Welcome to Reverie, the "Land of Dreams," where you can live out any fantasy you can imagine. But in this enthralling and magical middle-grade novel, nightmares also lurk in Reverie's tents.
Three years ago, Andrea's younger brother, Francis, disappeared. Now 12, Andrea wants only to forget the pain of his disappearance. One night in the woods near her house, she stumbles across Reverie, a magical circus run by the Sandman. The circus offers exactly what she needs--a chance to forget. Inside Reverie's gates, Andrea finds magic and wonder: tents where children can fly, lollipops that make you dizzy, buried treasure hunts with pirates. As the night progresses, though, she also finds nightmares. ("Nightmares can be fun" but staying too long inside one can cause the mind to "react in some strange, strange ways.") One of them is the recurring nightmare Francis used to have "about a river and an evil tree determined to turn him into stone." If Francis's nightmare exists in Reverie, that means he must have been there. With renewed hope, Andrea sets out to uncover Reverie's secrets in order to find her brother.
The Circus of Stolen Dreams, Lorelei Savaryn's debut fantasy, defies expectations. The pain of Francis's disappearance and the effect it's had on her family is raw and gut-wrenching, making Savaryn's introduction of Reverie as much a breath of fresh air to readers as it is to Andrea. Reverie itself is a well imagined, highly developed dreamscape and, though Savaryn leaves proverbial breadcrumbs along its trails, she still delivers plenty of unexpected twists and turns. A powerful tale of loss, pain and growing up, The Circus of Stolen Dreams is as memorable and thought-provoking as it is enchanting. --Kyla Paterno, freelance reviewer