Sometimes I shy away from these "Book Club" titles, but I thoroughly enjoyed this one. The author did a great job of developing a sense of place even though the book covered many different locations as varied as Montana, Vermont and LA. I recommend it to people who like well plotted sagas that span decades. The characters were well developed and the plot twists were surprising, but believable. Definitely a thumbs up.

I really enjoyed Dream State. I thought it had a great plot with well-done characters. It flows so well that I did not even notice I had been reading for hours. It's a great story that highlights how climate change is destroying the planet. It also deals with how alzheimers affects relationships, and it shows how it came on and progressed with the character. Heartbreaking stuff. I loved the author's writing style and look forward to reading more by them.

Sadly, a DNF for me. I felt sad and anxious while reading it and the characters felt so one dimensional. I could not get invested, I did not care about the plot and I found myself not wanting to pick it back up.

Small decisions can have major and lasting consequences

Cece and Charlie are planning to be married at his family's lake house in Montana. Charlie wants a college friend named Garrett to perform the ceremony, a choice with which Cece is not altogether on board...Garrett is an underemployed guy still dealing with a traumatic event in his and Charlie's past, which doesn't make him an ideal candidate for such an important role. As Cece gets to know Garrett better, though, her feelings towards him begin to change and an attraction develops between them (uh oh). When the marriage doesn't happen as planned due to an outbreak of illness the love triangle comes to a head. Will Cece chose to stay with Charlie, a man with a successful medical career ahead of him, or is the life of which she has dreamed not what she thought it would be? Where will the three friends end up in the years ahead?
Dream State is at its heart the tale of three people tangled up in an emotional knot whose choices will affect not only themselves but the children they will have and the lives those children will leave in future decades. Montana itself, vividly portrayed in its beauty and the changes wrought upon it by the changing climate, serves as a character in and of itself. With beautiful, precise language author Eric Puchner lays bare the flawed people at the story's core. There is humor and heartbreak, compassion and confusion, and the frustrating changes with which each must cope. I was not terribly fond of Cece, to be honest, which detracted from my overall enjoyment of the book, and I felt that the constant evocation of the destruction wrought by climate change could have been dialed back a bit and still have made its presence known, but others might perceive those differently. Dream State is a beautifully written story which probes the emotions that are woven into human relationships, which lovers of literary fiction and readers of Daniel Mason, Jonathan Franzen and Louise Erdrich would be wise to explore. My thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for allowing me access to Mr. Puchner's latest work in exchange for my honest review.

Eric Puchner’s Dream State is a moving, character-driven novel about a California family slowly coming apart at the seams. Told from multiple perspectives, it explores financial tension, personal secrets, and grief with sharp insight and emotional depth. Puchner’s writing is both tender and honest, making each character feel real and relatable. I really enjoyed this book—it’s quietly powerful and lingers long after the last page.

While I enjoyed the idea of this book, the execution left me wanting so much more.

Generally, I love a good multi-generational complex family drama. A story that explores the nuances of the characters and situations that influenced them to make the choices they made, and then the exploration of how those choices impacted their lives going forward. It's the reading experience I chase, and in this respect, Dream State made some big promises that it ultimately failed to deliver on.

While I loved the Montana setting and how Puchner incorporated it into the book, I wish he could have delivered his characters with the same attention to detail. At times, Montana felt like the most developed character in the book while the human characters fell flat; I had a hard time connecting to or understanding any of them and their motivations, especially Cece. Why did she make the choices she made? As readers, we're never really privy to any of the reasoning behind her choices - we just know she made one big pivotal choice and we see everything that came from that decision, but it lacked depth and nuance.

I also felt like the climate fiction element to the story felt like a forced afterthought, and Puchner never really connected that to the story for me either. While I appreciated the issues it brought up, it wasn't executed that well for me. I feel like Puchner was trying to do what Charlotte McConaghy is masterful at, but failed to execute.

Lastly, Puchner's overuse of similes drove me bonkers! 😵‍💫 Apparently there is a threshold for this literary device, and he blew right past it. There were just so many...and some of them just made me 🙄.

This is a slow literary fiction exploration of complex emotions and relationships that should have worked well for me, but really did not. Unfortunately, I feel like others have done it better and would highly recommend The Most Fun We Ever Had (Claire Lombardo), Migrations and/or Wild Dark Shore (Charlotte McConaghy), or Perris, California (Rachel Stark) instead.

I’m sorry to say that this book was a big disappointment for me. I kept waiting to like ANY character or to find something I could learn from it.
I kept wondering why I even was reading it.
The only reason I could come up with to continue is to find out what man Cece decides to stay with. I will read the last chapter to find out.

Dream State is the story of CeCe, Charlie, and Garrett and the life choices we make, the challenges of marriage, and how our choices impact so many other people. This book is light on plot and heavier on character development, so it is not a quick read but it definitely is a worthy read!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. Dream State is available now.

This book starts out with a woman named c. E! L. E! Comes to montana for a wedding to charles. While she was there his best friend g. AR RE T. T. Was supposed to have keep her company. At first She did not like him. But after a while they got used to each other and she felt comfortable with them Charles was a doctor and la and she was becoming a doctor as well. This book kept going back and forth in flashbacks In time. G a r r e t t was taking care of his father because he was a gay man and was dying. You had a trouble Task and his son did too. You'll find out how the story of him and Charles on ski Trip going Down The Mountain. Ali lost one of their friends.. When the?
Wedding was supposed to take place.Everybody got sick. Then things got really crazy in this book.Because she did not marry charles but stayed behind with GAR RE t. T.. They had one child a girl. Charles went through different marriages. And had 2 children. Your daughter fell in love with charles Son name Jasper. He had a heart condition, but he was not a very happy child. Everybody went their own way in this book.But things you could see.I I'll tragedy brought people together. CEL e was not a very happy person.She tried to run a bookstore. Thanks went downhill when she was diagnosed with dementia. It shows how life is funny sometimes.And how can be happy or tragic at the same time.

Dream State by Eric Puchner is a character-driven novel that explores the complexities of human relationships and the cyclical nature of love and betrayal. Set in Montana, the story unfolds over half a century, weaving together the lives of its characters. It's a thought-provoking exploration of the human condition, ideal for fans of literary fiction.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for sharing this book with me.

I came late to the party for this book. Please don't make the same mistake. It's another winner that Oprah decided to pick for her book club. It's a beautifully written book by an author I never expected to capture the moments that he did. The book takes in Montana over a 50 year period from the 90' til 04. The main characters are friends Charlie and Garett and Cece who becomes a wife to Charlie. The book explores everyday life and life choices and how those decisions carry on through our life. You may not have meant them to lead you were you are heading but sometimes life scares you and you make decisons that may not best long term. The book explores having kids and what they mean to our life and how sometimes we aren't best for our children and how doing things wrong can affect their lives. The issues of climate change is also discused in this book because the beauty of Montana is changing and some would say not for the better. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and it will be a great summer read as well as a fireplace book or if you are planning a trip to Montana. It;s the first book I've read by this author but really had me going back to see what else he has written. Thanks to Netgalley and Doubleday for the ARC.

Dream State is a beautifully written epic character study set in Montana. The character development is outstanding and the setting sublime. It’s a story about friendship, family and difficult decisions.

Settle yourself into a comfortable chair with a beverage, a snack and a copy of this book. Be prepared to get very little else done as you won’t be able to put this book down.

What a fabulous read! I can certainly understand why this was one of Oprah's Book Club picks.
It's a beautifully written story about marriage, long term relationships, and love in all its form. It is character-driven more than plot-driven, and the main characters are so well-defined and so beautifully depicted. You can't help but empathize and, perhaps, sympathize, with what they are going through. Bad things happen to good people and good people do bad, insensitive things sometimes.
I couldn't stop thinking about this story long after I had finished it. Great!

Eric Puchner's DREAM STATE is everything I most enjoy in a novel: believable characters living impossibly difficult choices, family, romance, and most importantly, beautifully written. The hype for this book was extremely high, but the story soared way over expectations. One thing I particularly appreciated was the way the author tied together the themes and events in a satisfying conclusion. I received a copy of this book and these thoughts are my own, unbiased opinions.

Eric Puchner’s Dream State is a beautifully written, character-driven novel that prioritizes atmosphere and emotion over plot. Following the ripple effects of a single decision across generations, the book captures the weight of family history, regret, and the small moments that shape entire lives. Puchner’s prose is exquisite, and his deeply complex characters feel achingly real, making for an immersive and poignant reading experience.

While the novel shines in its introspective exploration of time and consequence, the middle section meanders a bit, occasionally losing momentum. However, the ending more than makes up for it, tying the novel’s themes together in a deeply satisfying way. Dream State is a novel that lingers, inviting readers to reflect on their own past and the invisible threads that connect us all.

3.5 rounded up | Another new release that I enjoyed but didn't love like I wanted to. This felt like three different books to me – the first large chunk where we're with Cece in the days leading up the wedding had me excited and curious for what's to come. The large time jumps left me wanting. I didn't quite understand why both men were so in love with Cece, and why she made the choice she did. But before we had a chance to get those answers, we were thrust years into the future. Character-driven books are some of my favorites (think Claire Lombardo) but in order to buy into the story I need to understand the characters' motivations, their wants, their desires, and I didn't get that here. Some of the underlying themes (climate change, motherhood, loss) aren't fully developed or explored. In many ways this felt like a first or second draft; it needed to be both flushed out and tied together a little more. I liked Puchner's writing and I'll definitely read what he writes next.

Dream State was an excellent read. The writing was propulsive and the character development was rich. I would read more from this author.

This writing was stunning. So beautiful and atmospheric—I loved the nature writing especially. Montana was such a powerful backdrop for this epic family story that asked so many hard questions.

This shunker of a book had me feeling lots of different things, mostly wishing it was a shorter book and only consisted of the first 30%. Almost so much that I was kind of hoping the rest of the book was a dream and it didn't really happen - did anyone else who read this think that??

We start with a wedding in 2004 between Cece and Charlie, officiated by Charlie's best friend Garrett who Cece has never met before. An email Garrett sends to Cece on the morning of the wedding sends all of their lives into havoc, and the rest of the book, spanning decades, is what happens after the email is sent.

I was so taken by Puchner's writing. Some of his sentences are just "stop in your tracks" gorgeous, almost cinematic. But other times I felt the book was a slog and could have been super edited down. Set in Montana, a so-called dream state of it's own, I think the reader also feels like we're in a dream state while reading. It's a lyrical and lovely book, with a page-turning plot for most of it. A lot of topics packed into one book, which isn't always a bad thing, but I almost just wish he focused on the love story and the family dynamics to keep it a bit more lean and mean.

One of Oprah's Book Club picks, this one is heavy on drama and will she won't she. Cece is in love and arrives at her almost in-laws to finish planning the big event. While waiting on the day to arrive, she begins getting to know her fiancé's best friend. As the days wear on, she begins to question what she wants. Which path will she choose?