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meowzik's review against another edition
3.0
If I'm being completely honest, I only picked up this book because of the title. I'm glad I did though, because it was a solid, albeit slow, read. Worth the read anyway.
rbreade's review
A story of blighted romance intertwined with a main plot-thread about dream research and lucid dreaming. Main character and first-person narrator, Sylvie Patterson, tells the story in three parts, titled "Dusk," "Night," and "Morning," each shuffling in time from high school in 1998 to the final scenes of confrontation and closure in 2010. Her on-again, off-again relationship with fellow student, Gabe Lennox, and their work for their former teacher, and sleep researcher, Adrian Keller, compose the major plot elements. The final plot twist that irrevocably breaks Sylvie from both Gabe and Adrian is one that can be predicted, and so it lands with less force than otherwise. Still, the writing is accomplished: the governing tense of Sylvie's telling is the present, but much of the book is spent in past tense as Benjamin skillfully controls the various movements back and forth in time.
nxbooks_'s review
1.0
The title was the only thing I liked about this book!
The extremely slow paced plot (if there even was one???) was the reason for a severe reading slump that I faced (over several months)!
The concept in this book is one that I have always been interested in, though, the way it was approached really damped my excitement.
I picked the book up today to read the last 100 pages but I didn’t pay attention to what I read anymore.
It was boring.
The extremely slow paced plot (if there even was one???) was the reason for a severe reading slump that I faced (over several months)!
The concept in this book is one that I have always been interested in, though, the way it was approached really damped my excitement.
I picked the book up today to read the last 100 pages but I didn’t pay attention to what I read anymore.
It was boring.
routergirl's review against another edition
5.0
Absolutely stellar. Dreamlike in its writing, I kept highlighting sentences and adding them to my reading journal, and soon I realized there were just too many to keep.
“I should have been relieved when the conversation was over, but I wasn’t. Gabe’s unease had amplified my own alarm, for I could no longer deny that my dreams were beginning to bulge into my days. Time was no longer fastened to my life; it had become unsewn, a hanging hem, a sibling whose days had once been braided with mine but had since moved on. I tumbled into morning feeling disoriented and incongruous, like a nocturnal creature blinking in the harsh, wrong light of dawn. Sometimes my muscles were sore, my breath short, as if I’d clenched them through the night. At other times, a faint, ebbing pleasure washed through my body.”
Chloe Benjamin paints her story in subtle strokes, using just the right combinations of words to pull you along into it. Hard to believe this is a first novel, though it left me thinking that this author was put on this earth to write, and I'm so happy she's doing it.
“I should have been relieved when the conversation was over, but I wasn’t. Gabe’s unease had amplified my own alarm, for I could no longer deny that my dreams were beginning to bulge into my days. Time was no longer fastened to my life; it had become unsewn, a hanging hem, a sibling whose days had once been braided with mine but had since moved on. I tumbled into morning feeling disoriented and incongruous, like a nocturnal creature blinking in the harsh, wrong light of dawn. Sometimes my muscles were sore, my breath short, as if I’d clenched them through the night. At other times, a faint, ebbing pleasure washed through my body.”
Chloe Benjamin paints her story in subtle strokes, using just the right combinations of words to pull you along into it. Hard to believe this is a first novel, though it left me thinking that this author was put on this earth to write, and I'm so happy she's doing it.
seshat59's review against another edition
4.0
The Anatomy of Dreams is beautifully written account of an impressionable young girl, Sylvie, assisting a seemingly reputable scientist in his slightly, ethically questionable research into lucid dreaming amongst disturbed sleepers. Sylvie works with her high school boyfriend throughout the process, and the changing nature of their relationship plays at the core of the novel. Sylvie's perception of her relationship and ultimately Gabe's -- when it's revealed -- is very interesting, but I can't say too much without divulging spoilers!
The novel alternates between the more recent present and the past, creating a lot of mystery and back story that resolves itself. The climax, while I did predict it, was nicely woven throughout the plot and solidified the plot well.
The novel really harps on the morality of the research and whether the scientist, Keller, is truly helping people or science or both. Naturally, sleep also plays a major role throughout the novel, and I liked how Benjamin wove the story together using Sylvie's waking and sleeping life.
*I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*
The novel alternates between the more recent present and the past, creating a lot of mystery and back story that resolves itself. The climax, while I did predict it, was nicely woven throughout the plot and solidified the plot well.
The novel really harps on the morality of the research and whether the scientist, Keller, is truly helping people or science or both. Naturally, sleep also plays a major role throughout the novel, and I liked how Benjamin wove the story together using Sylvie's waking and sleeping life.
*I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*
jennysligh's review
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.0
Chloe Benjamin has such a way with words. Her prose is always so rich with imagery. I read the Immortalists first and didn't expect this to be such a departure and yet feel so much the same. Without spoiling anything, it is hard to always track the story but in the end it all makes sense. Like Benjamin's other writing, this book is character driven and feels like a waking dream.
wordsmithreads's review
4.0
"A part of me was skeptical; the story was too fantastic. But another part of me believed Gabe as I believed in dreams, while they were happening: with absurd and unconscious trust."
At its core, this book is about love and the unconscious desires we have, often fulfilled in our dreams.
But there's more to it than that.
My first exposure to Chloe was [b:The Immortalists|30288282|The Immortalists|Chloe Benjamin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1493015963l/30288282._SY75_.jpg|50766250], which I liked but didn't love. I went in with lower expectations for this novel, but even if I had gone in with higher expectations, they would have been met.
The review on the front says it's a novel of "subtlety, depth, intrigue, and tenderness." I would disagree with all of these, except maybe depth.
Chloe is not subtle — she is clear and to the point. I remember being a page and half (literally) in and being astounded that she had already introduced her two main characters (Gabe, Sylvie) and I already fully understood the personalities of both. But at the same time, there is (of course) a dreamlike quality to this novel. The passages are both soft and sharp, and eons above any metaphors I could put together.
Forget butterflies in your stomach, Chloe has an army: "It was as though there were thousands of little soldiers in my gut, most of whom were aligned with the cause but some who wrestled free and fired at it."
Gnarled old tree? Chloe sees that and raises you... a towel? "...a tree with a thick, warped trunk like a dish towel being wrung."
I don't even have a similar metaphor for this, because it's an image I didn't even know could exist: "Something fluttered in my chest with the crazed helplessness of a brochure caught under a windshield wiper."
She has such beautiful, raw descriptions of love, both romantic and self:
"He'd plucked me out from inside the person I'd always thought I was and made me question my own judgment."
"...maybe I didn't need the highs and lows that came with love. Maybe this quietude—these small, daily pleasures—could be enough."
"They seemed to exist in this constant state of checks and balances, one catching the other whenever they swung too far."
"When he left the room, my heart relaxed like the muscle it was and when he came close to me ... the space between us seemed to glow."
"Was that romance? I had known no love but his. Rolling through the grass like wolves, limb for limb, scavenging for attention—the brute hunger, the desperate force—and then, days when we hunted alone, nosing our way through the brush and picking at stones, days when our tracks were parallel but far apart."
The only reason this was a four instead of a five star book was that I felt that it ended, and then still continued on for several more chapters, tidying up loose ends. I know that the effect was to show that life goes on even after something big, that one big event doesn't end your story, but it felt like a lot of build up to something that was pretty easily resolved. I enjoyed the flash backs and forwards — that gave things a dreamlike quality, to always be slightly out of place and off-kilter in the narrative. Turning the last page felt like waking up.
At its core, this book is about love and the unconscious desires we have, often fulfilled in our dreams.
But there's more to it than that.
My first exposure to Chloe was [b:The Immortalists|30288282|The Immortalists|Chloe Benjamin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1493015963l/30288282._SY75_.jpg|50766250], which I liked but didn't love. I went in with lower expectations for this novel, but even if I had gone in with higher expectations, they would have been met.
The review on the front says it's a novel of "subtlety, depth, intrigue, and tenderness." I would disagree with all of these, except maybe depth.
Chloe is not subtle — she is clear and to the point. I remember being a page and half (literally) in and being astounded that she had already introduced her two main characters (Gabe, Sylvie) and I already fully understood the personalities of both. But at the same time, there is (of course) a dreamlike quality to this novel. The passages are both soft and sharp, and eons above any metaphors I could put together.
Forget butterflies in your stomach, Chloe has an army: "It was as though there were thousands of little soldiers in my gut, most of whom were aligned with the cause but some who wrestled free and fired at it."
Gnarled old tree? Chloe sees that and raises you... a towel? "...a tree with a thick, warped trunk like a dish towel being wrung."
I don't even have a similar metaphor for this, because it's an image I didn't even know could exist: "Something fluttered in my chest with the crazed helplessness of a brochure caught under a windshield wiper."
She has such beautiful, raw descriptions of love, both romantic and self:
"He'd plucked me out from inside the person I'd always thought I was and made me question my own judgment."
"...maybe I didn't need the highs and lows that came with love. Maybe this quietude—these small, daily pleasures—could be enough."
"They seemed to exist in this constant state of checks and balances, one catching the other whenever they swung too far."
"When he left the room, my heart relaxed like the muscle it was and when he came close to me ... the space between us seemed to glow."
"Was that romance? I had known no love but his. Rolling through the grass like wolves, limb for limb, scavenging for attention—the brute hunger, the desperate force—and then, days when we hunted alone, nosing our way through the brush and picking at stones, days when our tracks were parallel but far apart."
The only reason this was a four instead of a five star book was that I felt that it ended, and then still continued on for several more chapters, tidying up loose ends. I know that the effect was to show that life goes on even after something big, that one big event doesn't end your story, but it felt like a lot of build up to something that was pretty easily resolved. I enjoyed the flash backs and forwards — that gave things a dreamlike quality, to always be slightly out of place and off-kilter in the narrative. Turning the last page felt like waking up.
caityp94's review
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
knightedbooks's review against another edition
4.0
I love Benjamin’s writing. Her prose flows so smoothly. Such an interesting concept. I rooted for Sylvia the whole book. What Gabe and Adrian did is so messed up. I can’t wait to read more books by Benjamin. I really loved The Immortalists, which is how I found out about this book.
theoglibrarianmom's review against another edition
4.0
4.5 I will say that this book is definitely not for everyone, but it was near perfect for me. It does get a bit technical on the scientific side of things, but I loved that element. I've always been drawn to the idea of lucid dreaming and this book spins an interesting story about it. I've had a few lucid dreams and am curious to read more about the science behind them.