*I received an advanced reader’s copy of the book from Reedsy Discovery in exchange for my honest review.
A mesmerizing, mind-blowing young adult novel that is full of mystery and adventure within a futuristic governmental control utopia world.
~Destiny Constantin
Story Synopsis:
The Circle is robbing the dreams of its citizens.
In Logan Kent’s world, disease, hunger, and war have all been resolved by the dreams of its citizens’ thanks to nanobots developed and implanted into everyone as newborns. At least, that’s how it seems…
Now The Circle wants Logan to join their fold and continue the utopia they’ve created. He has no reason to distrust his parents—high ranking members in The Circle—until he meets Reina, a girl from the exiled faction “Anyone,” who refuses to give up their free will.
Logan begins to question everything he knows and loves. Can the girl be trusted—especially when she’s a medicine thief skulking around Capitol City—or is it really true that peace can only be maintained beneath The Circle’s rule?
Fans of The Matrix, Inception and The Giver have been dreaming of this series for a long time coming.
Review:
Dream Shatter is a young adult fantasy, science fiction novel written by a multi-award-winning writer, Ann Hunter. Hunter has created a captivating story that will blow your mind. I was glued to the book after reading the first few pages. The story takes place in a futuristic city named Capitol City, Utopian Sects of Ameritus, where there is no hunger, war, or diseases, thanks to the dreams of the citizens. Capital City is a government-controlled city where a group of people called “The Circle” determines what happens in the town and to the people. The story’s setting is mind-blowing because of how the author came up with self-driving cars, a pre-program school bus to pick up students and drive them to school without a bus driver, and the advanced technology Logan’s parents use for work. The story’s setting is exceptional not only because of the author’s creative ideas but the beautiful writing describing what the characters see and the mastery of world-building and sensory words to bring the setting alive.
The story’s protagonist, Logan Kent, is a smart teenage boy who wishes his parents would stop fighting every morning. Logan knows that his parents are arguing over something involving his future, but he doesn’t quite understand until he joins his dad at work. Logan’s parents work for the government (The Circle), and Logan’s mother is a part of a unique family. She wants Logan to join the circle to be a part of the family business. Only a few people are allowed to work for the government, and the circle is an elite organization run by gifted families. After dinner with his parents, Logan tells his dad he wants to take the interview. Logan is unsure what the interview involves or what the job is, but he wants to make his mother happy.
Logan goes through a series of tests, including a test of trust, tek, soundness, duality, and a test of will to see if he can handle being a member of The Circle. To be a member of The Circle, you must understand their technology, be willing to live a double life, be loyal, and have a strong state of mind. The organization’s creation reminded me of Veronica Roth’s Divergent series. In the story, Divergent, the characters go through a series of tests to see what faction they will join, contributing to their place in society. Logan’s father wakes up abruptly in the middle of the night. Once they are in the hovercar, he tells him he’s coming to work with him because he has passed his aptitude test. Logan is both nervous and excited, but there’s a whole other world he needs to learn.
The Circle robs the dreams of citizens to help and protect the people. Logan’s father’s position at The Circle involves watching the citizens sleep and monitoring their dreams. For example, if someone has a dream about how they can create medicine to end cancer, the government will take that dream and implement the idea. If someone has a violent dream, those dreams are taken away from the individual; then, the individual is being watched and cared for in a facility. Logan watches his dad work on coding to monitor people sleeping and their dreams and begins understanding the role of a dream harvester. The Circle can watch people’s dreams and take action if they have a violent dream through a nanobot installed in their brain as a baby.
When Logan learns this information, he seems puzzled because he can see how it helps society, but also, it is like an invasion of privacy, and I agree with his confusion. My mouth opened wide when I learned that they monitor individuals’ dreams. It is a unique concept of a story that provides mystery and makes for an adventurous plot. Another puzzle in the story is a voice Logan often hears that tells him to wake up. It makes me wonder if everything that is happening to him is just a dream or if he is in danger.
I love that the author incorporated an air of mystery into the story’s plot. It keeps the reader wanting more. It also leaves room to let the reader’s imagination go wild and try to solve a puzzle. The story gets more puzzling when Logan begins working at his own station, monitoring a group of people sleeping. During his shift, a blimp of code pops up in the corner of his screen. It happens during another work shift, and Logan gets curious. His curiosity leads him to trace the code to find the location and the person behind the code. Finally, Logan takes a bus ride to another part of the city to discover something unexpected, changing everything that he knows.
Dream Shatter is an enchanting science fiction story that keeps your interest and makes you not want to put the book down. What will Logan discover about his family and The Circle? Will Reina change Logan’s perspective on the world? If you are a fan of Divergent and The Giver, you will love reading Dream Shatter.
Functionally Fictional 
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