Dreamfire

At 17, Joshlyn Weaver is already an adept dream walker—part of a secret group of people who enter and resolve nightmares to keep the “Dream” universe and waking “World” in balance—when she apprehensively takes on an apprentice, Will. But as dreamers start falling ill and dying after encountering two men in trench coats, Josh and her friends must make sense of the anomaly to keep the world of night terrors from collapsing into reality. Steeped in magical realism, Alloway’s debut wastes no time exposing clues to help unravel the carefully crafted plot, starting with the opening scene in which Josh encounters a dream figment who claims to know her dead mother. The book’s many dream sequences are palpable, from the richly rendered details to the potent fear gripping the people Josh is trying to help. Although the cast is large, each character plays an important role in untangling the mystery, a suspenseful riddle full of political intrigue, while Josh explores a hesitant but undeniable romance that surfaces while she’s trying to reconcile the dream-related accident that killed her boyfriend. Ages 13–up. [em]Agent: Rachel Orr, Prospect Agency. (Feb.) [/em]