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st_ve's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
izzys_internet_bookshelf's review against another edition
2.0
2.5/5
Alright lets get into this. I was excited to read it at first but there was a lot of mentions of the main character being Jewish. and I mean a lot, as in forty times. This confused me for it was a sort of high fantasy setting. I feel it would have been better if it would have been mentioned somewhere else? Otherwise I was really happy about the Poe reimagining. I had Red Mask a couple years ago and it always intrigued me.
Alright lets get into this. I was excited to read it at first but there was a lot of mentions of the main character being Jewish. and I mean a lot, as in forty times. This confused me for it was a sort of high fantasy setting. I feel it would have been better if it would have been mentioned somewhere else? Otherwise I was really happy about the Poe reimagining. I had Red Mask a couple years ago and it always intrigued me.
readingunderadesk's review against another edition
2.0
A Multitude of Dreams is supposed to be a retelling of Edgar Allen Poe's The Masque of Red Death which is definitely appealing! But it's set in some pseudo-fantasy (or maybe speculative alternate history) unnamed medieval world/castle/manor as one single bastion against a deadly plague that is now over 4 years later but, there's a mad king keeping everyone in!
The MC is a Jewish girl who was taken from her guarded Jewish area to stand in for a dead princess so aforementioned mad king didn't know she was dead, BUT... there are no other apparent religions or even religious ceremonies/items/literally anything in this world related to any other religion. So there's this historical oppression of Jews (valid and real) that draws on knowledge of the real world and real life history to be applied to a fake castle/semi-fantasy world but with no indication of who is doing oppression or why except "everyone who is not Jewish is oppressive for reasons we'll just leave you to figure out but do not exist in context." (Note: I would have this same exact issue if the MC was any other religion because one single real world religion in a fake fictional world makes zero sense in context; it is Very Weird to have one real world aspect and its historical cultural stressors be present in this non-real world with everything else stripped out).
Also there are vampires for some reason who exhibit no other vampiristic traits other than "we are drinking the blood of people immune from the plague" and "you can't kill us with gut sword" and "you have to invite us in probably."
It's kind of a mess, and I never got a sense of who anyone really was, especially the guy who was introduced as the first love interest before the second one came around -- a victim of 'too many named characters in a very small setting with very little substance amongst any of them,' which is a shame. The concept is good (except the vampires and I am a very big vampire liker) on its head and so much just falls short that I kept reading chapter after chapter in hope that some of my gripes would be ironed out.
Beautiful cover though!
Thank you to NetGalley and Inkyard Press for the eARC in exchange for honest review.
The MC is a Jewish girl who was taken from her guarded Jewish area to stand in for a dead princess so aforementioned mad king didn't know she was dead, BUT... there are no other apparent religions or even religious ceremonies/items/literally anything in this world related to any other religion. So there's this historical oppression of Jews (valid and real) that draws on knowledge of the real world and real life history to be applied to a fake castle/semi-fantasy world but with no indication of who is doing oppression or why except "everyone who is not Jewish is oppressive for reasons we'll just leave you to figure out but do not exist in context." (Note: I would have this same exact issue if the MC was any other religion because one single real world religion in a fake fictional world makes zero sense in context; it is Very Weird to have one real world aspect and its historical cultural stressors be present in this non-real world with everything else stripped out).
Also there are vampires for some reason who exhibit no other vampiristic traits other than "we are drinking the blood of people immune from the plague" and "you can't kill us with gut sword" and "you have to invite us in probably."
It's kind of a mess, and I never got a sense of who anyone really was, especially the guy who was introduced as the first love interest before the second one came around -- a victim of 'too many named characters in a very small setting with very little substance amongst any of them,' which is a shame. The concept is good (except the vampires and I am a very big vampire liker) on its head and so much just falls short that I kept reading chapter after chapter in hope that some of my gripes would be ironed out.
Beautiful cover though!
Thank you to NetGalley and Inkyard Press for the eARC in exchange for honest review.
foraging_pages's review against another edition
3.0
A plague! Vampires? Secret identities!
A Multitude of Dreams is a Gothic slowburn of haunted woods, crumbling mansions, and creatures of the night…
The story is a retelling of Poe’s “Masque of the Red Death” but with vampires! I love Poe’s works so I was happy to read a book based on his short story. Plague narratives in general intrigue me. I like to analyze survival tactics and become familiar with the human instinct to survive and protect others. These aspects are only heightened when you add vampires and secret identities under threat of being revealed any moment. This is the situation in which we find our protagonists Seraphina and Nico.
They must form an alliance or risk the entirety of Eldridge Hall being overrun by the bloodsucking forces outside its walls. I enjoyed the dual point-of-view and at times found Nico’s more intriguing than Seraphina’s.
I respect the author’s choice of putting her culture and religious beliefs into a fantasy world. It fit quite well.
With September just around the corner, this story is perfect for spooky season!
A Multitude of Dreams is a Gothic slowburn of haunted woods, crumbling mansions, and creatures of the night…
The story is a retelling of Poe’s “Masque of the Red Death” but with vampires! I love Poe’s works so I was happy to read a book based on his short story. Plague narratives in general intrigue me. I like to analyze survival tactics and become familiar with the human instinct to survive and protect others. These aspects are only heightened when you add vampires and secret identities under threat of being revealed any moment. This is the situation in which we find our protagonists Seraphina and Nico.
They must form an alliance or risk the entirety of Eldridge Hall being overrun by the bloodsucking forces outside its walls. I enjoyed the dual point-of-view and at times found Nico’s more intriguing than Seraphina’s.
I respect the author’s choice of putting her culture and religious beliefs into a fantasy world. It fit quite well.
With September just around the corner, this story is perfect for spooky season!
clarahrae's review against another edition
2.0
As a young Jewish person, seeing representation anywhere is very important to me… however, this representation felt very out of place. I didn’t even know there was going to be a discussion about Jewish people and the role people placed on them during the Black Plague.
Overall, there was a lot in this book that could have shined. However, too much time was placed before the conflict and there was a lot of details that could have been hammered out and better explained. The characters and romance felt very surface, and while I enjoyed what I saw of both, the emotion and build-up was lacking.
Unfortunately, this seems to be one of those books that could have gone through another round or two of revisions for the sake of beefing up the plot and creating real consequences. For 90% of this book, I wasn’t sure if it was a standalone or part of a series— I was quite pleased to learn this was a standalone and there aren’t more books I will need to invest in to greater understand this world.
Overall, there was a lot in this book that could have shined. However, too much time was placed before the conflict and there was a lot of details that could have been hammered out and better explained. The characters and romance felt very surface, and while I enjoyed what I saw of both, the emotion and build-up was lacking.
Unfortunately, this seems to be one of those books that could have gone through another round or two of revisions for the sake of beefing up the plot and creating real consequences. For 90% of this book, I wasn’t sure if it was a standalone or part of a series— I was quite pleased to learn this was a standalone and there aren’t more books I will need to invest in to greater understand this world.
leila_reads_too_much's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
henrib11's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
viking_flower_girl's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0