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A review by hollowspine
Dreamrider by Barry Jonsberg
2.0
This is the story of Michael Terny, a young man who, along with his father moves around the country looking for a place to feel comfortable, but never finding it. When he was younger Michael's mother died in a car accident caused by a drunk driver. Ever since, his father has been distant, only talking to his son in anger and coming home drunk more often than not. Michael started eating after the accident and grew steadily more stout until he cannot enter a school without being teased, bullied and treated pretty much like a freak.
However, in his most recent school he makes a friend as well as the normal enemies. He is also beginning to discover that he has a strange and wonderful power. The power to affect real life through his dreams. For a long time Michael has been able to dream lucidly, controlling everything in his dreamworld. Now, it seems, not only can he control the dreamworld, but he can control the real world too. What will he do with the power? Will he use it to get back at his enemies, or will he use it to save the world?
Sounds interesting doesn't it? Well, in my opinion, don't bother with it. It is a fairly fast read, but really not worth even a small amount of time. It becomes very apparent only half way through the book (if that) that Michael Terny should be committed. His new friend, along with his stepmother and the clever bully who torments him are all completely inventions of his own mind. Nearly every interaction in the entire book is completely negated by that realization and it becomes hard to watch as Michael goes through his delusional days talking to himself, beating himself up, and from what you can picture generally acting completely insane. It is no wonder that people treated him like an abnormal freak! He wrote and answered notes to himself at his desk. He smashed his own cake into his face at lunch time, he pinched himself so hard in math class he got sent to the office.
By the end of the book you can see that Michael will most likely spend the rest of his life institutionalized. Instead of thinking 'Oh my God, they were in my head this whole time, am I crazy!?' Michael accepts his invisible friends as advisers to his dream powers and basically decides that he will become a vengeful god. The last couple pages of the book are almost directly from the bible. It was a bit much. I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to take away from the book. It's not good to have a god complex? People with no friends who are fat and sad that their mother has died should be bullied and then sent to an insane asylum? Maybe it is because I am not religious, but I just couldn't get the message.
However, in his most recent school he makes a friend as well as the normal enemies. He is also beginning to discover that he has a strange and wonderful power. The power to affect real life through his dreams. For a long time Michael has been able to dream lucidly, controlling everything in his dreamworld. Now, it seems, not only can he control the dreamworld, but he can control the real world too. What will he do with the power? Will he use it to get back at his enemies, or will he use it to save the world?
Sounds interesting doesn't it? Well, in my opinion, don't bother with it. It is a fairly fast read, but really not worth even a small amount of time. It becomes very apparent only half way through the book (if that) that Michael Terny should be committed. His new friend, along with his stepmother and the clever bully who torments him are all completely inventions of his own mind. Nearly every interaction in the entire book is completely negated by that realization and it becomes hard to watch as Michael goes through his delusional days talking to himself, beating himself up, and from what you can picture generally acting completely insane. It is no wonder that people treated him like an abnormal freak! He wrote and answered notes to himself at his desk. He smashed his own cake into his face at lunch time, he pinched himself so hard in math class he got sent to the office.
By the end of the book you can see that Michael will most likely spend the rest of his life institutionalized. Instead of thinking 'Oh my God, they were in my head this whole time, am I crazy!?' Michael accepts his invisible friends as advisers to his dream powers and basically decides that he will become a vengeful god. The last couple pages of the book are almost directly from the bible. It was a bit much. I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to take away from the book. It's not good to have a god complex? People with no friends who are fat and sad that their mother has died should be bullied and then sent to an insane asylum? Maybe it is because I am not religious, but I just couldn't get the message.