Hannah needs a new direction in The Dream Haunters by Megan Mary. She just got fired from her job (the restaurant she plays piano at wants to “move in a new direction”). Her roommate wants to move her boyfriend in. And Hannah wants something more in life. Her parents and her grandparents have all passed. She has no siblings. She’s alone in the world. Then she receives a letter from her Aunt Jewelia. Hannah has never met her and to be honest, kinda forgot she existed. The same day, the police call Hannah, her aunt is missing. So Hannah decides to go to Maple Hollow, a place she’s never been, to try and find the aunt she’s never met. She figures at least it’s a direction, right?
[Note: While I am reviewing this novel independently and honestly, it should be noted that it has been provided to me by Inner Realms Publishing for the purpose of this review. Warning: My review of The Dream Haunters: A Metaphysical Mystery of Magick contains some spoilers!]
Maple Hollow is a place of magic in The Dream Haunters
Hannah’s aunt lives in Maple Hollow, an island off the New England coast. The island is mostly insulated from the world, except for at Halloween. Maple Hollow is world famous for their Halloween Hollow celebration. A three-day homage to Halloween and all things magical. Lucky Hannah will be arriving just in time to enjoy the celebration. But, of course, celebrating isn’t what’s on Hannah’s mind. She wanted to find her aunt. Even though she’s never met her before, Hannah is certain that finding Jewelia will bring her the peace and connection that she’s searching for.
When Hannah arrives she is greeted by the family caretaker, “Old Man Adams”, who takes her to the family mansion and leaves her there to explore. Through a series of dreams, some new friends in town, and clues scattered around the mansion, Hannah comes to realize that something bigger is going on. Magic, both good and bad, is real. Her aunt was working to protect the world from the bad, but something went wrong. Now Hannah has until the end of Halloween to figure out what happened, where her aunt is, and save her or things are going to get very bad for everyone.
I had high hopes when I started reading The Dream Haunters, but I can’t say that I was impressed with it. If you just want a quick fantasy adventure, it’s passable, but it’s not really great writing. Too much of the story’s progression happens because Hannah just basically wishes for something to happen, and it does. There are times when the characters seem to be in real danger, but they get out of it without any real effort. Everything just comes easy and naturally to Hannah, and all the growth that you usually see a character struggle to obtain just happens without effort.
Also, Mary’s style is that preachy, dreamy, smug style that is often labeled as “hippy-dippy”. Some people really enjoy reading that style, it makes them feel good or connected. But it always rubs me the wrong way. I feel like the writer thinks they’re better than everyone else. The funny part is that I actually do believe in a lot of things that would be labeled “hippy-dippy”, I just don’t like that style. So that turned me off from The Dream Haunters as well.
Mary’s story felt badly researched
Oh boy, so now I get to sound like I know better than everyone else, even though I just disparaged that in the last paragraph. I happen to be very interested in the occult, folklore, and traditions. I get what Megan Mary was trying to do in The Dream Haunters by taking some Halloween traditions, tying them back to their Celtic origins, and creating a new magical world for us to escape to.
The problem is that she didn’t do enough research. For one thing, she tied ancient Celtic magic to pumpkin patches and jack-o-lanterns made out of pumpkins. This probably seems fine to most people, but the Ancient Celts didn’t have pumpkins. And the original jack-o-lanterns were actually turnips. If she had at least mentioned this in some way, maybe “our people found that pumpkins were great conduits for our magic when we arrived in America” I wouldn’t be so bothered by it.
I’m all for using old customs to make interesting new stories, but you need to actually know what you’re talking about, not use modern American cultural assumptions as your basis. I have the same problem when the Death tarot card appears and someone falls down dead. That’s not what that card actually means! There are great stories waiting to be told from our past, but they should be told right to make them feel truly magical.
The Dream Haunters is maybe not the “spooky season” book you’re looking for
The Dream Haunters had a lot of potential: interesting title, mysterious cover, magical premise. It should have been a great book. Unfortunately, it wasn’t well executed. Megan Mary had a good base of a story with dark magic creatures feeding off people’s dreams and a group of witches dedicated to stopping them. But she dropped the ball. Some people will still enjoy the book. And it looks like she’s planning a whole series based on Hannah and Maple Hollow, so those people will be happy.
Mary gets points for having an all female cast (minus one or two side characters) and for keeping an unnecessary love story out of her book. But overall, she isn’t my cup of tea. I suggest looking elsewhere for your spooky fix this fall.
My Rating: 5/10
The Dream Haunters: A MetaPhysical Mystery of Magick by Megan Mary is now available wherever books are sold. What books are you reading to get into the Halloween spirit? Let us know on social media @mycosmiccircus!
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