Review: My mind is blown!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 19, 2012
Originally posted at A Little Bit of R&R; Reviews.**I may be going back to add some things to this review. I haven't been feeling well and it has been impossible for me to form coherent sentences. lol **Let it be said that I think it may be impossible for me to give you a review that will tell you the basis of the story. There is a lot of back and forth between reality and dream world and I obviously can't tell you everything that happens. The description above gives you a good gist of why she moved, so I will start with some of the character intros and the beginning.Most of the book is written from Sabine's POV. I'm not going to introduce you to her just yet, you have the whole review for that. :-) Josh and Kim are Sabine's only friends since starting school in California. Josh is a star soccer player on the school's team and Kim is Sabine's best friend. Kim has a crush on the other star player of the soccer team, Dylan Court. Dylan is dating Bethany whom I'd like to call a high school mean girl. You won't hear much about them in my review, because frankly, I want you to read the book and they are part of the many twists and turns of the story.Sabine has not had a whole nights rest following her move to California. Dozing in class lands her a date with detention. After speaking with her teacher, she heads off to her locker to exchange some items for her next class. While there, her hair is yanked by another student causing Sabine to unexpectedly slip backwards. Her necklace falls off during the gaffe and she scrambles to get to the pendant before someone steps on it.  As soon as her hand reaches the pendant, a student steps on her hand crushing both to the floor. Sabine is a bit upset because the pendant appears to be ruined, the stones now moving freely around the loops. The pendant was a gift to her from her grandfather. She began wearing the pendant after her father died and her grandfather disappeared. Sitting in detention, she began to move the stones around the pendant and was transported to another realm where she lands near wolves that were speaking a language she didn't understand.  She later seeks the opinion of a teacher for the translation of what the wolves had said to her.Moving forward a bit...Sabine uses the pendant again and encounters the wolves. They begin to chase her but are attacked by bears. After the wolves retreat, Sabine believes she is in danger from the bears as well and begins to run away. The bear tries to stop her and begins speaking. Well, Sabine does what everyone else would do if they hear a talking bear, she moves the stones around the pendant, taking her back to the real world. Her next trip to the realm fares a bit differently and she gets to know the bear named Brummbar.  He tells her about the dream realm and the evil Black Queen that has been creating an imbalance. The Black Queen is what they call a "dead mind" in the dream world. Her essence remained in the realm after her earthly body has long since past. She is trying to take over the realm for herself, hence creating the imbalance. Sabine eventually believes that she can help the animals with the Black Queen.Okay, really, I need to stop myself here. I think its close to impossible to give you a quick summary of this book.Now, for what I thought of the book:I have never read a book quite like this. If you want a book that really gets the gears in the noggin moving, this would be it! There is no way that my review does this book any justice. I am completely in awe of how David has written this book. I will admit that it was a bit to process for about 30% of the way through. I was puzzled to be honest. The POV's would alternate between 4 characters while alternating between the Earth and dream realm. It was a lot of explaining of why things happened the way they did in the dream realm, then switching back to Earth and reading about Sabine's relationship with her friends and Dylan. But then, like every puzzle, the pieces started to fall into place and my mind was BLOWN!!! The story was beautifully woven together. Just when I thought I had everything figured out, he throws a wrench in there! But then he goes and throws you a bone and makes everything better again lol. I  am still at a loss for words to describe how utterly amazing this book was. There was a bit of action and some romance which makes for one happy Lauren! This book was positively addicting and I am seriously considering going into hibernation this weekend just so I can read the next one in the series. I am wholly convinced that David Mayer is a literary genius! This book definitely hits top 3 for best books that I have read this year! Oh, and don't tell anyone, but I cried only because I loved it, not because it was sad :-)