The Circus of Stolen Dreams (2024)

Dear Reader,

Inside the pages of this book, you'll meet a girl who carries the weight of a heavy burden upon her shoulders, but who embarks on a journey toward hope and healing in a mysterious and magical place.

This story is meant to feel like a hug to any kid who has ever walked a difficult road, who loves to immerse themselves in magic and wonder, and who dreams of being brave.

My desire is that this story will inspire young readers to listen to the gentle voice inside themselves. The voice whispering that they have what it takes to keep their heart open and cling tightly to hope, even when things feel very, very hard. <3

For the dreamer inside us all,

Lorelei Savaryn

Giveaway Win!

I finished this book a couple minutes ago and I've been trying to decide if I would give this 3.5 stars or 4 stars. The Circus of Stolen Dreams is a middle grade novel so I'm certainly not the target audience for this book. So decided to view through the eyes of my 9 year old self and I decided that my 9 year old self would have given it 4 stars.

The Circus of Stolen Dreams is about Andrea who is 12 years old and still grieving the loss of her little brother Francis who disappeared 3 years ago. Andrea blames herself and adding to her heartache is the fact that her parents have divorced since her brother went missing.
One night feeling lonely and depressed Andrea stumbles across a mysterious dream world in the woods near her house called Reverie. Once inside she discovers tent after tent where dreams come to life. One such dream might just lead her to the truth about her brother's disappearance.

I loved stories like this as a kid and its probably why I love mystery/ thrillers so much as an adult. This book gave me light Are You Afraid of the Dark? vibes. It was also a smart book that examined grief and lonely through a child's eyes. As adults we tend to forget that kids are people too. Kids are allowed to be sad sometimes. Kids are allowed to feel lonely and like an outsider. Kids don't have to be happy all the time. Kids are allowed to have emotions and mental health struggles. And this book was a thoughtful and smart examination of that told in a fun fantasy novel.

I would recommend Circus of Stolen Dreams to kids and adults alike!

There’s a particular sort of eeriness that I adore in fiction and that this book was full of.
If you love that moment when Coraline passes over to the Other Mother’s world for the first time and it’s all delight, colors, heavenly food and darkness creeping at the edges, if you have fond-but-frightened memories of the moment right before Pleasure Island in Pinocchio turns terrifying, if you want the feeling of stepping into a magical but murderous chocolate factory, this book will fill your heart.
It was also warm, wrenching and beautiful in all sorts of other ways, with loads of timey wimey fun and some wonderful, dreamy world-building (with a side of nightmare, of course.)

I approached this book a little nervous because I knew I would have to give my opinion - the author is my wife!:) Within the first few chapters all my nerves vanished; I knew I was reading something legitimately amazing. Not only is this a well-written book with a fast paced story that never lets up, it is also filled with depth of emotion and purpose that, on two occasions literally brought tears to my eyes. Such a beautiful story told through a creepy, magical, fascinating world. I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone, middle-grade reader and adults alike.

This book was phenomenal! Wowza! What a concept! I absolutely loved this. I loved Andrea as our MC, and the writing was so great, I could actually FEEL the heartbreak coming from her off the page. She carries so much guilt over her brothers disappearance, & it’s so heavy for her young shoulders. Plus, how life is in the house without him, with her divorced parents trying to continue the happy family dinners and all-it’s too much.

The relationship with her brother is such a beautiful thing-amazing sibling relationship. Penny is also a great character, & I loved her so much. The circus of dream tents was such a creative idea, & I found myself wondering what kind of dreams I would want to enter, & wishing I could. I know you would never EVER see me entering a nightmare tent that had a clown in it-NOPE! Lol Even though the circus she thought was a dream come true turned out to be a real life nightmare, it helped Andrea sooo much. She learned to stop pushing people away, that it was ok if she wasn’t “fine”, it’s ok to cry, & that you need some nightmares to appreciate the dreams so to speak. You can’t live in a dream world forever. Your pain will always be there waiting. You might want to completely forget anything associated with a painful time, but if you forget them you also forget all the good times too. Those good times help you through it. You can’t hide or run away from pain, it will only make it worse. Facing it, & learning to live with it makes you stronger. You have to heal.

That ending was epic! So good! Especially that little twist at the end! My heart! Loved it. This is magically creepy, with themes of grief, family, healing, & more. HIGHLY recommend! Beautiful cover by the amazing Matt Saunders too!💜

“Never you mind at the moment, because this is how you pick a dream… Tell me, have you ever wanted to do something you never thought you’d get a chance to do in real life? Something that would require magic, or the impossible?” P40

In Reverie, children can pick any dream they want, to feel good, or a nightmare, to feel the thrill of escape. But what happens when you’ve been in a dream for years or even decades? Can you leave Reverie? And who is the Sandman? Really?

“(My sister) She died very young. So I created a tent filled with my Margaret in all her favorite places, in all the ways I knew her best. You see, I am in Reverie to remember.” P 115

Yet, what Reverie was meant to be for visitors was not meant to be permanent.

“If we stay in Reverie forever, we’ll never know what would happen if we didn’t run away from the hard parts. By avoiding the sadness, we lose the chance to live the good parts of life, too.” P 260

It is a love letter to kids who have lives that sometimes feel like nightmares, who might like to escape and not return. To kids who feel alone without true friends, who have lost siblings or have had parents who fight or divorce. Life has lots of hard moments, but in them, there is also good.

I had the pleasure of reading this beautifully haunting book on two separate occasions while it was being edited. I will be so excited to read it in its final version!

Story/characters: 5 stars 🌟

Narrator: Jesse Villinsky: 5 stars 🌟

I think this book "wants" to operate like the ideal version of the Reverie: a place into which children can escape, temporarily, their worries, sadness and trauma. Yet it does so by exploiting that trauma as an inciting incident for adventure and fantasy.

But I'm not sure to whom I could possibly recommend this book. I cannot recommend it to a child who does not want to read about family tragedy, as this book dwells ponderously on that theme. Neither can I recommend it to a child who has actually experienced family tragedy, because it treats its theme so frivolously. The loss of a sibling is here represented as both a source of drama and of adventure; its tertiary acknowledgement of that trauma as a source of pain is utterly dismissed by this story's ending. Which is why I cannot recommend it to any child who does not fit into the first two categories: books about trauma can be gentle but they ought not exploit it for mere entertainment.

I'm weary of Harry Potter, but: at least that series took the murder of Harry's parents seriously. It endeavored to suggest that 'the dead are always with us' in various metaphysical ways but it never suggested that the deed could be actually undone.

So this book fails its theme, which makes for a discomforting reading experience. The text's prose adds to this unease. So many images are ornamented with adjectives and similes that the prose seems quite flat. Everything struggles to sparkle, and therefore blinds us.

The dreams themselves are standard-issue dreams, lacking the contingent, personal qualities that animate the dreams we find so vivid and remarkable upon waking, as well as the unjustifiable dream-logic that makes them impossible to relate afterward. This is an insignificant complaint, however, which is why I save it for last. I can't know how other people dream. It does seem to me though that these dreams, as represented in the novel, are constructions of a conscious mind rather than an unconscious one — more like theme-park rides than organic visions of a dreamer.

When their once happy parents had divorced, Andrea and her younger brother Francis had been devastated by it. Then Francis disappeared and was never found. It's been three years now and Andrea, 12. still hasn't come to terms with it, unable to accept that her funny brother, who was so full of life, could really be gone for good and blaming herself for his disappearance. And now, her parents want Andrea to go through Francis' belongings in the garage and chose a few things to keep so they can let the rest go and hopefully move on with their lives.

But Andrea isn't ready for that, and instead of going through Francis' stuff, she grabs her bike and rides off after dinner, heading to the park where she and her brother used to play and into the surrounding forest. There, in the dirt, Andrea finds an old flyer for a place called Reverie, a place where visitors can forget their troubles.

Thinking this is just the escape she needs, Andrea is surprised to find it is still around. At the gate, a young girl greets her, telling her that Reverie is always there for those who need it, for any child who desperately needs escape, and the cost of admission is merely one dream or a memory, in Andrea's case it is the memory of the day Francis disappeared. Inside the circus, Andrea finds it is a magical place. There are shops that sell anything you could want, plenty of treats to be had and tents full of attractions, though the girl at the gate warns Andrea not to spend too much time in the Nightmare tent.

Andrea immediately makes friends with Penny Periwinkle, a girl oddly dressed and with dark circles under her eyes as if she needs to sleep. But Penny is an old hand at Reverie and introduces Andrea to all the best places. But there is one tent that Andrea feels oddly drawn to called Root River, though Penny steers her away from it.

The next morning, waking up in her room, Andrea needs to be reminded that Francis is gone, but why can't she now remember the night he disappeared? Realizing she has to return to Reverie, she finds what she needs in her pocket to go back. Sure enough, Andrea finds herself back at this magical circus, at the dream tent called Rood River. And after going through it, she is convinced that Francis had found his way to Reverie at some point, and his price of admission was the recurring nightmare in the tent called Root River. And if that is the case, Andrea is convinced that Francis is still alive, trapped somewhere in Reverie. But Reverie is controlled by the Sandman, a mysterious person who carries the dreams of children around in his umbrella, and whom Andrea is sure isn't who he appears to be. She soon realized that as long as the Sandman holds their dreams and nightmares, the children are trapped in an endless night in Reverie. Will Andrea be able to outsmart the Sandman, find Francis if he really is there, and bring him home?

The Circus of Stolen Dreams is a debut novel for Lorelei Savaryn and it really kept me on the edge of my seat all the way through. Through all kinds of twists and turns, Savaryn builds a dream world subtly making what appears to be a welcomed oasis from one's waking pain into a nightmare that feels harder and harder to escape, as Andrea quickly discovers. It is a story that begins ordinarily enough but quickly turned into a fantasy thriller, and I can genuinely say, the Sandman is truly the stuff of nightmares.

I really enjoyed reading this book. There a lot to discover if you read carefully. For example, there is a nice bit that connects the end of the book to the beginning, but you'll have to read it to find it, and it will leave you wondering if this book really is fantasy or reality fiction. Either way, it's really a terrific read, one that has been compared to Neil Gaiman's Coraline or Katherine Arden's Small Spaces. They certainly all have that same creepy otherworldly vibe to them.

This book is recommended for readers age 10+
This book was an eARC gratefully received from NetGalley

This drips with delicious circus treats, whimsical dreams, and sinister nightmares. I drank in everything about this story fueling my childhood dreams and nostalgia as I typically read adult contemporaries, thrillers, and mysteries. The magical atmosphere and its allurement will attract you as Reverie attracted Andrea in escaping her sadness. I loved the fun dreamful concept and truly enjoyed Andrea as a motivated character, grieving for her lost brother while trying to figure out what happened to him. Her persistence and curiosity in the adventure made me turn the pages and finish the book right away. There’s twists, turns, secrets, and traps throughout. It also made me question what dream, memory, or nightmare might I give up to enter the circus of Reverie.

The Circus of Stolen Dreams is a well-written, imaginative tale of the perils of trying to escape suffering indefinitely rather than facing it head-on. It veers into the creepy with a one-night circus ("Reverie"), whose "one-night" descriptor is a misnomer, leaving kids trapped in both dreams and nightmares.

Twelve-year-old Andrea, whose parents have divorced and whose younger brother Francis has gone missing, must unravel the lies and secrets keeping kids trapped.

Beautiful prose enjoyable for any age so long as you're okay with the creepy factor, which never delves into horror.

What a whimsical, magical story! Savaryn caught my attention from the first page and kept me spellbound through the very last one. The circus was breathtaking, as was the idea of dreams and nightmares and memories as circus experiences. This book was expertly crafted, and the prose was simultaneously perfect for children as well as engaging for adults. I will definitely be recommending to all of the middle grade readers I know!

I really enjoyed this middle grade novel. It was well written and full of magic. It also gave hope to any kid who has been going through a tough time. Andrea’s little brother disappeared 3 years ago and her parents are pushing them all to move on. She finds herself unable to do so and makes her way to a circus that promises to help her forget. This was a quick read and I was quickly drawn into the story and couldn’t wait to see how it ended!

4.5

This was a sweet, mystifying, and mesmerizing story! I loved the concept of Reverie, the land of dreams! This book takes you on a dream-like journey of twists and turns and ties it all together wonderfully.

While I don’t think I was the intended audience being a little older, this was an enjoyable read with just enough creepy fun to make a good addition to my spooky season shelf.

“The Circus of Stolen Dreams” welcomes Andrea a 12 year old girl looking to forget the night her brother went missing which left her family shattered into pieces when she stumbles up a reverie offering her just that as well as the chance to explore dreams and nightmares to her delight, but when she finds herself struggling to return home she finds that waking up is the least of her problems.

I really enjoyed this story it’s almost like Coraline but with a circus so that was a lot of fun. We get to see these kids in a twisted Disneyland featuring all the dreams and treats you can imagine keeping them still and unaware that time is moving on without them and that break from the illusion was fun to watch.

I loved our main trio of characters with Andrea taking the lead as the grieving sister who feels guilty for her role that fateful night, Francis the little boy who just wanted his family to be whole no matter the cost and finally Penny the girl so desperate for friendship that she doesn’t mind making a deal with the devil to keep it and their journey through these struggles was very powerful as they all were so innocent trusting their wishes to the Sandman who was consumed with his own twisted dreams.

This is a good read and definitely an interesting concept especially because for a few moments I wondered if this was literal or a coping mechanism which is probably just the adult in me which is fine.

Thank you to Edelweiss+ and the publisher for an eARC of this book.

What a unique and imaginative story!

Andrea's younger brother, Francis, disappeared from his bedroom in the middle of the night three years ago, and her family has no idea what happened to him. When her parents decide it's time to donate his things to charity, Andrea takes off distressed, and find a magical circus called Reverie in an abandoned field. The price is admission is to give up one memory, which Andrea readily does, as she blames herself for Francis' disappearance and wants to forget the night he disappeared. But losing this memory has many repercussions, and though the allure of the wondrous tents full of magic and adventure are fun at first, Andrea quickly realizes there is a dark side to the circus and its creator, The Sandman. Andrea soon realizes she is trapped and unable to leave Reverie, and has no idea if she'll ever be able to find her way home.

There's a lot more to this story that I won't share because of spoilers, but I think everyone can relate to wishing there was a way to escape from life for a while to forget your troubles. I love that Andrea quickly discovers what matters to her is walking through the pain, and remains committed that despite the many obstacles, and temptations, she finds along the way.

I definitely recommend this book to fantasy lovers who love stories where the protagonist enters a magical world and risk it all to find a way to return back home.

Hopefully when I'm feeling better, I can give a proper review!

For now, this was my most anticipated MG standalone of the year (and tied for overall standalone).

It did not disappoint. The world-building! The imagery! The way everything ties together!!

I cannot wait to see what Lorelei does next!!

Lorelei Savaryn's novel is a creepy fantasy with a character coming to terms with her own grief. Readers who like an edge of darkness to their fantasy will enjoy this tale of dreams and nightmares made real. Recommended.

Read more at Bookish Adventures.

I read this book with my 7yo daughter. She enjoyed the story, finding it perfectly creepy. The dreams and nightmares were interesting and came to life through the author's words. My daughter awarded the book 5 stars.

One of the main themes of the book is facing and working through grief. The main characters, Andrea & Francis, their parents are divorced. They learn to find happiness in their imperfect reality.

The Circus of Stolen Dreams is the perfect blend of magic, eeriness and, above all, hope. The circus itself is both delightful and terrifying and will pull you under it's spell. And Andrea's heart and determination will have you rooting for her from page one. What a stunning debut.

My 10 year old read this, loved it, and insisted I read it. I'm glad I did. It was really good and was actually just like the books I enjoy reading, just maybe a little less complicated. A really fun, creepy read.

Very good. Easy read. Has a good message/theme for kids.

I am in my late 50s and this book is totally out of my zone….not one to read magical mysteries. I had stayed at the Authors family bed and breakfast The Astor House in Green Bay, WI and the book was for sale. Glad I purchased and will be purchasing her next two books.

I did enjoy the book and for me who takes forever to complete a book, this I finished in a week! Enjoy!!

From the moment I stepped into Reverie, the "Land of Dreams," to the moment I left, I was caught up in the whimsical, imaginative, often-spooky, always adventure-laced world created by debut author Lorelei Savaryn. The premise of the novel is fun and fresh -- children who want to enter Reverie for a night must give up either a dream or a memory to enter the glittering nighttime circus. The magic world inside the tall, star-tipped gates of Reverie is filled with all the delicious details you might expect -- from circus treats (including yellow-purple-and-pink lollipops that make you delightfully dizzy) to the midway shop oddities (ranging from ground unicorn horn to fossilized fairy wings) to the dream tents themselves where children can experience the most amazing things, from flying to hunting for pirate treasure.

However, even though Andrea entered Reverie to forget (she gave up the memory of the night her little brother Francis disappeared three years ago), what she first welcomed as a distraction from the pain of loss turns dark when Andrea realizes she can't leave Reverie -- and neither can any of the other children there -- because the sad and sinister Sandman has trapped them for a lifetime of nights.

While there's much, much more to the story, and plenty of satisfying twists and turns, I don't want to spoil anything! But, plot and delightful details aside, I most enjoyed Andrea's emotional arc -- the way she learns and grows. Her journey, like the invisible golden threads of magic that hold Reverie together, is what stitches the book together and makes it satisfying to the very last page!

The world of Reverie is absolutely stunning, as is Lorelei Savaryn’s writing. This book is an amazing mixture of whimsy, spookiness, imagination, and heart. I fell in love with her main character, Andrea, from the first chapter. There are so many beautiful layers to this book, my heart was tugged in so many directions.

I loved The Circus of Stolen Dreams from beginning to end—I couldn’t put it down, I finished it in about a day. This magical world is absolutely amazing and a marvelous story of belonging and family. It’s filled with sadness and loss, but also hope and healing, a perfect book for upper middle grade readers. I can’t wait to see what Lorelei Savaryn writes next. This book was absolutely amazing! It has quickly become one of my favorite middle grade books of all time.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

THis book is a creepy tale of a circus of stolen dreams. Andrea doesnt know if she'll ever wake up. It has a weird way of messing with reality. She finally finds her lost brother after three years and andrea and her new friend penny realize the children stay for longer than a night. They go through nightmares and things they had wholeheartedly once wanted to forget.

Mandela Effect Moment: When I read an online review of this book and also when I picked it up off the New Books Shelf, I was certain -beyond certain- it was titled Reverie. But when I closed the book to review it, the title wasn't what I remembered it to be.

Oh, man! Glitch in the Matrix...

that means "They" changed something...

I wonder what? Hmmm...

Ok... I'm shaking off the weird and attributing it to misread title and brain fog brought on by not enough sleep (because I have cats) and Friday-Afternoon-Almost-Quitting-Time anxiousness. So now, the review:

This book reminded me A LOT of Belzhar, but for a younger audience. Both main characters experienced life-shattering trauma, although Andrea's of losing her brother was QUITE a bit more hard core and believable than Jam's of getting dumped by her crush. Both found a doorway into a fantasy world where they could forget their sorrows for a limited time and have their fantasies and dreams come true...even though it wasn't really real. And both characters needed to find a way OUT of that fantasy realm in order to be OK again. Naturally, Belzhar, being geared for an older audience, was quite a bit darker and there was less of a fantastical Diagon Ally element, but the premise was pretty much the same: Character longs to escape her Worst Experience Ever, finds refuge in a Dream World, learns said Dream World is not what it seems, and must use her inner strength to escape and be okay again. Also, in both Reverie and Belzhar, the rules are similar: You can't stay too long and you can't change anything (because bad things will happen to you if you attempt either).

Overall... I liked it. Liked both books, actually. Circus was kind of predictable (It didn't deliver the Shocker Twist/WTF Moment that Belzhar did) and the ending was much happier, but I enjoyed it. Think the target audience will too.

p.s. Maybe "They" changed the beverage in my Yeti Thermos from water to Chai Spice Latte. Or the weather outside from Ick to "Indian Summer" & Sunshiny. Or the gas level in my tank from just below half tank to full. Any of that would be nice. Although I live in a place where "If you don't like the weather, wait 10 minutes". So probably not an accurate gauge.

I'll take a Chai Spice, though. With Marshmallows. Yeah...marshmallows!

This is an atmospheric, beautifully imagined book full of heart and emotion. I loved the concept of a circus full of children's dreams in tents that you can walk through, and these were described so evocatively and in this off-kilter, perfectly dreamlike way. The world and the characters were well developed and full of intriguing magic. And although I didn't realize this going into the book, it deals with the subject of divorce in a sensitive and nuanced way. These were the parts that I found the most heartbreaking and poignant, watching Andrea and her brother reel from their family breaking up. Their longing to go back to the way things were actually made me tear up a few times as I was reading. It's impossible to not get swept up with these sweet kids in their magical world.