Reviews with content warning for Body horror - Sweet Nightmare

This was bad. And not in a fun way. It honestly reads a little like a first time author’s first draft. Which it isn’t, because Tracy Wolff has several other books, so I’m at a loss as to what was going on here.
This review contains some spoilers below. And it’s also not a positive review, because I have Feelings about the fact that this was published and circulated so widely, in its current version.

First things first. The pacing is massively off. The whole book takes place over the course of only a couple of days, and is either rushed mortal panic, or teenagers snarking at one another. It feels like Wolff tried to get several books worth of stories plot points into one novel, and as a result, these plot points are thrown at you too fast to digest. There are few moments of calm, and they don’t build up so much as they throw the reader off a cliff into the next piece of drama.

The plot itself feels very disjointed. Several things in the last fifty pages or so - including a surprise mating bond - are not foreshadowed or alluded to in the rest of the novel. Things like said mating bond are not even mentioned as existing in this particular world prior to “snapping” into place. The world building the book actually has is honestly only half there. The author doesn’t really ground you or detail the world in any significant way, and the whole story feels unmoored as a result. The school is a prison and a high school for dark creatures, or possibly for creatures who have committed a crime in some way - what gets them sent there isn’t completely clear. Several characters mention that there is no real punishment they can be given that is worse than the Academy, but they also talk about some students who have been sent to another, much worse prison. One which, I’m assuming, doesn’t have them reading Keats.

The characters themselves get very little development. The book is so busy throwing action at them that there is little time to actually learn much about them or care about what happens to them. As a result, a lot of them feel like generic characters who’ve been copied and pasted into the novel to have someone to exchange snarky lines with. In a lot of ways this actually feels like the second book in a series. There is extensive mention of characters who meet their ends off page and who are never actually there to interact with the MCs. One character was at the true prison for “most of his life”, though we never find out why, or why he was released and sent to the island juvenile detention centre for poetry classes. The teachers are completely ineffective, and seem fairly unconcerned about monsters and students straight up murdering one another in front of them, but still give detentions for minor “high school” offences - like uniforms and lateness.

The villains of the story really come out of left field. They are generic teenage bullies who suddenly become mass murderers, and no explanation or motive ever appears. They are also all called Jean-‘something’. They might be related, but all we actually know is that they are dark fae (no, what that means is never actually defined, we just have to assume that ‘dark fae’ in this book means… whatever it means in pop culture, I suppose? None of the ‘creatures’ are ever really defined or explained.) The turn around from eating MnMs and throwing things at the new English teacher to straight up slaughtering about 80% of the entire student body happens in maybe 50 pages? We barely see the villains, and no one ever explains what they might be motivated by. The characters all agree they are terrible human beings though. The FMC refers to said mass murderers as the “Jean-Jerks” throughout, so that’s something, I suppose.

Look, this book is just a mess. The FMC has very little personality, but lots of Trauma(tm). Her mother swears she will never let her leave the island, which is Very Important, and causes breakdowns… until there is a cyclone coming a few hours after said proclamation, at which point they are all to be evacuated. When they are supposed to be prepping, the characters decide to play Two Truths and a Lie. Why? Who knows. It’s one of the few moments we see a little bit of the characters personalities, only to be promptly interrupted by the villains looking to steal The Magic Tapestry. Or rug. It’s called both. To be clear, said tapestry came from a root cellar it has apparently been hanging in for ten years. During this time, the Jeans’ found it, only didn’t actually steal it when they could, but come after it as soon as the FMC decides to use it for redecorating her dorm room. That’s my assumption, because she is very vague about it - she just finds it and thinks, hmm, ocean landscape? Seems weird for an island, better take the giant thing home with me. The tapestry is vaguely explained, but like most things in this book, it doesn’t make a lot of sense. It’s made from nightmares! But also it filters nightmares! But only on the solstices! Or the equinoxes! They say both but also that it can only be a magic sieve four times a year. So it is one or the other, but who knows?

The FMC sees ghosts. That was interesting but left fairly unexplored, because very quickly she also suddenly sees the Future! And the Past! And the monsters living under the school are free now! And killing everyone! And they are both nightmares and creatures, and you can find them with knives! And also with other nightmares!

It’s an unexplained mess of action with an FMC who pretty much just wants to pine over a pretty 6’7 man with tattoos. Towards the end so many things are introduced and then all but ignored that you get whiplash. YMMV.

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