Title: Dreambound
Author: Dan Frey
Publisher: Del Rey
Publication date: September 12, 2023
Length: 400 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction / fantasy
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

Dan Frey’s previous novel The Future Is Yours was a fantastic read, so I jumped at the chance to read his newest, Dreambound. I’m happy to report that Dreambound absolutely lives up to my high expectations!

In this new book, told through the main character’s investigation notebook and email exchanges, Byron Kidd’s world falls apart when his 12-year-old daughter Liza disappears. A note left tucked inside one of her favorite books, a volume in the massively popular Fairy Tale fantasy series, indicates that she’s left voluntarily. With no leads, no sightings, and nothing to go one, the case quickly goes cold, and Liza’s parents are left to cope in their own ways — her mother escapes into rituals of mourning and therapy, and Byron, an investigative journalist, decides to pursue the one lead they do have: the Fairy Tale fandom and its secrets.

Internet rumors draw connections between other missing children cases, all of which seem to be tied to Fairy Tale in some way. Yet when Byron tries to pursue this angle, he’s told that he’s chasing conspiracy theories, and warned not to let his grief and despair tarnish his professional reputation.

But Byron is convinced that he’s onto something, and heads to Los Angeles, where a single ping from Liza’s cell phone was detected after her disappearance. Through manipulation and subterfuge, he manages to get an interview with the author of Fairy Tale, Annabelle Tobin, whose sixth and final book in the series has been long delayed and who lives a reclusive life in her secluded Hollywood Hills mansion.

Things get weirder and weirder — is there truly a “hidden world” that these missing children have managed to get to? Or is the fandom so overly immersed in the fictional Fairy Tale world that predators and traffickers have been able to lure young readers with false promises?

Early on, Dreambound establishes the power of reading and the lure of imagination and fantasy. Byron, wrapped up in his obsessive need to find Liza, contemplates whether he made a fundamental mistake as a parent:

Then I’ll tell you who I am. I’m the guy who can’t sleep, wondering what I did wrong. Wondering how I could have possibly prevented this. Wondering if I made a mistake by teaching her to read, or giving her those stupid, dangerous books.

As all readers know, books have power. For a little while, at least, books transport us to new worlds and new ways of thinking. But Dreambound suggests that there’s more: What if the shared belief of enough readers is enough to make these fantasy worlds manifest within our own? What if what happened to the missing children isn’t shared delusion, but the literal opening of a portal to the hidden world, accessed through the power of believing it to be real?

I mean, what is magic if not a way to transform the world through the power of our thoughts? What are books if not spells? What are stories if not the most powerful and mysterious force known to man?

Dreambound is complicated and mind-bendy, taking us deep into Byron’s investigation through his notes, embedded transcripts of conversations and interviews, and the stories Byron encounters through a mysterious book called (naturally) The Hidden World. To others, Byron may seem to have been driven mad by his loss — but as he digs deeper, the clues he discovers lead him to startling discoveries and unexpected allies, and impel him onward even while outside forces want to stop him.

Annabelle Tobin seems an obvious stand-in for a certain real-world author of a blockbuster, bestselling series of children’s books and movies which have so indelibly changed our pop culture reference points. Not to get too meta, but it’s hard not to draw parallels when reading lines such as this in an email from her editor:

Right now, your work is being tarnished and overshadowed by a public conversation that we’ve lost control over.

Still, Annabelle differs in key ways, ends up being more sympathetic than I’d originally believed, and has unique secrets that we can only assume are not shared with her real-world counterpart.

I loved the adventure, the unraveling of clues, and the emphasis on the role of books and fantasy in our lives, as well as the underlying mythos in which beliefs shared across enough people gain power to stand on their own. Byron is not always a likable person (some of his tactics are fairly despicable), but he can be forgiven his crueler moments for the sake of his devotion to getting his daughter to safety, no matter what he has to sacrifice.

At points, I wished that the glimpses of the world of the Fairy Tale series went more in-depth. I do love a good story-within-a-story plot device, and in this case, the bits we do see of the Fairy Tale fantasy world seem very alluring — it’s easy to see, based on these snippets, how they might generate such a devoted fan base.

Still, the point is not the Fairy Tale series itself, but its effect on its readers — particularly those still young or open enough to both understand the real world in which they live yet still hold out hope that fictional ideals might somehow be true.

The concepts here are wonderful, the plot is convoluted and twisty, and the fantasy elements are immersive and imaginative. Dreambound is a compelling, entertaining read that kept me turning the pages until way past my bedtime. Don’t miss it!