2 out of 4 stars
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What if our nightmares turned into reality? In Christian England’s novel, Endless Nightmare, from Grosvenor House Publishing, we follow the adventures of Jamie Mandan, a boy growing up in the United Kingdom who is plagued by terrible nightmares.
The book starts off normally enough, Jamie and his parents, Jack and Debbie, are talking about his upcoming school year and when Jamie goes to bed, the talk turns to his parents’ concern about his nightmares. After these ordinary interactions between family members, the book dives into the supernatural when a mysterious being appears about of the Mandan household and talks about The Shadow of the Nightmare.
Jamie is soon plunged into the Endless Nightmare, controlled by the evil Shadow of the Nightmare, a spirit creature who is looking to get revenge on God for denying him a mortal body. The Shadow of the Nightmare traps children in his nightmarish realm and uses them to build a bridge between his world and Earth, where he plans on waging war against God. While in the Endless Nightmare, Jamie teams up with Anthony and Christian Halo, two brothers that can live in that dimension thanks to their magical abilities. The three boys become fast friends and begin their journey to find The Spiritual Sword, the only weapon that can defeat the Shadow of the Nightmare.
In the beginning, the author seamlessly brings in the supernatural to the ordinary life of Jamie Mandan. The appearance of the mysterious being in the opening chapter of the book did not seem to be an intrusion on reality, just an unexplained occurrence that left the reader wanting to know more about who The Shadow of the Nightmare is. The realm of the Endless Nightmare was also beautifully, and horrifically, executed. Jamie’s experiences there are detailed and the reader can imagine themselves there and it feels as if they are witnessing a nightmare of their own. The landscape and mishaps in the realm are something anyone who has had nightmares can easily recall seeing in their own dreams.
As much as the supernatural blends in with reality, the character’s reactions to such uncommon goings on is a bit unbelievable. Jamie’s parents seem to think nothing of hearing that their son is the “chosen one” that must destroy an evil spirit. They, along with everyone else on Earth that is exposed to the magic and supernatural, do not seem phased in the slightest about what is unfolding in front of them. This causes many of the characters to seem static, and they do not seem to contribute much to the story. Some of the dialogue between characters seems wooden at times and just observations that could have been placed as text in the book and not dialogue to help the story flow more.
Despite these downfalls, the book itself is entertaining and the mix between everyday life and fantasy is perfectly played out to where the reader can be pulled into the Endless Nightmare and the threat of The Shadow of the Nightmare without any disbelief. Unfortunately, another issue with the book is that the editing team missed a lot of easily corrected errors like improper capitalizations and misspelled, incorrect, or missing words. These mistakes are very noticeable and take the reader out of the story at times. I would rate this book 2 out of 4 stars, sadly taking off one star for the editing mistakes, though the book is a nice, easy read that blends fantasy and reality very nicely. Endless Nightmare might be a little too easy for an older audience, but younger readers that enjoy the fantasy genre might want to give this one a try.
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Endless Nightmares
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so it might not be a bad choice for some
