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A review by daybreak1012
Dreamland by Nancy Bilyeau
3.75
I am pretty sure any avid reader has encountered a book that leaves them feeling conflicted. Before I leave too much of a poor impression, let me clarify that I am not at all sorry to have read this book; there was so much about it that I enjoyed. I simply cannot justify rating it better than it was in certain aspects. Let me explain in a bit more detail...
What I liked about Dreamland:
The cast of characters - I wasn't sure, initially, how I was going to feel about them, collectively. There are a lot of them to contend with, especially once you start to bring in peripheral characters. However, as the story progresses, the critical characters develop well. While I can't vouch for how much I liked most of them -- and I was surprised by which ones I actually grew to like by the end -- I definitely got a solid sense of who each one was.
The setting captivated me - I cannot say that I have ever read anything with quite this setting. The atmosphere of 1911 Coney Island grabbed me hard. Nancy Bilyeau is masterful at capturing the location descriptively; my mind's eye came alive with the hotels catering to the elite butting up against the carnival-esque boardwalk parks of Coney Island...and the depravity isn't centered where it first appears. If a turn-of-the-century amusement park harkens too much of a carnival/circus that you feel uneasy, this lacks the kind of creepiness you might expect. Instead, the boardwalk park setting amplifies the murder mystery plotline, making everything feel more frenetic, rather than any real creep-factor (there's plenty of that to abound, but it isn't at Coney Island's park setting, and it's far more character-based).
There was a definite point where I was reluctant to put the book down - Ms Bilyeau played with my emotions, raising the intrigue, then dialing it back, only to ratchet it right back up. I felt like I knew what was happening, except when I didn't, because what I thought I knew wasn't at all as it seemed. There were moments where, if I hadn't been reading in bed, I would have been on the edge of my seat, so instead I read far later into the night than was prudent for a work night.
What I didn't care for:
A little lack of resolution - There was a single dangling thread I would have liked to have been given more attention as the mystery was revealed. I'll elaborate in the "spoilers" section.
One aspect treated superficially that felt inadequately addressed - I don't like when a detail is barely mentioned and yet seems to be given enough weight to be mentioned more than once. If you're going to bring it up throughout the duration of the novel, I am going to need you to not make it feel like an afterthought. Again, I will elaborate in the "spoilers" section.
What left me conflicted:
Whodunnit - There was a while that I was not certain there were going to be enough viable suspects. As the list began to slowly grow, I had this heavy suspicion I knew who it was, but it felt too obvious. Ms Bilyeau successfully weaves in a red herring that I considered briefly, but in the end, I stuck with my initial feeling, which proved on target, but not quite in the way that I had anticipated. So... I was both not fooled and also caught off guard, and I am really not sure how I feel about that.
I was at odds with the writing style - This wasn't a difficult read, but there were some voices that read awkwardly for me. I never could put my finger on the cause, because as soon as it would start to crystallize in my mind, the author was off on another stretch of bringing the setting to life or fleshing out the characters, and I returned to being mesmerized.
Slow build, good payoff, ambivalent ending - I truly don't know how to process this. A little bit of a slow start to lay the foundation of familial dynamics, but once we arrive on location where the bulk of the action takes place, we start rolling steadily into the intensity which manages to sustain for a considerable portion of the book. The ending left me uncertain though. I appreciated that it wasn't the ending I would have predicted, but it felt incomplete to me nonetheless, and I can't decide if it was just that it seemed abrupt or more that it didn't seem confident that the ending knew what it wanted to be, as if it wanted to make a point but then chickened out.
A plethora of social injustices - In the interest of not spoiling, I won't list them, but it felt a little like overkill. They weren't inappropriate to the time, and none of them were unworthy, but it felt like a lot to process in a standard length novel. I didn't have the bandwidth to care about all of them, and frankly, neither did the book, which may have done a disservice to all of them as a result.
Worth noting:
Dark - This is a serial killer situation. There are sexual undertones throughout. Very little in the way of foul language, but there is a definitive seedy quality that permeates a good deal of the plot.
If this is a book you anticipate reading and spoilers are a thing you would prefer to avoid, you're going to want to skip this next section and move right along to the final paragraph. Consider yourself duly warned. I accept zero responsibility if you end up reading and regretting. Ok, potential spoilers beyond this point!
I really wanted to know who was turning Peggy's doorknob in the middle of the night; it was implied, but it was such an impactful scene, it felt as if it deserved to be addressed directly. I also wanted Peggy's philandering father, who seemed to cast a shadow over the entire story, to be given more weight than just the cursory mentions, followed by the unexpected delivery of his association with the high end brothel near the end (like how vague I am there? that will teach me not to take better notes if I am composing my review after returning a book to the library).
If you're looking for something in the vein of The Night Circus, this isn't it, despite the cover vibe. This is a period murder mystery, firmly in the historical fiction genre, without an ounce of fantasy, but no less compelling. I could see this book making a dazzling translation to screen, what with the turn-of-the-century boardwalk setting, with its high society fashions, opulent seaside resorts, and the glittering lights of Coney Island by night. If you enjoy a good murder mystery and are a fan of historical fiction, this is worth considering, especially if you don't mind a darker undercurrent to storytelling. There are a few details I wish had been handled a little differently which would have easily propelled this to a 4.25-4.5 star rating, but this was by no means a book I regret reading.
The cast of characters - I wasn't sure, initially, how I was going to feel about them, collectively. There are a lot of them to contend with, especially once you start to bring in peripheral characters. However, as the story progresses, the critical characters develop well. While I can't vouch for how much I liked most of them -- and I was surprised by which ones I actually grew to like by the end -- I definitely got a solid sense of who each one was.
The setting captivated me - I cannot say that I have ever read anything with quite this setting. The atmosphere of 1911 Coney Island grabbed me hard. Nancy Bilyeau is masterful at capturing the location descriptively; my mind's eye came alive with the hotels catering to the elite butting up against the carnival-esque boardwalk parks of Coney Island...and the depravity isn't centered where it first appears. If a turn-of-the-century amusement park harkens too much of a carnival/circus that you feel uneasy, this lacks the kind of creepiness you might expect. Instead, the boardwalk park setting amplifies the murder mystery plotline, making everything feel more frenetic, rather than any real creep-factor (there's plenty of that to abound, but it isn't at Coney Island's park setting, and it's far more character-based).
There was a definite point where I was reluctant to put the book down - Ms Bilyeau played with my emotions, raising the intrigue, then dialing it back, only to ratchet it right back up. I felt like I knew what was happening, except when I didn't, because what I thought I knew wasn't at all as it seemed. There were moments where, if I hadn't been reading in bed, I would have been on the edge of my seat, so instead I read far later into the night than was prudent for a work night.
What I didn't care for:
A little lack of resolution - There was a single dangling thread I would have liked to have been given more attention as the mystery was revealed. I'll elaborate in the "spoilers" section.
One aspect treated superficially that felt inadequately addressed - I don't like when a detail is barely mentioned and yet seems to be given enough weight to be mentioned more than once. If you're going to bring it up throughout the duration of the novel, I am going to need you to not make it feel like an afterthought. Again, I will elaborate in the "spoilers" section.
What left me conflicted:
Whodunnit - There was a while that I was not certain there were going to be enough viable suspects. As the list began to slowly grow, I had this heavy suspicion I knew who it was, but it felt too obvious. Ms Bilyeau successfully weaves in a red herring that I considered briefly, but in the end, I stuck with my initial feeling, which proved on target, but not quite in the way that I had anticipated. So... I was both not fooled and also caught off guard, and I am really not sure how I feel about that.
I was at odds with the writing style - This wasn't a difficult read, but there were some voices that read awkwardly for me. I never could put my finger on the cause, because as soon as it would start to crystallize in my mind, the author was off on another stretch of bringing the setting to life or fleshing out the characters, and I returned to being mesmerized.
Slow build, good payoff, ambivalent ending - I truly don't know how to process this. A little bit of a slow start to lay the foundation of familial dynamics, but once we arrive on location where the bulk of the action takes place, we start rolling steadily into the intensity which manages to sustain for a considerable portion of the book. The ending left me uncertain though. I appreciated that it wasn't the ending I would have predicted, but it felt incomplete to me nonetheless, and I can't decide if it was just that it seemed abrupt or more that it didn't seem confident that the ending knew what it wanted to be, as if it wanted to make a point but then chickened out.
A plethora of social injustices - In the interest of not spoiling, I won't list them, but it felt a little like overkill. They weren't inappropriate to the time, and none of them were unworthy, but it felt like a lot to process in a standard length novel. I didn't have the bandwidth to care about all of them, and frankly, neither did the book, which may have done a disservice to all of them as a result.
Worth noting:
Dark - This is a serial killer situation. There are sexual undertones throughout. Very little in the way of foul language, but there is a definitive seedy quality that permeates a good deal of the plot.
If this is a book you anticipate reading and spoilers are a thing you would prefer to avoid, you're going to want to skip this next section and move right along to the final paragraph. Consider yourself duly warned. I accept zero responsibility if you end up reading and regretting. Ok, potential spoilers beyond this point!
I really wanted to know who was turning Peggy's doorknob in the middle of the night; it was implied, but it was such an impactful scene, it felt as if it deserved to be addressed directly. I also wanted Peggy's philandering father, who seemed to cast a shadow over the entire story, to be given more weight than just the cursory mentions, followed by the unexpected delivery of his association with the high end brothel near the end (like how vague I am there? that will teach me not to take better notes if I am composing my review after returning a book to the library).
If you're looking for something in the vein of The Night Circus, this isn't it, despite the cover vibe. This is a period murder mystery, firmly in the historical fiction genre, without an ounce of fantasy, but no less compelling. I could see this book making a dazzling translation to screen, what with the turn-of-the-century boardwalk setting, with its high society fashions, opulent seaside resorts, and the glittering lights of Coney Island by night. If you enjoy a good murder mystery and are a fan of historical fiction, this is worth considering, especially if you don't mind a darker undercurrent to storytelling. There are a few details I wish had been handled a little differently which would have easily propelled this to a 4.25-4.5 star rating, but this was by no means a book I regret reading.