Book Review: THE VAULT OF DREAMERS

Title: The Vault of Dreamers

Author: Caragh M. O'Brien

Rating: 🍵🍵🍵🍵🍵

The Forge School is the most prestigious arts school in the country. The secret to its success:  every moment of the students’ lives is televised as part of the insanely popular Forge Show, and the students’ schedule includes twelve hours of induced sleep meant to enhance creativity.

But when first year student Rosie Sinclair skips her sleeping pill, she discovers there is something off about Forge. In fact, she suspects that there are sinister things going on deep below the reaches of the cameras in the school. What’s worse is, she starts to notice that the edges of her consciousness do not feel quite right. And soon, she unearths the ghastly secret that the Forge School is hiding—and what it truly means to dream there.

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I’ve been waiting for this book for what feels like forever, so when I saw that there was an ARC up on NetGalley I rushed like a monkey on crack to get it. 

(To be perfectly honest, I squealed first, but you get the idea.)

So I’ve read Caragh O'Brien before. In fact, her BIRTHMARKED, first in a trilogy about the most badass midwife ever, was the first book I recommended back when I was posting my book recs on my personal. Suffice to say, after all that, my expectations for this new series were sky-high.

I went into THE VAULT OF DREAMERS already loving and dreading it (not the best combination?) and this book just laughed at silly me and barged decidedly through my expectations.

It was wonderful.

I’m trying the focus on the thing that made this book so great, but it’s sort of like a beautiful slippery fish. The thing is, there wasn’t a Single Thing that made this book for me, rather it was So Well Crafted that I couldn’t help but falling in love.

So. THE VAULT OF DREAMERS follows Rosie Sinclair, now enrolled at The Forge School, an arts institution that doubles as a reality show. If you don’t think that’s already terrifying, I don’t know what to tell you. Rosie was an A+ heroine–she was determined and smart and flawed and a go-getter. She didn’t have it all together. She wasn’t some shining example of a role model, but, let me tell you, when the end days come, I want Rosie Sinclair on my side.

Her art, so to speak, was film-making and I have to hand it to the author for how she wrote the world filtered through Rosie’s perspective. I loved her comments about lighting or framing or colors, things I wouldn’t normally think myself, but that made her authentic. I cared for her character from the very first page and, I swear, even when she made mistakes, I liked her. There’s something to be said about a character that creates that sort of empathy. I was with her when she trusted people and when she doubted people and when she doubted herself. And it was awesome.

I want to talk about ALL the side characters. But that would make a very long post, so, just a few:

Linus. Oh, my God. Linus. I don’t know that I’ve ever latched onto a fictional boy so fast in my life. (Excepting maybe Jared from UNSPOKEN by Sarah Rees Brennan.) I loved Linus from his first line. Maybe before that. Maybe from his description. No. Maybe from when we first “see” him, even though we don’t know it’s him. He was just–wow. I can’t think of a more perfect fodder from Rosie. Their chemistry, as pointed out by Linus himself, was the type of stuff reality shows (or ANY show) thrives on. Effortless and funny and natural and everything I wanted.

I got derailed talking about Linus and now I don’t remember anyone else at all.

No, wait!

Janice! She’s Rosie’s first and best friend in The Forge Show and, well, let’s just pause: Friends! Real friends! I was so thrilled. Janice is one hundred percent the type of person I’d like to be friends with and I just had to mention her.

There’s a roster of other secondary characters I can’t gush enough about (Burnham! Otis! Dean Berg. Chubbs!), mostly because then I wouldn’t have space to talk about all the other things I love.

It’s such an elusive thing, but, apart from the characters, it’s the whole concept of this book that makes it so special. Caragh O'Brien did an absolutely stunning job of putting what I can tell was a very complicated idea into pretty, pretty words. And it all worked brilliantly. I loved the science behind this book (also something that made BIRTHMARKED stand out), but I especially loved the execution. 

There’s not one scene in THE VAULT OF DREAMERS that feels unnecessary or too slow or too fast or info-dumpy. Everything flows basically as well as the river in Pocahontas. I could not put this book down. That may sound like I’m exaggerating, but I quite literally pulled an all-nighter to read this book simply because I was completely riveted.

When I finally fell asleep, I dreamt of this book. 

THE VAULT OF DREAMERS got me out a sad, sad reading slump and I can’t recommend it enough. 

Did I mention Linus? Yes.

- Adriana

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Children’s Publishing for providing me with this eGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Review originally posted at A (Secret) Book Nook.