The Vault of Dreamers

This was clever, well written, and compelling. I'm very interested to see where things go in the next book. I didn't anticipate it being a YA book when I started it, but I think it plays well to audiences of every age.

I picked up this book based on the the short description on the back. I enjoy thrillers and realistic science fiction, so I figured that I would enjoy this book as well. And for the most part, I did. I really liked Rosie as a character and how she didn't pretend that she was like the other students, particularly the popular ones. I also enjoyed how she cared more about others than herself, though that sometimes got her into some trouble with trying to figure out her relationships with Linus, Burnham, and the other students, especially as she continued to discover more and more about the secrets of the school. Some of her choices I didn't quite understand. There is one in particular, toward the end of the book, where she trusted a complete stranger over a friend. I didn't understand why she thought that would be a good idea.

O'Brien's way of writing was pleasant to read and kept my attention, causing me to become invested in the characters. There were some annoyances though. One such annoyance was her overuse of “I said”/”He said”/etc. When reading a conversation between two people, the inclusion of the saying tags isn't always necessary and, sometimes, even distracts from the conversation. The biggest annoyance was the ending of the book. I had to re-read the last chapter to figure out exactly what happened. It didn't make me throw the book across the room as O'Brien said it made other readers (as stated in her interview included in my copy of the book). However, it didn't feel like a satisfactory ending. To be honest, I would have preferred the original ending she mentioned in the interview.

Overall, I liked The Vault of Dreamers, but the ending did not leave me feeling fulfilled, but rather like “Oh, that's it? It's done? Shrugs Okay, I guess.” And while I know there is a sequel, the ending seemed pretty finite and hasn't made me what to find out what happens next.

Interesting concept. A school of the arts that is also a ‘Truman Show' for the students who are watched and ranked by their viewers 12 hours a day. The other 12 hours are spent in a school-mandated, drug-induced sleep. Theoretically the required sleep is to stimulate creativity in the students, but one of the students suspects there are other reasons and decides to stop taking her sleeping pill to find out what really goes on at night.

I liked the idea of what happens to a person with no alone time. 12 hours on constant camera and 12 hours in a comatose state. How does it affect you if none of your time is your own? But, I think I was hoping for a different sort of story. It took a strange, not totally unwelcome turn, but it was too underdeveloped to really work. And then, abruptly, it was over. I'm not philosophically opposed to open endings, but this one fell flat.

Argh. This book. Where do I even start with how I feel about this book? I suppose I'll start with the fact that The Vault of Dreamers has a very original setting. Rosie Sinclair and the other Forge School students aren't just part of an extremely prestigious school for the Arts, they're also part of a reality TV show. Everything they do, everything they create, essentially everything they are is available for public consumption. This concept plays a huge part in the story and was one of the first things that I couldn't get behind. Talk of “blip ranks” and “banner ads” was everywhere. Mentions of camera angles and shots. The only thing about this that I did like was the fact that it created a dual world. One where these characters behaved one way during the day, and another at night when the cameras were off.

Had the story only been about Rosie and her school, I'm not sure I would have finished. As it happens, there's another plot line running underneath this unique school set up. There's a secret hidden by Forge School. One that requires its inhabitants to be put into a drugged sleep every night, only to wake with IV marks in the morning. I was intrigued by this at first. What could possibly be going on that they wouldn't want their students to know about? As Rosie dove deeper into the mystery, I felt more immersed in the story. This, above all else, was what made me want to keep reading on.

The problem was, that soon even this plot line plateaued. A good majority of the middle of this book just felt like it wasn't moving anything forward. There was a bit of a romance for Rosie, that felt a bit forced but was cute enough. There was also a few occurrences that attempted to build more tension for what was coming at the end. Sadly, they didn't really push me to want to read faster. Then the climax finally came and it was just so lackluster in feeling that I was devastated. I wanted more excitement. More intrigue and danger.

This isn't a bad story by any means. The premise is fascinating, even though I'm not a fan of the whole reality show concept. As I said, it did create a good opportunity for duality though. Rosie and her friends were decently fleshed out, and likable in their own ways. Even the romance was an okay addition. All of it just never added up into anything that made me want to commit to this book. I didn't have enough of a connection to it, and that stayed true right up until the end. I'd give this three stars, but I feel like it had the potential to be so much more.