A review by snowwhitehatesapples
City of Nightmares by Rebecca Schaeffer
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Also on Snow White Hates Apples.
If you think dreaming about your worst nightmare is frightening enough, what about actually becoming it?
City of Nightmares is the place where this happens and to prevent it from happening, the people have to drink water laced with dream-prevention drugs or pop those pills directly into their mouths. Alcohol is also banned because it messes with the effectiveness of the drugs — but, of course, humans aren’t infallible. As such, new human-turned-nightmares do appear every so often and those with enough humanity in them are left to walk among the humans, creating a new world where vampires, anthropomorphic creatures, pterodactyls, dragons and such are the norm.
Our main character is Ness who, as a child, witnessed her sister turn into a giant spider that ate their father while she hid in a nearby cupboard. This, understandably, messes her up so much that she develops a phobia of nightmares. However, with nowhere to go, she ends up working for Friends of the Restful Soul, a society that helps others recover from nightmare trauma, and somehow, gets tangled in a series of events where she uncovers a web of lies and befriends the not-like-other-vampires cute guy called Cy.
What stood out most to me in City of Nightmares was the friendship, though there were aspects that could’ve been better done. For instance, the interactions were very hit-or-miss. Some dialogue felt really unnatural or stiff, and it didn’t help that the prose reads very young. A reviewer said it read like an early teenager’s fanfic published on Wattpad and I can’t help but to agree because that’s the most apt way to describe the writing.
Additionally, in comparison to the friendship Ness has with Cy, the one Ness has with Priya felt decorative after a few chapters. Don’t get me wrong, I like all three of these characters. It’s just that despite the strong intro Priya has, she later fades away to make room for Ness and Cy. On one hand, this makes sense as there are many different types of friendships, plus Priya can’t really just drop her whole life to play detective with Ness and Cy. But, on the other hand, I can’t help wishing they formed a balanced trio. Still, I did enjoy Ness’ growth as a character as her friendship with Cy progressed.
Other than that, the story was average. As incredible as the premise is, the execution of the story brought City of Nightmares down. Juvenile writing aside, the plot was too convenient and events happened as expected. Nothing phased or amazed me, though it was a fun junk food-like read.
If you think dreaming about your worst nightmare is frightening enough, what about actually becoming it?
City of Nightmares is the place where this happens and to prevent it from happening, the people have to drink water laced with dream-prevention drugs or pop those pills directly into their mouths. Alcohol is also banned because it messes with the effectiveness of the drugs — but, of course, humans aren’t infallible. As such, new human-turned-nightmares do appear every so often and those with enough humanity in them are left to walk among the humans, creating a new world where vampires, anthropomorphic creatures, pterodactyls, dragons and such are the norm.
Our main character is Ness who, as a child, witnessed her sister turn into a giant spider that ate their father while she hid in a nearby cupboard. This, understandably, messes her up so much that she develops a phobia of nightmares. However, with nowhere to go, she ends up working for Friends of the Restful Soul, a society that helps others recover from nightmare trauma, and somehow, gets tangled in a series of events where she uncovers a web of lies and befriends the not-like-other-vampires cute guy called Cy.
What stood out most to me in City of Nightmares was the friendship, though there were aspects that could’ve been better done. For instance, the interactions were very hit-or-miss. Some dialogue felt really unnatural or stiff, and it didn’t help that the prose reads very young. A reviewer said it read like an early teenager’s fanfic published on Wattpad and I can’t help but to agree because that’s the most apt way to describe the writing.
Additionally, in comparison to the friendship Ness has with Cy, the one Ness has with Priya felt decorative after a few chapters. Don’t get me wrong, I like all three of these characters. It’s just that despite the strong intro Priya has, she later fades away to make room for Ness and Cy. On one hand, this makes sense as there are many different types of friendships, plus Priya can’t really just drop her whole life to play detective with Ness and Cy. But, on the other hand, I can’t help wishing they formed a balanced trio. Still, I did enjoy Ness’ growth as a character as her friendship with Cy progressed.
Other than that, the story was average. As incredible as the premise is, the execution of the story brought City of Nightmares down. Juvenile writing aside, the plot was too convenient and events happened as expected. Nothing phased or amazed me, though it was a fun junk food-like read.
Thank you so much Hodder & Stoughton and Netgalley for providing me a copy of this in exchange for an honest review!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Violence
Minor: Blood, Child death, Death, and Trafficking