The Anatomy of Dreams: A Fascinating Read
This year I have set myself the challenge to read 52 books in 2022 or one book a week. This is a decent challenge but I am very excited about it!
The Anatomy of Dreams by Chloe Benjamin was book 12 of the challenge and one I really enjoyed!
A few years ago I read another book by Chloe Benjamin: The Immortalists and I loved it so I was waiting for a new book by her to come out. And it did!
The Story
Sylvie and Gabe are classmates at a boarding school in the North of California when they start dating. The headmaster, mr Keller is a medical researcher who is doing his research on lucid dreaming. After their time at the boarding school, both Sylvie and Gabe get a job with him also working on research to lucid dreaming.
They only treat patients who have severely disturbed sleeps and have gone through intense traumas. They want to help them regain control over their lives by helping them gain controls over their dreams.
Things take an unexpected turn however when new neighbours move into the house next door and the lives of the two couples become more connected, but not everyone is happy with that... It brings up questions of who they can trust and when news breaks that one of their patients has turned its lucid dreams into a way to do harm Sylvia must now reasses her choices and her research, but also her relationships.
What I Liked
What I really like about both of Benjamin's books is the unexpected subjects they have. The first one about a Jewish family that has their futures told with disasterous consequences and now this one about lucid dreaming and the possible consequences of having a research job that looks into a new area of ethics. It shows the writer is not afraid to write a book that is radically different from other books out there. And it pays off!
The second thing that I really like is that you get really sucked into the creepy atmosphere of the book. You can sense almost immediatly that something is off, but it takes you the rest of the book to try to uncover what exactly is wrong. I love books that manage to keep you wondering until the end of the book.
It is incredibly challenging, and I hope you will read what you have to read. I once read the Filipino book Lucid Dreams, which is more romantic than creepy, but the settings and plot are amazing, and I hope you can read it as well if you are Filipino.