The Nightmare Thief by Nicole Lesperance, illustrated by Federica Fenna
Publisher: Sourcebooks Young Readers
Special thanks to Raincoast Books for sending a copy for review.
Summary:
Maren Partridge loves working in her family’s dream shop where she can hand-craft any dream imaginable. The shop has only one rule. Dreams cannot be given to a person without their consent. Maren has no problem with this—until her sister, Hallie, has an accident that leaves her in a coma. Maren’s certain she can cure Hallie with a few well-chosen dreams. And when no one is watching, she slips her a flying dream.
But a strange new customer from the shop has been following Maren and knows what she did. Now she’s laid the perfect trap to blackmail Maren into creating custom nightmares for a dark and terrible purpose. As Maren gets drawn further into the sinister scheme, she must make a choice: to protect her family or to protect the town from her family’s magic (Goodreads).
Thoughts:
I knew as a highschool student that I was older than this book’s intended audience of middle grade children. Still, when I choose a book to settle into over hot chocolate amidst raging snow outside, I take care in picking a feel-good bedtime story. With feelings of sentiment and coziness reminiscent of The House In The Cerulean Sea and The Thursday Murder Club, this heroine story is like a good Hallmark movie wrapped into a comfort book.
Reading a book I might have read when I was in elementary school was a new experience. When readers outgrow their former preferences, I expect those old tastes to be more boring than nostalgic. This book hit a lot of emotional nerves for me for several reasons. The fact that it was full-blown fantasy was also a dead giveaway for how much my pre-teen self would have loved it. I was attracted to the background of the protagonist’s family business being a shop that produced and sold dreams. If I had discovered this book when I was the right age group, I have no doubt that I would have been a huge fan.
Maren reflected so many characteristics that I connected personally with. As a younger sister with busy, working parents, she grew up extremely close to her older sister, looking up to her not just as a role model, but also as a beacon of safety and guidance. Maren’s story was so similar to mine that I was racked with so much emotion when the book opened with her visiting her sister in the hospital. Being robbed of such a vital figure in her life, the person she was most reliant upon, was a major point in Maren’s development and tribulations.
I credit a large part of the comforting feelings of this book to the relationships Maren has with her family. A lot of protagonists, especially in their teenage years, face hardships while juggling family problems. A broken household has become a staple requirement to push a character’s independence and self-discovery forward. It was a refreshing change to watch Maren find her own grounding because her family was always supporting her through her challenges.
The only major criticism I have for this book is the rivalry between Maren and the main antagonist, an older woman blackmailing her for dream products. There were no plot holes in the antagonist’s motives, but it was always off-putting to see this mysterious adult bully and torment a child into doing her bidding. I doubt this would be a concern for younger readers because they can be more intimidated by adult authority, so it is not supposed to be something that distracts from the rest of the story. Maren’s initial obedience and fear giving way to courage and a strong sense of justice is an arc I think younger readers will find captivating.
The Nightmare Thief is uplifting, never straying from its core themes of loyalty and integrity, which makes it such a filling read. For middle-school readers, this inspiring journey is filled with great perseverance and acts of love. Fans of whimsical, magical worlds and wholesome family dynamics will love this comforting hug of a book.
Reviewed by Anna F.