Dreamhunter

Knox, Elizabeth. Dreamhunter. New York: Square Fish, 2005.

Laura's parents are dreamhunters, and she is determined that she will become a dreamhunter as well as soon as she is old enough to do so.  Dreamhunters are tasked with entering the Place and collecting dreams which they bring back with them and share with those around them.  Dreamhunters are able to share their dreams with those who are in the same building or same neighborhood and are asleep at the same time as they are.

Before Laura is able to become a dreamhunter, though, her father disappears, leaving her a cryptic message and a sandman servant.  Laura must unravel the mystery of her father's disappearance and the disturbing dream he discovered, and time is running out.

I enjoyed this story.  It took me a while to get into the story itself, but once I did, I understood the sharing of dreams to be similar to the Giver sharing memories with Jonas in Lois Lowry's classic work.  I figured the dream Laura's dad had found was a disturbing one in that it told the future and that people needed to receive the warning from this dream.  I was excited when Laura was successful in returning to the Place, finding the dream her father had found, and sneaking into the Rainbow Opera to share this dream with the hundreds of patrons there.  But then the novel stopped.

There was no explanation of what the dream meant, what would happen next, how the government officials reacted, what Laura planned to do, etc. etc.  The story ended with more loose ends than a Part 1 normally has, and the plethora of questions now running through my head do not entice me to pick up Part 2 of this book.  The concept is really neat, and I enjoyed the fantasy aspect of this story, but I was too frustrated by the ending to choose to do that to myself a second time with the sequel.