YA/Teen Book

*****

The Vault of Dreamers by Caragh M. O'Brien

Making the cut depends solely on your television viewer ratings or blip ratings. With reality cameras following candidates everywhere, Rosie would do almost anything to stay at the school and on the show.   They only take the top 50 most popular students at the elite Forge School for artistically talented students and Rosie is 93^rd. 

When sexy dishwasher, Linus, meets up with Rosie, suddenly Rosie’s blip rates go up.  “Personal drama’s good.  It gets viewers to care about you,” advised Linus.  “You know what to do.”  But Rosie had never kissed anyone before, and she definitely was not expecting the warmth of his lips or how it took her breath away.

One of the principles of the school was that creativity was increased by sleep but it was puzzling why students needed 12 full hours every night.  At 6:00 in the dorm on the night before the cut, they lined up as usual to take the pills, climb into their sleeping shells, and slide the lids closed.  But Rosie had reasons to disobey.  She missed the deep darkness of night, she wanted to escape the ever present cameras for just a moment of privacy, and she had to find out why, in the middle of the night,  some students’ sleeping shells were wheeled out and later brought back with an IV attached.

What was going on at night?   Why did they have to sleep the manditory 12 hours?  Why did some students wake up with pin pricks in their arm?  Rosie is convinced they are doing experiments on the students, mining for dreams while they sleep, against their will.  But how can she prove her theory with the compulsory drug-induced sleep and cameras everywhere?

The Vault of Dreamers by Caragh M. O’Brien was an enjoyable read until about half way through, and then it became a great read.  You know how you can find that one book that makes you ignore what you should be doing so that you can finish it?  This was that book for me.  Written for middle school kids and older, it was an enjoyable story for adults as well.

I received this book as an advance copy by NetGalley.