Review of The Dream Keepers
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JayRaams
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Review of The Dream Keepers
[Following is a volunteer review of "The Dream Keepers" by Linda Keen.]
Star's world is fall magic unlike it is for normal people. From a young age, she could see things others could not among other things. This skill helps her hold on to the magic of her dreams even as she and her brother's world is turned upside down. First, they are made to leave their home and caring family to live on the other side of the country with grandparents they do not know. Then the O-Day children are made to grow up faster than they should as life seems to keep getting harder and harder and they are forced to see the worst of humanity. Though things seem impossible sometimes Star and Thatcher are always there for each other. Join the O-Days on their journey both spiritual and physical in this Linda Keen's first young adult book The Dream Keepers.
Throughout the book, there are beautiful poems written by the poet Langston Hughes. In the story, the poems are said to be written by the main characters Grandpa Langston, though not meant to be the historical poet it was a nice tribute to name the character after the true author of the poetry. These poems are my favourite part of the book, I highly recommend checking out Langston Hughes work. I also liked the relationship between the two main characters, Star and Thatcher, their relationship has ups and downs but they never stop feeling like real siblings who truly care about each other.
The story was quite difficult to follow often becoming quite muddled due to jumping around in the stories timeline, this problem was made worse by the fact many true-life events were mentioned but never by name, this made the world feel out of focus, which I found unpleasant. There were also too many named characters, people who only had one line in the story and were only in the story for a few moments were given names, this made it hard to keep track of who was who and which charters were important. I also did not like the spiritualism presented in the book, though I try to respect everyone's belief's and enjoy learning how others see the world, I think the way the beliefs of Native Americans were edited and appropriated in the book may be cultural appropriation and could be seen as disrespectful. The last thing I did not like was the way mental health was used in the book, though a realistic portrayal of how poor mental health and how it affects the people around the person suffering, the way characters react to the deteriorating mental health is inappropriate this could have been better handled by the author if more time was given to the topic.
Though The Dream Keepers is exceptionally well-edited when it came to spelling and grammar it is poorly edited when it comes to how the story is formatted. Often information is repeated sometimes on the same page and the book jumps around the timeline of the story in a way that makes it difficult to follow what is happening, perhaps with the help of an editor these problems could have been fixed. For these reasons, I am giving the book a 1 out of 4-star rating.
Though this is a young adult novel I can not recommend it to this group, especially the readers that are on the younger side of the age range because though touching on issues that young people face like mental health, drug use and neglect the author does not take the time to address these issues responsibly going so far as to promote risky behaviours. If you are an adult fan of the author Linda Keen then this book though different from her other books may be of interest to you.
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The Dream Keepers
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Star's world is fall magic unlike it is for normal people. From a young age, she could see things others could not among other things. This skill helps her hold on to the magic of her dreams even as she and her brother's world is turned upside down. First, they are made to leave their home and caring family to live on the other side of the country with grandparents they do not know. Then the O-Day children are made to grow up faster than they should as life seems to keep getting harder and harder and they are forced to see the worst of humanity. Though things seem impossible sometimes Star and Thatcher are always there for each other. Join the O-Days on their journey both spiritual and physical in this Linda Keen's first young adult book The Dream Keepers.
Throughout the book, there are beautiful poems written by the poet Langston Hughes. In the story, the poems are said to be written by the main characters Grandpa Langston, though not meant to be the historical poet it was a nice tribute to name the character after the true author of the poetry. These poems are my favourite part of the book, I highly recommend checking out Langston Hughes work. I also liked the relationship between the two main characters, Star and Thatcher, their relationship has ups and downs but they never stop feeling like real siblings who truly care about each other.
The story was quite difficult to follow often becoming quite muddled due to jumping around in the stories timeline, this problem was made worse by the fact many true-life events were mentioned but never by name, this made the world feel out of focus, which I found unpleasant. There were also too many named characters, people who only had one line in the story and were only in the story for a few moments were given names, this made it hard to keep track of who was who and which charters were important. I also did not like the spiritualism presented in the book, though I try to respect everyone's belief's and enjoy learning how others see the world, I think the way the beliefs of Native Americans were edited and appropriated in the book may be cultural appropriation and could be seen as disrespectful. The last thing I did not like was the way mental health was used in the book, though a realistic portrayal of how poor mental health and how it affects the people around the person suffering, the way characters react to the deteriorating mental health is inappropriate this could have been better handled by the author if more time was given to the topic.
Though The Dream Keepers is exceptionally well-edited when it came to spelling and grammar it is poorly edited when it comes to how the story is formatted. Often information is repeated sometimes on the same page and the book jumps around the timeline of the story in a way that makes it difficult to follow what is happening, perhaps with the help of an editor these problems could have been fixed. For these reasons, I am giving the book a 1 out of 4-star rating.
Though this is a young adult novel I can not recommend it to this group, especially the readers that are on the younger side of the age range because though touching on issues that young people face like mental health, drug use and neglect the author does not take the time to address these issues responsibly going so far as to promote risky behaviours. If you are an adult fan of the author Linda Keen then this book though different from her other books may be of interest to you.
******
The Dream Keepers
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: The Legacy of Job's Wife by Cynthia Koelker
