Astonishing!! This is a truly fascinating, epic novel that is heavily character-driven, spanning the lives of its three main characters over a 50+ year period of time.

The book starts out in 2004, with the wedding of twenty-somethings, Cece and Charlie, spanning a lifetime of trials and tribulations; its timetable ending when its characters are well into their septuagenarian years.

Author Eric Puchner depicts very flawed characters in a new and refreshing way; it is the story of Charlie, Cece, and Garrett that is exquisite in both beauty and heartache--a haunting amalgamation of love, regret, friendship, and deception. I believe there is much to unpack in this heartrending story, from its atmospheric mountain town of Salish, MT, to its tragically flawed players; it would make a great discussion for book club members. My apologies for this rather cryptic review of this all-encompassing publication, but it is difficult to reveal without revealing too much. The book is due to be published on February 18th, 2025, and it is my belief that it will stay with me for quite some time.

Thank you to Author Eric Puchner, Publisher Doubleday, and Netgalley for providing me a copy of this advanced reader copy (ARC) in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are wholly my own.

Dream State is a gorgeous, sweeping character study and meditation on marriage, friendship, and the choices that come to define our lives on our burning planet.

We meet Cece at the beginning of the novel while she plans her wedding to Charlie Margolis, an ambitious young doctor. Cece is enamored with Charlie's family lake house in Montana and with the idyllic family life it represents. She decides to spend a month leading up to the wedding preparing alone at the house, so Charlie asks Garrett, his local and somewhat-estranged best friend from college, to check in on his fiancé. Garrett and Cece develop feelings for one another, and their bold and reckless decision to try and build a life together sets in motion the rest of their lives.

Spanning decades, this novel traces Garrett and Charlie's friendship from their college days in Vermont through their old age in Montana. Over the course of the story, we see the two men and their friends from college progress into adulthood, find partners, become parents, and decline with old age.

I especially loved the beautiful, thought-provoking commentary on marriage, parenting, and what a good, meaningful life can be. The novel begins in the 90s and expands another half century into the future, imagining a world increasingly ravaged by a warming climate, expanding wildfires, and vanishing wildlife. The natural world and the landscape of Montana are almost a protagonist in the story, with ski slopes, wolverines, a beloved lake, a cherry orchard, and more playing key roles in the story and in the characters' lives. I was impressed by Puchner's subtlety in showing how life will continue amidst tragedy as our environment is increasingly destroyed, with its many impacts on people and animals alike.

This book is perfect for anyone who loves a character-driven, literary family story. It felt especially poignant for me as I prepare to begin my marriage later this year, but I imagine it would be very meaningful for any married person or parent. I rated Dream State five stars.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced digital copy of the book in exchange for my honest review!

This family saga that spans 50 years has everything - humor, sadness, tragedy, and a peek into the inevitable climate crisis that will probably be here sooner than later. This story and its characters will stick with me for a long time. Highly recommend!

The title of this book was apt, as I felt like I was in some kind of dream state as I was reading it...in the best possible way. This was an incredible character driven story in which I got so immersed in the lives, spanned over decades, of Cece, Charlie, and Garret. The story opens in 2004 when Cece and Charlie are getting married at Charlie's family cabin in Montana. Right after the wedding, however, Cece and Garret, Charlie's best friend from college and officiant of the wedding, run away together. We spend the rest of the book understanding why, and how that one day changed the rest of all of their lives in unexpected ways. A really interesting part of this book is how climate change is portrayed, as much of this book takes place in the near future. I thought that was so cleverly done, and probably quite accurate too. This was a great book to read in the winter, when all you want to do is escape and inhale a story that you can't put down.

Dream State is a book about relationships of all kinds, friendships, romantic partnerships, and familial relationships. The story begins in Salish, Montana, where Cecie has arrived one month early to plan her wedding to Charlie. Charlie is a doctor who can't get away from work, so he enlists the help of Garrett, his best friend from college, to help with the planning and show Cecie around Montana. Garrett is a cynic, who is perhaps not the best person for the job. He dropped out of college after a tragedy, then moved back to Montana to look after his sick father, working as a baggage handler at the airport. Garrett sees something in Cecie, though, an optimism that he is drawn to and doesn't want to let go of. The events the occur during and after the wedding send shockwaves throughout the rest of these characters' lives, testing their relationships and influencing all of their choices.

I really, really enjoyed Dream State. I love books that focus on relationships between characters and I really enjoyed the way that this story was told. It spans decades, but will zoom in on certain events in the characters' lives to show what exactly is going on at that point. The characters changed as the years went on in a way that I found to be really realistic. None of them were perfect people, but I found their flaws to be relatable and authentic. As the story moved on into the future, the background became sort of apocalyptic as the environment had been ravaged by global warming. This was an interesting setting, but there was slightly more focus on the environmental repercussions that I felt could have been aimed at the characters a bit more. That being said, this will be a great book for anyone who enjoys stories that focus on relationships, particularly complicated relationships, and readers who enjoy character studies will certainly want to check this one out.

Cece arrives in Montana to prepare for her wedding to Charlie. There, she meets Charlie’s childhood best friend Garrett, who reluctantly agrees to help her with wedding preparations, despite not believing in marriage or love. When the wedding hits a snag, Cece starts to rethink her choices and eventually opts for a life with Garrett. The decisions they make will follow them throughout the years, until even their children are affected.

This book covers the lives of Cece, Charlie and Garrett from their mid twenties on and it was so well done. The characters are amazing and the story is engaging throughout. I worried that it would be slow since I’m usually a psychological thriller reader, but the pacing was perfect and kept my attention the entire time. Lana and Jasper - the children of Cece and Charlie - were an interesting addition to the story. I thought that storyline was going somewhere else entirely, but I liked that it didn’t.

I really liked this character driven story and would definitely read more by this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knoft Doubleday for providing me with an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Available February 18, 2025.

This is the first book I've read by Eric Puchner -- I found it a little slow at first but I quickly became attached to the characters and have not been able to stop thinking about them since I finished it.

One of the things I loved the most about this book was the scope of it -- it covers so many decades and multiple generations. I loved the characters -- for all their flaws, they were doing the best they could.

One off-putting thing was how really significant events or information would be revealed out of nowhere, and then not touched on for awhile. Time passed in a very unique way, which felt jarring at times to keep up with.

Overall I would recommend this to anyone who loves literary fiction, rich characters, and complicated relationship dynamics. There are many heavy topics touched on in this book, but I feel like Eric Puchner approached them in a real and honest way. It broke my heart but also left me feeling grateful that I was impacted so deeply.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book!

There are certain books that you remember for your entire life. I remember Ramona and Her Mother and the day I first read it. I remember finishing A Little Life and vowing never to read it again because how could it be that good ever again? Add Dream State to this list.

Dream State is a look at relationships, both romantic and friendly. It's a deep study of human behavior and its after-effects. Puchner has written an epic of a novel and it's going on my 'best of' list forever.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Our area was wiped out by two hurricanes this past year, so with the heavy focus on climate and climate change, I don’t quite think this is the right fit for our libraries at this time.

Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday for the ARC.

This is a tricky book for me to review- I really loved parts of it and other parts of it I didn’t enjoy. It was sometimes a really slow book and other times I was very engaged in the plot.

Overall, I enjoyed this book even though I don’t think it will be for every reader. The pace is overall pretty slow and it is focused on the day to day bits of human existence. I personally loved watching decades of the character’s lives and all the things that happen to them over their lifetimes. The delivery was strange at parts with sometimes years passing between paragraphs or huge life events casually mentioned with no follow up. Yet somehow this book worked for me and I think it will actually stick with me for a while.

I think this one is worth a read if you like slow paced books about life, relationships, and families. It reminded me a bit of Wellness so if you enjoyed that one, you might like this one too.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for the free e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Dream State is the journey of three intertwined lives of Cece, Charlie and Garrett. Cece burns her world to the ground when she leaves Charlie on their wedding day for his best friend, Garrett.

If you like books that span the characters entire lifetime, you will love this one! The book starts at the wedding and progresses through the golden years. While the writing is wonderful and the characters complex, the story for me drug a bit due to the slow pacing and the heavy topics addressed. This is one you will need to settle into for a bit.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc

Unfortunately, this book was not my cup of tea at this point in time. That is not to say that I may try this book again at a later date.

Life was a voyage, and heartbreak filled the sails. from Dream State by Eric Puchner

Three characters who love each other cause each other heartbreak and joy throughout their lives while the land they love turns to fire and ash. I cried for their pain and for the beauty of Montana devastated by climate change.

So many insights the characters come to are hauntingly familiar. Youthful joy and hope, the vagaries of relationships, the fears of parenthood, the sorrow of seeing a changing world.

Life was a long, incompetent search to get back to a feeling you had when you were six. from Dream State by Eric Puchner

Charlie and Garrett met in college and became best friends, glorying in life. Then one of their friends died in a tragic skiing accident. Garrett felt responsible and crashed into soul deadening depression. Until the day he met Charlie’s fiance, Cece, a woman who made him want to live again.

Their tangled relationship impacts the rest of their lives, the love and sometimes hate they feel, the alternating doubts and frustrations and surety.

They have children with their own problems, who remain mysteries, all the love and care given them “like tossing a coin into a well.” They grow old, watch each other succumb to the indignities of age.

It was appalling, what love expected of you. from Dream State by Eric Puchner

Over their lifetimes, their love for the beauty of Montana is central, the pristine blue lake, the snow-capped mountains, the lofty trees. Fires further west turns the air toxic, then the glaciers melt and the mountaintops are bare. The animals disappear. And fire comes to their homes.

“Cece often felt guilty for feeling happy–or whatever you wanted to call it–given the state of things.” We live our lives, embrace our small joys and cry over our losses, doubt our choices and wonder if they made any difference. And look at what is happening to the world and are chagrined and wonder why we worry about such small things.

The reversals in the character’s lives are undeserved, arbitrary, their lives imperfect, flawed. They wonder what it was all for.

We only live once, Cece is told on her wedding day, calling for her to jump into the lake. And that is how we live life, jumping into it, uncertain, yet hopeful.

One of the most honest books I have read in a long while. I highlighted paragraphs of wisdom, insightful writing.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.

CeCe Buchanan and Charlie Margolis' wedding at the idyllic Montana lake setting of the Margolis vacation home is CeCe's dream come true, and CeCe has come a month before the wedding to make sure that everything is just so. Then she meets Garrett, Charlie's estranged best friend and officiant for the ceremony. The two do NOT hit it off, and as the event date gets closer and closer, CeCe's perfect wedding is no longer so perfect. The wheels are coming off, culminating with an outbreak of norovirus decimates the guests, and Charlie is barely able to go through with the ceremony.

Nine years later, CeCe and Garrett have finally patched things up with Charlie, and they're taking their daughter Lana to meet Charlie and his family. The reunion is a lukewarm reception on both sides-- the past is still obviously present. Lana hits it off with Charlie's son Jasper, but the undercurrent of resentment and hurt makes for an awkward time. Despite this, the group continues to meet, and their children forge their own messy path forward. CeCe, Garrett and Charlie navigate this uncharted wilderness of a new version of their relationship, encountering the shoals and looming lee shores of shoddily patched relationships along the way.

I could not put this book down. Puchner has the lovely and enviable ability to write and enter his characters' lives--lives that are filled with mistakes, trauma, grief, and love and learning.

Many thanks to Doubleday and NetGalley for access to the ARC. Opinions stated herein are my own, and I'm not compensated for my review.

Dream State by Eric Puchner is a great read! I really enjoyed Eric Puchner's writing and would definitely be on the lookout to read other books by him as well. Give it a try!

This American family drama is rooted in Salish, Montana, where the novel opens and a wedding is about to take place. It is 2004, but you have to get through the whole book to find out what happened on that fateful day when the bride was having doubts, the officiant was unprepared and enamored with the bride, and most of the wedding party was sick with norovirus. The story is bookended with the wedding, but the 50 or so years in between is a sweeping drama of adulthood, parenthood, loss, addiction, illness—aka life. But that is just the people. The earth continues to warm, becoming less habitable, while the humans try to adapt.
If you are looking for a novel of escapism, this is not your book. The reality and speculation are harsh and timely; reading this during the LA fires gave it a prophetic vibe.
Thanks to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book, which will be released on February 18, 2025.

Dream State is an exploration of the lives of three people who are forever linked together following a huge betrayal.

This book was beautifully written, but admittedly incredibly slow paced. I thought it was worth it, but I can see how the writing might come off as tedious to some. The story spans their entire lives, showing us these characters at all their phases. As the characters get older, they pass the present day and move into an imagined future that was very interesting to imagine.

Be warned that this book is filled with incredibly heavy topics, but if you're a fan of deep character explorations, this is a good one for you.

Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday for the ARC!

This is one of an increasing number of stories in which the changing environmental landscape is crucial: Montana and its changing landscape are characters in their own right in this story. This is a multigenerational family saga that examines the complexity of lifelong friendships and marriages as they change and evolve over time. (Note: the story does NOT go in the direction you might expect from the plotty opening chapters!)

Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me early access to this fabulous book. This will be a book I will remember for many many years.
I will highly recommend to all!

How to evaluate a book which has glorious writing, exquisite detail in the setting and quirky insight into character, a book I loved but one which should have been cut by 10%? You have to wonder if the author resisted editorial suggestions or if the editors were so taken by the writing and the story that they wanted more, not less. A more pointed, editorially controlled book might have avoided some problems, but then again, something of value might have been lost.

Eric Puchner’s DREAM STATE follows a love triangle over the course of 50 years. Longitudinal and intergenerational. The writing and author insight offer many enjoyable surprises, along the way. The book extends into the future, a painful way for the curtain to fall, but handled gradually and well.

How to evaluate such a book? I gave it 5 stars because when and where it is good, it is very, very good!

With thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.