Book: The Girl Who Could Not Dream by Sarah Beth Durst

Published November 2015 by Clarion|384 Pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the hardcover from the library

Series: None

Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy

Sophie loves the hidden shop below her parents’ bookstore, where dreams are secretly bought and sold. When the dream shop is robbed and her parents go missing, Sophie must unravel the truth to save them. Together with her best friend—a wisecracking and fanatically loyal monster named Monster—she must decide whom to trust with her family’s carefully guarded secrets. Who will help them, and who will betray them?

I liked it!  This book is a really cute middle grade book about a girl who has to find her parents after they go missing.

I loved her friend Monster, and I really liked how her parents bottled and sold dreams.  And how she didn’t really have friends because she felt different, but ended up making new friends by trying to find her parents.

I thought the Night Guards, who were supposed to be really scary, weren’t all that scary.  In general, I have a lot of questions.  Most importantly, why doesn’t Sophie dream, and why are non-dreamers so bad?  We did get an explanation for the second part of my question, in the sense that we find out what would happen if they got their hands on the bottled dreams.  But not why they can’t, and that’s what I’m curious about.  Also, why does Sophie have the ability to make dreams come to life?

It is a stand-alone, which was a little surprising, because it seems like the sort of book that would be the first book in a series.  But things are wrapped up really well, even though there is the possibility for more books.

3 stars.  I wanted to like it more, but I don’t think I’m the right audience for this book.  I liked how cute it is and I think a lot of other people will like it, but it’s not for me.