The Vault of Dreamers

Presenting The Vault of Dreamers by Caragh M. O'Brien.

Here is the summary of the book:

From the author of the Birthmarked trilogy comes a fast-paced, psychologically thrilling novel about what happens when your dreams are not your own.

The Forge School is the most prestigious arts school in the country. The secret to its success: every moment of the students' lives is televised as part of the insanely popular Forge Show, and the students' schedule includes twelve hours of induced sleep meant to enhance creativity. But when first year student Rosie Sinclair skips her sleeping pill, she discovers there is something off about Forge. In fact, she suspects that there are sinister things going on deep below the reaches of the cameras in the school. What's worse is, she starts to notice that the edges of her consciousness do not feel quite right. And soon, she unearths the ghastly secret that the Forge School is hiding—and what it truly means to dream there.

'Big Brother/Big Boss' meets sci-fi dystopia, Caragh M. O'Brien's 'The Vault of Dreamers' offers enough angles for us readers to pursue the tale but I found the story to be odd and rather mediocre at best. There is the gorgeous literally eye-catching cover coupled with a synopsis that seems to shine with a glorious purpose. All this may look very far-fetched had me drawing in more and rather disappointed too.

Rosie Sinclair enrolled at this prestigious elitist art school called Forge School and participate in the Forge Show. The school has a rule of 12 hours unrestricted sleep with the help of sleeping pills. You don't take the pills, you are out of the school and the show. But Rosie is feeling rebellious and decides to miss taking the pill because she misses the night sky and the rain.... wait for it.... for almost 9 days... no more no less and decides to brave it and go soak in the downpour outside, not withstanding the risk she takes from being cut out of the show and school, which she desperately does not want..... For nine days..... seriously!!

Rosie is rather odd and rather too wooden of a character. Her relationship with the hot kitchen boy Linus too felt rather forced and rather for the camera. They say reality shows like these force the contestants to finally show to the viewers who they really are. Exception are always there but for the most part this is a game. Viewers decide who stays and who gets out and these contestants put up a well planned act to work their benefit. They scheme, they flirt and do all sorts of acts to gain the approval of the audience and this one lesson Rosie did not seem to understand.

Even the big reveal at the end, the weird things happening below the camera while very intriguing and well explained plot devices felt forced. I simply could not find it in myself to root for the characters.... and yet I still kept reading.

I couldn't stop. I just had to keep reading. To reach the last page and find out exactly what was going on in the story. The writing isn't well paced and too much time is spent on the reality show and very less on the shady details of below the school. Rosie felt too righteous and frustrating. She didn't trust anybody and assumed a lot of things. I actually liked her interactions with Burnham and the slow development around them. But all things considered the plot was still very intriguing. The premise still very oddly engaging.

This book needs a bit of work and i'm still on the fence here..... I liked it but i also didn't like it. Hopefully the sequel with the met the problems out and present a convincing and stronger front.

"An oddly intriguing reality show meets extravagant sci-fi drama"

Genre :      Young Adult, Sci-fi, Dystopia, Fantasy, Romance

Publisher: Roaring Book Press

Release Date: 16th September, 2014

My Copy: publisher and netgalley

Rate:              3/5 (Liked It)

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