Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for giving me a free ARC in exchange for a review.

I really enjoyed this one, as I tend to enjoy anything Alice in Wonderland-esque. I didn't know this author beforehand, but apparently he also has quite a popular middle grade series, which is definitely evident here. The Dream and the Muse felt a bit more middle-grade/young YA than I was expecting but it is a fun, quick read.

Not a lot is explained in the book, which is understandable in an Alice sense, but we don't even know Madarena's age, much less a lot of other kind of vital set up details. I wish we had more details, as I feel like I didn't connect enough to any of the characters because I didn't know them enough.

World building and romping was fun, but it didn't make up for lackluster characters. 3 stars from me.

This is one of those rare books that capture your mind, attention, thoughts, and heart right from the very first chapter.
We follow Maderena Rua, a young girl who wears a cloak of potential and carries a trunk of words in her mind. This book gives off a lot of "Alice in Wonderland" vibes in the sense that the world that Jake Burnett has created is absolutely bizarre. It definitely has a magical feel to it, just like "Alice in Wonderland", but I think that is where all the similarities end.
What really stood out for me was the characters. Usually in books that toe the line between middle grade and YA, the protagonist and some selected side characters are the only ones worth remembering, but in this book, I must say that each and every character, whether their role ended only after a single dialogue or just a run-into in a random scene, each and every character was so well fleshed out and thoughtfully created, that you can't help but remember them all. Starting from zombie kids, to lip-sewing dragonflies, to talking chalks, metallic whirring characters with lots of springs - everyone had a role in the story. There was not a single moment that felt unnecessary or irrelevant. Every scene furthered the plot and had a purpose.
Maderena was a curiously unusual character, whose favorite pastime was going through new words in the dictionary. She has a penchant for adventure and a phobia of boredom. Clever, smart, and witty, I promise she will not bore you at all, and might even make laugh out loud. However, there is one thing that immediately brought down the rating for me by one star, and that is when I read Maderena is "not like other people."
I loved the constant bickering between Maderena and her mentor/accomplice/not-really-a-friend - Apophax, who is an old Dream burdened with sorrow, in search of his Muse, who was stolen from him in a treacherous moment of misplaced faith.
The ending got me chewing on my nails, but I really wished this was a series and not a stand-alone because the world that Burnett has created has so much potential. The pacing of the story was medium to fast, but it definitely doesn't bore you. The vivid descriptions make you feel like you are right by Maderena, discovering the world through her eyes.
This brings me to one of the most interesting and bold aspects of the book and that is the language. Honestly, the story could easily fit into the middle-grade category, if not for the language. The writing style is not hard to follow, but it isn't easy either. It took me a while to get used to the way that it's written, and it kind of reminded me of children's classics (yes, Alice in Wonderland to be specific). And the author uses really difficult, uncommon, and new words which made it really hard for me to keep up.
Overall, the book was a magical bundle of words, characters, and an amazing whimsical world. I would definitely love to read more from this author in the future!

This novel is a highly imaginative and well written adventure of what can happen when dreams and reality collide in a story reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, A Wrinkle in Time and a healthy dose of Greek mythology.

This was a fun and unique fast paced read.

This young adult fantasy novel centres on Madarena Rua, a young woman with a phobia of ennui. She’s discontented with her life, feeling limited by her family and their expectations. Her life takes a turn for the bizarre when she meets a strange old man named Apophax. When she puts on his hedgehog spine coat, she will run for her life, uncover her potential, and become an accomplice in a grand Plan.

This was a wild and joyous read. Burnett’s imagination is certainly impressive in being able to come up with the places and people of this book. There is some darkness, but much more whimsy, in his creations. I think the characters who stood out most were the witch Mouldywarp and Kitchen Jack, a being brought to life from kitchen scraps. I also enjoyed going on the journey with Madarena and the roguish Apophax. I was also impressed with the references, plenty of which are to Greek mythology, but there are also a few to other fantasy or science fiction classics. The story itself is also very reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland.

One of the highlights of the book was the word play. Madarena employs her time reading from the dictionary to improve her vocabulary, and she has recently begun on the IM words when she meets the impious Apophax and is pushed into this impossible journey. The word play and the dialogue between the characters is deft and sometimes very funny. I think I may be appropriating the word imprecation to use myself. I very much like that the word play and the references in the book challenge younger readers.

While the story is quite humorous, and presents us with a wild adventure, at its heart is a love story and a story of friendship. It turns out that meeting Apophax is the best thing that could have happened to Madarena, and I’d love to see them continue their adventures.

The book is quite fast paced and a quick read. I would have liked to spend more time in the characters’ company. While I enjoyed the unfolding of the story through the middle, I would have liked more set up at the beginning and more at the end, as that felt a little abrupt. There is a lot of scope for more stories. While this doesn’t appear to be listed as the beginning of a series, I do hope Burnett returns to these characters.

The Dream and the Muse by Jake Burnett - 5/5 stars

I received a review copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest and fair review.

This book was slow to start, meandering quite a bit before reaching it's main plot. It was also very quick to finish, with most of the plot's loose ends tying up within the last few pages. That being said, I thouroughly enjoyed the story, characters, and, most of all, the worlds in which the story tool places. The setting of this story really is it's strongest point and I would jump at the opportunity to read other tales in these lands. The end of the book really does a wonderful job of setting up the potential to expand into a larger story and I hope very much there is more story to come of Madarena and Apophax.

I read a large range of age ranges and this feels to me to be mostly aimed at older middle grade or younger YA readers with lots of advanced vocabulary thrown in for the educational opportunity. Not at all a bad thing, just something I haven't experienced in a book before that being said, I was very happy I got my Kindle before starting this book in earnest, as the dictionary feature was heavily utilized.

I'd definitely recommend this book to those who love fantasy and sci-fi with very intricate, but very soft magic systems. As I said previously, while the pacing is a little off for my taste, I wouldn't hesitate at all to read the next book in the series if one is developed.

The Dream and the Muse is definitely an interesting book; I went into it without much expectation, as the blurb doesn’t explain much in terms of the kind of world or characters I would be reading about. All I knew was that the cover was stunning. It starts with Madarena at home in bed, and when she can’t sleep she decides to read her new dictionary, which she received for her birthday despite her parents wanting her to have new clothes, and start being a little more normal. This is clearly a ‘not like other girls’ type of character, which did make me sigh deeply, but she is quite quirky, and who hasn’t gone through the dictionary to learn new and obscure words? When the story starts she is in the middle of the ‘IM’ words, and so a lot of the book has her using them to test them out. This was something I really enjoyed about the story. She also decides to create a bridge of pillows across her floor to reach her slippers without getting her feet cold, which does create the image of a creative and dramatic young woman. However, we don’t really get much other information about her, both at the start or throughout the story. The persona of a plucky girl who doesn’t fit in and longs for adventure has been done many times, and for this to stand out I felt that I needed to know more about Madarena and her backstory.

The plot proper begins when Madarena hears noises coming from the garden, and upon investigating finds a small man stuck in a bush. She rescues him, and as a reward Apophax pulls a trick on her, making her appear as himself so that she will get arrested by a stone Anubis guard that has been chasing him. This is the point at which things simply begin to happen, one after another, and they don’t really stop or have a lot of time in between them for the characters or the reader to take a breather. There also isn’t always a lot of correlation between events, meaning that a lot of the book is plot driven and not character driven. Things happen because they need to advance the story and the characters go along with it. It feels very much as if the author laid out the story that he wanted, and then had to make his characters follow that structure, instead of the characters’ actions and decisions shaping the events. In some ways this makes sense for the story, because Apophax has a whole plan blueprint that he is following to carry out his “heist” (it isn’t much of a heist, sadly), but I feel that the story might have benefitted from the characters going off-script sometimes. I also would have loved for them to dwell more on the Muse, the wonderful woman on the cover who the characters are trying to get back. She’s the whole reason for the story and the heist in the first place, but there is very little mention of her.

The plot-point-to-plot-point and almost non-sensical bickering between Madarena and Apophax does give it a very whimsical feeling, and I was reminded in some ways of Alice in Wonderland and in some ways of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, but it wasn’t always executed well. I think the story has incredible potential, it just needs some polishing and a lot more detail written into it – there were times when I though I’d skipped a page or a key sentence because what I was reading didn’t make sense, but when I went back I hadn’t missed anything, it simply hadn’t been expanded on enough. In a fantasy book that takes place mostly in another world, there needs to be a little more world building and reader-friendly exposition. The writing itself is very good, so I think if there were more of this, and more character development and background information, I would have enjoyed it a lot more.

This is technically a YA, and perhaps someone younger and less picky than me will enjoy it a lot more, but I still feel like it needs a little extra work to make it special.

arc provided via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

this was a fun easy to read. though it was nothing more than that. it had some heavy aspects and ones i was ready to make me love the story, but it just fell at just: fun. okay.

Thank you so much to South Window Press for the early digital copy of The Dream and the m
Muse by Jake Burnett

This is a YA fantasy/realm travel/mythological adventure that reads quickly, and to me more like a middle grade. Madarena is obsessed with reading her dictionary and I imagine a young reader will need to look up a lot of the words used, which even for me slowed the story down.

I liked the Greek mythology roots of the realms, from the Charonsferry to Logos. Fates and muses and dreams.. A lot of the setting was well done.

Mouldywarp and Charon were my two favorites.

Overall though I found the jumping around confusing, and extremely anticlimactic at the end. What was the night mayor's deal? I felt like a whole chapter was missing since she got away so easily and then it was over.

A quick read, fairly clean content wise as well

I will post the review to blog and Instagram... Probably 4/21 or some time during publication week.

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As a result of my various committee appointments and commitments I am unable to disclose my personal thoughts on this title at this time. Please see my star rating for a general overview of how I felt about this title. Additionally, you may check my GoodReads for additional information on what thoughts I’m able to share publicly. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read this and any other titles you are in charge of.

I could not have loved this book more. It's quite beautiful, imaginative, poetic, and everything is written with so much feeling. I almost thought I would put it down after chapter 2, but then realized an hour later that I couldn't stop reading it. Absolutely marvelous.

It was a fun and easy to read story. I flew through the book. Once i started i coudn't stop anymore. But don't be fooled, this is a heavy story that will make you think about live. The story has a wonderfull fmc and each character she meets is amazing in their own way.

Thanks to the publisher for providing an eARC of The Dream and the Muse in exchange for an honest review.

This book is definitely very heavily Through the Looking-Glass And What Alice Found There inspired (to the point where I'm pretty sure its outright referenced a few times) and that's a very, very, intimidating thing to try and pull off. I think the main issue here was the fact that it tries to do the 'a lot of weird things happen but the plot is more of a chaotic squiggle then a line' thing from Alice, but also focuses on an overarching plot at the same time. The combination of the two make this seem less whimsical, more confusing and poorly paced.

This story was trying very hard to be...something. I got vague Alice in wonderland vibes, but they didn't quite hit the mark.
Unfortunately I just wasn’t given any reason to care about the main character.

Just not the book for me.

A charming Alice in Wonderland type novel, sprinkled with a little of Kafka's Trial, reminiscent of Neil Gaiman' Neverwhere and the Ghibli's anime the Cat Returns. We are plunged into a strange world, that ends up making a lot more sense than initially thoughts. It is a great dive into the absurd dream scape with darker tones. Interesting if you like that type of work, it has a timeless quality.

DNF at 27%
To be honest, I did not have high expectations for this. It sounded like a pretty basic middle grade.
I was bored from the beginning, pretty much. The intrigue was just not there. I was hoping that it would get better further into the book. It did not.
I was also quite confused. Not a lot was explained, not about the main character or the setting. I still don't know what age category this book goes under.
There was nothing wrong about the writing style or anything like that. The writing was straightforward and easy to read, which I prefer over a more flowery writing style.

I think this book would be a easy fix. Just go back to the gbeginning of the book and add more details about almost everything (main characters age, setting, a bit of a backstory, and more)

A delightful and original portal fantasy with a heroine who is not in any way conventional, in the process of discovering her potential.

Her mentor is an out-and-out rogue, but his caper turns out to be laudable. The whole thing is pretty much an ode to chaotic good.

Along the way, the characters visit a number of different worlds, including one where everyone is some kind of undead, a shattered planet where witches can each have their own asteroid, and a bastion of lawfulness/awfulness. Thirteen worlds are connected by a nexus, but we only hear about half a dozen by name, so there's scope for more adventures in this universe. The different worlds only really have one idea each - there's not much depth to them - but they're fun anyway.

The heroine's exploits are ingenious, her character is appealing, and all in all it's a good ride.