New Book Alert: Dead Dreamer: To Dream Is To Die by Sarah Lampkin; Dark Fantasy Features Unique Abilities and World

New Book Alert: Dead Dreamer: To Dream Is To Die by Sarah Lampkin; Dark Fantasy Features Unique Abilities and World

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews




Spoilers: What happens when we die? Do we go to our particular versions of the Other World? Do we hover around this world with unfinished business? Do we fade away into nothingness?

Even more mysterious are near death experiences, those who have been to the Other Side only to return with tales of bright lights, relatives telling them their work isn't finished, and a new purpose when they return to share their story and make the world a better place.

Sarah Lampkin's book, To Dream Is To Die which is part of the Dead Dreamer series is a unique take on near death experiences. The Dark Fantasy novel offers us a college freshman who wakes from a coma to discover that she has unusual abilities and must use them to help others.

When she was a teenager, Brenna Harp got into a severe car accident which temporarily killed her. She was restored to life but received some unusual powers in the process. When Brenna sleeps, her spirit travels outside her body and she can also see and hear spirits and other magical creatures during astral projection.

Besides having these supernatural abilities, Brenna also has to deal with the problems of a typical college freshman including maintaining her independence from overprotective parents, suffering through a large class load, arguing with her party girl roommate, and befriending a couple who though are nice often cause her to feel like a third wheel.

To Dream is To Die is in the grand tradition of “Young Person With Abilities Saves The World” but what makes this take stands out is the commitment that Lampkin gives in creating an original power and world that Brenna inhabits.

During her somnambulist jaunts, Brenna, who is called a Dreamer, enters a place she calls The Fade where she can see the dead and other beings. Spirits, including her college's late President, often give her cryptic comments leaving her to guess what their motivations are.

Besides the Spirits, Lampkin also rewrites Demons and Fairies in her books. While common consensus features demons as hateful monsters who torture humans for fun and Fairies as mischievous but ultimately helpful creatures, Lampkin reverses the stereotypes. Instead Demons are the more helpful creatures while Fairies are the ones Brenna definitely does not want to mess with. This is particularly important when Brenna infiltrates a secret organization that is so determined to destroy all demons that they won't let little things like murder or the sacrifice of a child get in the way of that goal.

Lampkin doesn't make her protagonist perfect. Brenna has limitations to her abilities. Because her spirit travels during sleep, her body doesn't actually rest so during the day, she is often fatigued, bad tempered, and sarcastic. Also her body is defenseless when she travels so she is at the mercy of dark spirits who possess her or roommates who play practical jokes on her. Thankfully she is helped by her friends, Damon, a Watcher who can sense ghosts and his girlfriend, Aeria who, though doesn't have any such abilities, is a good friend and as protective of Brenna and Damon as a tigress to her cubs.

The mystery that surrounds Brenna in her first year of college is solid. There are passages such as early conversations which require the Reader to pay attention as they provide intriguing clues. There are also some genuinely frightening moments such as Brenna's encounters with a female spirit who delights in physically and mentally torturing her human victims. Most importantly Brenna discovers the back story of her abilities and discovers other people are Dreamers. She also learns of a wider conspiracy and more frightening creatures on the horizon just waiting for her or another Dreamer to close their eyes.

The ending is completely open ended and purposely sets us up for a sequel. If this book is any indication, then it should be another interesting, unique, and terrifying trip to the Other Side.