's fine enough, I suppose. Not like we haven't heard that idea before, and this story didn't really bring anything new to it.
The plot was a mess. For the first half, we basically focus on the ranks and Rosie, our protagonist, trying to get past the cameras watching her every more. And then the second half is so rushed. And honestly? I have no idea what that ending even was.
The characters were all blahh. Rosie, although not the worst I've seen, was pretty bad. We're told she's really bright, creative, and nice, but I wasn't seeing it. The love interest went to even say that dreaded "you're different from the others" line.
Linus, our love interest, wasn't terrible. But he could've done with some more development.
The rest of the characters . . . I don't know. None of them are really that memorable to mention.
What world-building we saw wasn't terrible. But the fact is: we didn't see much.
All that being said, the writing itself actually wasn't too bad. Other than the overall character and plot and setting problems, I think the author is pretty decent with words. Not amazing, but she has a good, simple style that's easy to read.
Overall, I probably won't read the next book. But I might flip through it just to see what happened in that ending because I literally have no idea.
Moving on, the other half of the story basically focuses on the fact that the owner of the school is doing illegal experiments on the students. That's fine enough, I suppose. Not like we haven't heard that idea before, and this story didn't really bring anything new to it.
The plot was a mess. For the first half, we basically focus on the ranks and Rosie, our protagonist, trying to get past the cameras watching her every more. And then the second half is so rushed. And honestly? I have no idea what that ending even was.
Spoiler
The idea that Rosie was crazy seemed forced to me. She never had any implications of being crazy before. And it just was so sudden. The fact that on one believed her also made me mad. Because the school did look suspicious. I mean, how could all those parents be so comfortable with these people giving them these pills? I wouldn't really trust them . . .The characters were all blahh. Rosie, although not the worst I've seen, was pretty bad. We're told she's really bright, creative, and nice, but I wasn't seeing it. The love interest went to even say that dreaded "you're different from the others" line.
Linus, our love interest, wasn't terrible. But he could've done with some more development.
The rest of the characters . . . I don't know. None of them are really that memorable to mention.
What world-building we saw wasn't terrible. But the fact is: we didn't see much.
All that being said, the writing itself actually wasn't too bad. Other than the overall character and plot and setting problems, I think the author is pretty decent with words. Not amazing, but she has a good, simple style that's easy to read.
Overall, I probably won't read the next book. But I might flip through it just to see what happened in that ending because I literally have no idea.
Forge School is a place to artsy students. They are filmed 12 hours each day for the public to watch, they call it The Forge Show. The students are to go to sleep from 6pm - 6am where the feeds from the day replay all night.
One student, Rosie, is different from the rest. She find the Forge School isn't what it seems to be.
I liked the book; kept me on my toes. My only problem was the direction it took in the end. I am still very confused and I hope to have my questions answered with the next book.
One student, Rosie, is different from the rest. She find the Forge School isn't what it seems to be.
I liked the book; kept me on my toes. My only problem was the direction it took in the end. I am still very confused and I hope to have my questions answered with the next book.
First of all, The Vault of Dreamers is apparently NOT a stand alone novel. It was difficult to obtain this information, as nothing in the NetGalley summary or the Goodreads page labeled it as book 1 of anything. And that’s fine, but not knowing confused me at the end. Was this the end? Like, THE END? While The Vault of Dreamers is not a stand alone novel, it could have been, but with a slightly open ending that I loved. It was one of those great books that is full of mystery and intrigue and the ending left a lot open, but gave up some information as well. I’m glad there will be more books, though.
The Vault of Dreamers was like many YA scifi novels with a teen girl at a boarding school where all is not what it seems. Many YA novels have the same premise, but it all depends on what that weird thing is that differentiates them. Is it a dystopian regime? Aliens? Biological testing? Robots? Magic? Mythical creatures? What is this school hiding? I loved not knowing.
The Forge School was not like a normal boarding school because it was also a reality show. Students were ranked by viewer popularity and some students were cut if their viewer ranking wasn’t high enough. Students had to be interesting to the viewers to stay. Rosie struggled with her ranking during the cuts, but her ideas kept her interesting to viewers and allowed her to stay. Her relationships with others were complicated, but I loved how refreshing she was as a character.
There was so much going on, I had no idea what the final reveal would be. What was the school hiding? Or was Rosie crazy? What was going on?! I definitely recommend The Vault of Dreamers and I will read the rest of the series. It was great!
Posted at Love, Literature, Art, and Reason
The Vault of Dreamers was like many YA scifi novels with a teen girl at a boarding school where all is not what it seems. Many YA novels have the same premise, but it all depends on what that weird thing is that differentiates them. Is it a dystopian regime? Aliens? Biological testing? Robots? Magic? Mythical creatures? What is this school hiding? I loved not knowing.
The Forge School was not like a normal boarding school because it was also a reality show. Students were ranked by viewer popularity and some students were cut if their viewer ranking wasn’t high enough. Students had to be interesting to the viewers to stay. Rosie struggled with her ranking during the cuts, but her ideas kept her interesting to viewers and allowed her to stay. Her relationships with others were complicated, but I loved how refreshing she was as a character.
There was so much going on, I had no idea what the final reveal would be. What was the school hiding? Or was Rosie crazy? What was going on?! I definitely recommend The Vault of Dreamers and I will read the rest of the series. It was great!
Posted at Love, Literature, Art, and Reason
I was really hovering between 2 and 3 stars. I really liked the concept but I couldn't really connect with any of the characters. There were also some things that weren't explained very well. It just left me feeling, eh, it was okay.
Nice, fast read. Reminded me of a mix between Divergent and the Hunger Games. Rosie was a good lead character--she did make some stupid choices sometimes, but we have to remember she's only fifteen in the books. Loved Linus and Burnham--I need to find out what happened to Burnham!
Eagerly awaiting the next title, wish it wasn't such a wait! Overall, this is new YA series that everyone should try.
Eagerly awaiting the next title, wish it wasn't such a wait! Overall, this is new YA series that everyone should try.
It's ironic, a place like Tomorrowland, full of potential innovators, only the best of the best in creativity may stay at this 'Forge School of the Arts'. It's ironic because the academy gives them limits, bed-times with an induced sleep to get the right amount of hours, all monitored, all the time. They can't even make their way past the borders so thinking outside the box isn't really an option, hence the "Vault" in the title (at least until another meaning arises in the story...) It's like Big Brother but no voting, just something called a "blip-rank" whoever's popular amongst the viewers, not the cast.
It'd be kinda cool if the sequel went a Perfect Blue route, since she was in the limelight, if one of those viewers or cameramen became a stalker that she had to deal with, I doubt it now that I've finished it though.
I think of Rosie as Emma from "Seed" even though Rosie supposedly has brown curly hair and Byron from Wayside as Burnham even though he's skinnier. But Rosie's kind of an a-hole on the outside, Burnham had it pegged, we know her thoughts and stuff so it kind of evens out but I see why the people think like they do.
With it basically being a reality show, things move quickly, so a day can last chapters and chapters, I'm not sure if that's why it's exposition heavy or if it's just the nature of the story. In all honesty it sets up pretty decent but there's a lot that could be cut out, I get that it's a series of books but that ending should've been earlier in the book to make me "want" to read the other books instead of fluff leading up to the cliffhanger ending, it's long enough, it's 418 pages. 2.5/5
It'd be kinda cool if the sequel went a Perfect Blue route, since she was in the limelight, if one of those viewers or cameramen became a stalker that she had to deal with, I doubt it now that I've finished it though.
I think of Rosie as Emma from "Seed" even though Rosie supposedly has brown curly hair and Byron from Wayside as Burnham even though he's skinnier. But Rosie's kind of an a-hole on the outside, Burnham had it pegged, we know her thoughts and stuff so it kind of evens out but I see why the people think like they do.
With it basically being a reality show, things move quickly, so a day can last chapters and chapters, I'm not sure if that's why it's exposition heavy or if it's just the nature of the story. In all honesty it sets up pretty decent but there's a lot that could be cut out, I get that it's a series of books but that ending should've been earlier in the book to make me "want" to read the other books instead of fluff leading up to the cliffhanger ending, it's long enough, it's 418 pages. 2.5/5
I don’t know how I feel about this book.
On one hand, it definitely kept me reading, and I loved the concept of the reality show school and psychological aspects. The plot was really intriguing and I liked that Rosie became a bit unreliable as a narrator. I didn’t want to put it down. I also appreciated that there didn’t end up being a love triangle, because it seemed there might be at first.
On the other hand, I was left wanting with a lot. I didn’t feel we got to see in depth a lot of things, like the world-building/science. The characters and their relationships were just sort of...there. I didn’t really get a sense of the platonic or romantic chemistries between characters, or much personality to them. Rosie especially felt like she didn’t really fit with her backstory personality wise, and completely changed as a character without any noticeable arc after the first parts. It would have been nice to see her more mature, especially with some of the darker themes (like the sleep harassment and mental health issues). I also would have liked to learn more about Burnham, and I kind of wonder what the story would have been like told from his POV.
Also—am I the only one that doesn’t know what happened at the end? We never really got too much explanation about this subconscious “voice” that she hears, and I’m not sure if Rosie died and left her subconscious behind? Or the other way around? Maybe I’ll do a re-read in case I missed something, but I just didn’t get where this whole “voice” thing came from.
Overall, and interesting read, and I recommend you check it out for yourself! :) I’ll be buying book two, because I need to understand what exactly happened here, and I have hope the characters will become better matured/developed, because the plot was great!
My rating may change with time!
On one hand, it definitely kept me reading, and I loved the concept of the reality show school and psychological aspects. The plot was really intriguing and I liked that Rosie became a bit unreliable as a narrator. I didn’t want to put it down. I also appreciated that there didn’t end up being a love triangle, because it seemed there might be at first.
On the other hand, I was left wanting with a lot. I didn’t feel we got to see in depth a lot of things, like the world-building/science. The characters and their relationships were just sort of...there. I didn’t really get a sense of the platonic or romantic chemistries between characters, or much personality to them. Rosie especially felt like she didn’t really fit with her backstory personality wise, and completely changed as a character without any noticeable arc after the first parts. It would have been nice to see her more mature, especially with some of the darker themes (like the sleep harassment and mental health issues). I also would have liked to learn more about Burnham, and I kind of wonder what the story would have been like told from his POV.
Also—am I the only one that doesn’t know what happened at the end? We never really got too much explanation about this subconscious “voice” that she hears, and I’m not sure if Rosie died and left her subconscious behind? Or the other way around? Maybe I’ll do a re-read in case I missed something, but I just didn’t get where this whole “voice” thing came from.
Overall, and interesting read, and I recommend you check it out for yourself! :) I’ll be buying book two, because I need to understand what exactly happened here, and I have hope the characters will become better matured/developed, because the plot was great!
My rating may change with time!
I enjoyed this book.
The book was set in a dystopian United States. Despite the numerous books that are about the future, this one was different. It was a reality TV show about students as they learn and live at one of the most prestigious art schools in the world. There is mystery about the leading figures of the school, a dash of romance, and plenty of suspense. This book comes highly recommended from me.
The book was set in a dystopian United States. Despite the numerous books that are about the future, this one was different. It was a reality TV show about students as they learn and live at one of the most prestigious art schools in the world. There is mystery about the leading figures of the school, a dash of romance, and plenty of suspense. This book comes highly recommended from me.
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No