Review by Booklist Review
After saving her magical seaside town, Maren is grateful to return to normalcy. Her sister, Hallie, has recovered from her accident and subsequent coma, and the girls are thrilled to be back in their grandmother's enchanted shop, carefully crafting dreams for curious customers. All seems right in the world until they notice an odd ad for a mysterious sleepaway camp for child dreamers. Dream-making is a small, tightly regulated industry, but these proprietors are unfamiliar, and their approach unorthodox. The girls and their grandmother go undercover at the questionable camp to sleuth out its secrets, and though all initially appears rosy, an escalating series of eerie events leads the trio to fear that something sinister lurks behind the dreamy facade. It's a delight to drop back into Maren's marvelous world, and though the sequel takes a more lighthearted tone, there are still some chilling moments and a compelling mystery to unravel. Big reveals, new magic, and a bananas ending will keep readers hooked in this summer-camp mystery with plenty of magic to go around.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Maren is excited to go undercover at summer camp to spy on camp directors who are promising participants lessons in dream-taking and dream-making. Maren's Gran-Gran owns a dream shop, and she knows almost everyone who makes dreams. But she's never heard of camp directors Calvin and Malvin Peppernot and is suspicious. Is it possible that they, like the evil Obscura Gray, whom Maren defeated in The Nightmare Thief (2021), want to use powerful magical dreams for nefarious purposes? Maren, her sister, and Gran-Gran get to work investigating. Alarmingly, the camp staff hand out dreams willy-nilly and seem unconcerned when campers don't wake up from them. Maren is especially surprised that fellow camper Ivy's grandmother, who works in the dream shack where campers can buy more dreams, is not worried. That some of the dreams are comically familiar and slightly dangerous makes them all the more creepy, for example, when a few girls dream that they're hungry caterpillars. As before, Maren is an endearing, plucky sleuth. The pace quickens and things turn more sinister when it becomes clear that there's a mastermind with nefarious goals. Family and loyalty lie at the center of the story, with Maren's close-knit community serving to ground and support her. The cast is default White. A colorful, entertaining romp. (Fantasy. 8-12) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
