Official Review: The Dream Keepers by Linda Keen
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Re: Official Review: The Dream Keepers by Linda Keen
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The spirit of resilience as one can infer in this book is a great one. It is worth reading this novel. Thanks for this review.The characters are very well developed, we see them grow and change from innocent children into adults who have to face the harsh realities of the world.
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After finishing The Dream Keepers late last night (Sydney-time) I must amend and update my comment.R-g-R wrote: ↑05 Jan 2018, 23:23 I have only just started The Dream Keepers and already agree with this review! The writing is indeed immersive and unique - I cannot think of a better, more accurate, description. The emotional nature of the children’s journey becomes apparent early in the book and I very much look forward to continuing.
While agreeing with all the factual information about the book and enjoying the start, I can no longer agree with the score and the reviewer’s overall opinion.
The premise of the book is good, that of siblings Thatcher and Star experiencing displacement on a grand scale and longing to belong, hence searching in myriad ways and places for a place to truly call home. Their journey is interesting and often unexpected and contains lessons for readers.
However the writing is often disjointed and contrived, with many ‘lessons’ presented too strongly and deliberately, with the author explaining every feeling and every action and leaving little for readers to discover or learn for themselves.
Disjointed change of ‘voice’/change of writing style moments are too many and too obvious. It feels as if the author had many good, different, short pieces of writing that they were determined to use and meld together, but these needed to be restricted to only including those which furthered the story and characters. I was surprised that editors had not already made such corrections.
I used the word ‘myriad’ above as something of a nod to the author’s use and overuse of such words. The first and maybe second times are acceptable, but repetitions of favourite words, often unnecessarily, distract more than enhance the storytelling. For example, there are many words that could and should have been used instead of the repeated ‘gargantuan’: huge, enormous, gigantic, massive to list a few.
Perhaps the author is well-versed with real people similar to those Star and Thatcher meet on their journey and some are certainly credible. However when some characters speak as if they were in the 70’s and one of our protagonists suddenly joins in without any sense of irony, humour or other good reason, it is jarring and creates an impression that there has been less research and more make-believe used. This is only one small example of a regular occurrence within the story. Characters suddenly change their speech or way of speaking significantly, and this becomes unbelievable.
The final issue of significance is the attempt to make the story more than it is by the inclusion of real-life events. Some of these are done well, providing a time frame and world view, but others are clumsy and unwieldy and become part of the ‘lesson’ category which needed greater subtlety.
An ambitious work by Linda Keen, I would give The Dream Keepers 2 out of 4, as I still wanted to read to the end and I’m sure there will be those who will enjoy the book. The readership will be limited as the writing often seems too adult for young adults but also spends a lot of time with the journey of young children so some young adults may think it is for a younger audience.
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