City of Nightmares by Rebecca Schaeffer – Review

Published: January 10, 2023

Publisher: Clarion Books

Series: City of Nightmares #1

Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult

Pages: 384 (Hardcover)

My Rating: 4.25/5.00

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:
Gotham meets Strange the Dreamer in this thrilling young adult fantasy about a cowardly girl who finds herself at the center of a criminal syndicate conspiracy, in a city where crooked politicians and sinister cults reign and dreaming means waking up as your worst nightmare.

Ever since her sister became a man-eating spider and slaughtered her way through town, nineteen-year-old Ness has been terrified—terrified of some other Nightmare murdering her, and terrified of ending up like her sister. Because in Newham, the city that never sleeps, dreaming means waking up as your worst fear.

Whether that means becoming a Nightmare that’s monstrous only in appearance, to transforming into a twisted, unrecognizable creature that terrorizes the city, no one is safe. Ness will do anything to avoid becoming another victim, even if that means lying low among the Friends of the Restful Soul, a questionable organization that may or may not be a cult.

But being a member of maybe-cult has a price. In order to prove herself, Ness cons her way into what’s supposed to be a simple job for the organization—only for it to blow up in her face. Literally. Tangled up in the aftermath of an explosive assassination, now Ness and the only other survivor—a Nightmare boy who Ness suspects is planning to eat her—must find their way back to Newham and uncover the sinister truth behind the attack, even as the horrors of her past loom ominously near.

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The tagline that calls this “Gotham meets Strange the Dreamer” is actually pretty accurate. Despite this, I was still surprised to find that it’s set in a fairly modern world. I suppose the synopsis didn’t really lend itself to a particular time period, but I did picture this as more of a traditional fantasy city setting. I was actually pleasantly surprised that it was more modern, with phones, trains, non-wind powered ships, etc. and it ended up feeling like a gritty version of Brandon Sanderson’s Steelheart world but with far more terrifying monsters.

Our main character Ness is introduced to us as she and her best friend are visiting a grieving woman with pamphlets from the Friends of the Restful Soul, the organization (cult?) that they both work for. The woman’s husband had just turned into a nightmare and had to be killed because you see, in this world if you allow yourself to dream you’ll turn into the thing you most fear. Since Ness’s sister turned into a giant man-eating spider years ago, Ness has been terrified of both becoming a nightmare and being attacked by one and she’s absolutely paralyzed with fear. She thinks she’s a total coward, but really she’s just traumatized and needs more therapy that isn’t provided by a cult. 

Ness is forced to confront her fear when the ship she’s on is the target of an assassination attempt and blows up and the only way for her to survive is to accept the help of the vampire nightmare boy she just confronted. I love that the nightmares can be anything from the obvious man-eating spider, to mythical creatures like vampires, to the weirder example of a guy who didn’t like people much whose touch became addictive and people were constantly after him trying to get a high. It’s a really, really cool concept made even more interesting by the fact that some people retain their humanity/mental capacity when they’re transformed and they sort of assimilate back into society. So, there are accessibility considerations for, say, giant slugs. Oh, did I mention that the city Ness lives in is incredibly corrupt (hence the Gotham comparison) and it’s routine for political candidates to get murdered during election season? 

Honestly, this book was a ton of fun for so many reasons. The author put quite a bit of thought into worldbuilding and the consequences and the infrastructure adjustments one might make in a world where dreaming could turn you into a 10 story tall monster. City of Nightmares did a great job exploring the subjects of trauma, loss, and overcoming fears and had great examples of navigating friendships and tough situations.